Was migrating way easier back then (e.g., people can just board a ship with their bags to the US and settle there)? What makes migrating to most countries so difficult now?
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In the 19th and early 20th century, both the USA, and British and later independent Canada, wanted to expand west to the Pacific, and needed to bring in immigrants to settle the land quickly, to freeze out each other, as well as block both natives and other countries from controlling large areas. So they advertised for European settlers and promised them land grants and other incentives – they also encouraged their own easterners to spread out to the west.
Priority was likely given first to English and Scottish protestants, then to German Protestants, but as needed they brought in Scandinavians, Irish Catholics, eventually Ukrainians, Basques or whoever, almost exclusively white, in order to have at least some cultural homogeneity and because of racial prejudice against non-whites.
There was a lot of surplus population in Europe, so it was easy to recruit starving Irish and displaced Scottish serfs, but also a lot educated and rich people saw a chance to make their fortunes in new lands likely to experience massive economic growth. So it was win win.
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