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?

Question

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?

In: 491

Answer 1

In the very early days, you could just board a ship and go. But it didn’t take long before there were immigration controls, and some groups (Irish, Jews, etc) had lots of controls.

Migrating is difficult now because countries want to control their economies and cultural makeup.