Poland is the seventh largest country in Europe and it spans across 120,727 square miles. To put this into perspective, it is a little bit bigger than the state of Nevada. Poland is located in east-central Europe. Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, and the Baltic Sea surround Poland. There were three main waves of Polish Immigration. The largest was from 1870 to 1914. The second wave was after World War II and lastly the third wave was after Poland’s independence in 1989. Most Polish Americans nowadays came from the first wave. The conditions in the homeland were not very good and most immigrants came to pursue a better life. Most immigrants were unskilled laborers and they could no …show more content…
The majority of immigrants were unskilled laborers and they did not have room to advance in society because 60% of the land was owned by 2% of the population. This means that there was no room for the lower class to advance in the agriculture sector of society. There was no land for the poorer people to purchase so they didn’t have the ability to start a farm. Another major problem in Poland during the early 1900s were the border conflicts. Fighting began in Ukraine around 1918 and there was a rebellion against Germans in Greater Poland that led to that region’s return to Poland. In 1920, the Polish-Soviet war began which was another push-factor for immigrants. The wars that were going on in Poland do not give the citizens the type of political security that they are looking for. Nobody wants to be around wars because there is death, political unrest, fear, injury, depression, sadness, and so much more. If possible, people should avoid wars and that’s what the Polish people wanted to do. That was one of the major push factors for immigration. However the biggest push factor in Poland after World War I was the communism. Political refugees fled the country during this time because they were looking for freedom. Due to all of these factors, immigrating was a very attractive escape for the citizens of