| Abstrakt: |
As World War I raged across the Atlantic from 1914 to 1918, industrial development in the Midwest drastically restructured communities. The rapid industrialisation of the Calumet Region, comprising South Chicago and Northwest Indiana, led the region to be dubbed the 'Arsenal of America'. Due to labour shortages brought about by new immigration restrictions and the United States' involvement in the war, businesses turned southward to Mexico as a source of labour. Fleeing violence from the Mexican Revolution, these migrants shaped the region's development and, in turn, found themselves shaped by their new surroundings. Representing a second great migration to the region, ethnic Mexican labourers resulted in a significant demographic change to the polyglot of immigrant communities in the region. The article will explore early ethnic Mexican settlers from the pre-war era and culminate with the exponential growth stemming from their importation as strikebreakers shortly after the war. Utilising the definitive study by Paul S. Taylor, Mexican Labour in the United States, newspaper accounts, and industrial histories, this article will argue that the growth of the industrial complex laid the foundation for ethnic Mexican settlement, and their settlement, in turn, aided the region's industrialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
