From Sweden, mainly

• an increase in population
• failed crops 1867–1869.
• no religious freedom
• the pull factor of emigrants writing back/helping others to emigrate

Obviously the causes changed over time. The small village where I'm from, many left in the mid 1800's due to religious reasons, later it was more economical.

This is in Swedish Emigrantinstitutet and here

A very fascinating story is the book called Emigrants (4 books actually) by Wilhelm Moberg. It is very closly based on the diaries by emigrant Andrew Peterson

The Chinese came but not as immigrants but more temporary workers. Much like in Singapore the Chinese came to earn enough money to send home to support their families before moving back. In the case of America the Gold Rush and the Railways provided jobs which were attractive to immigrants and so the Chinese came.

Im not sure about the indentured part of the Chinese but they did participate in the building of the railroads.

The Chinese however faced alot of discrimination which can be seen in the Punch Magazine's portrayal of the Chinese during this time. A reason for that besides the way they looked "different" i.e. slanted eyes was because of what they were willing to accept in terms of wages. Since many of these men (i say men since most Chinese immigrants were males since females were banned from entry) didnt have families to support and they lived in shared quarters, their living costs were significantly lower than the perceived white man and his family.

So in saying this the Chinese didn't come to America to live, but rather to earn money and then leave for home, making them very different from the other more European immigrants.

Ill upload a powerpoint created by the lecturer since its very informative, however its from an Australian standpoint so you will see things like the WAP mentioned.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kg2aawo8d1t2heu/Global%20immigration_pdf.pdf (unhyperlinked so you can see its not a virus file)

EDIT: Is it ok for me to post the powerpoint or does that count as plagiarism?

Answering the German migratory part here. After the modern Germany's unification in 1871, German culture hit a real high note. This included religious expression and repression, and, Germany being a Protestant nation, resulted in the persecution of German Catholics. (As an aside, the Russian pogroms were occurring in roughly the same time - 1880s-1900 - partly the reason so many Russian or Slavic Jews emigrated at the end of the 19th C.) To get back on track, this persecution of Catholics was known as Kulturkampf and sadly, can be seen as somewhat factoral (in terms of established social norms and behaviours) to later Jewish persecution. Unfortunately I don't currently have access to any amazing books etc. to back this up and am working off my memory from history lectures. Anybody that can add/correct to this and find some sources, I would be very happy!

After a quick read through this; http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/German.html however, I'd like to add about the internal problems Germany faced during the latter half of the 19th C. With nationalism coming into its own, Europe became focussed on a 'German solution' in response to calls for a formal German state. Prussia and Austria were the main competitors here, advocating a kleines Deutschland, and a groβes Deutschland respectively. This debate was causal to both the Austro-Prussian, and Franco-Prussian wars, which settled the question in favour of the kleines Deutschland solution, as described here http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/1871/section4.rhtml. A lot of fighting to get there though, and more reason to emigrate.

Germany post 1888 was also quite at sixes and sevens with itself, due to Kaiser Wilhelm II's brusque personality creating numerous embarrassments his government and diplomatic corps were left to resolve. Being fiercely "Prussian" he was in favour of conservative rule and law, as opposed to his successive governments, whom under Bismark, and later von Bülow, created one of the most socialistic nations in the world up to that point.

Finally, Germans had long been moving to America, for example the Amish, and Hessian soldiers that stayed on after the Revolutionary wars. This would make it a more logical choice than say, Australia and New Zealand, which were far more the choice of the English, what with our still being colonies at that time (New Zealander here.)

To round off, Germany's varying internal problems, from the question of unification to a seemingly national characteristic of fractious groups causing tensions such as was seen through religious persecution and the conflict of the powers that were, compounded by a previous familiarity with an American lifestyle all point in a way as to why German emigration to America was at a peak in the second half of the 19th C. Final sources: University of Otago + NCEA history, and experience from having lived (too short a time!) in Germany.

/u/bagge has responded for Sweden already, but I will expand a bit on it.

In Sweden, a large part of the peasants were self-owning farmers. These were the middle class of Sweden, had representation at the estates parliament and (compared to serfs of continental Europe) an impressive set of rights. Traditionally, the King had allied with these peasants to curtail the power of the nobility, and at the parliament they were adressed as "Herrar Dannemän" - it is hard to translate, but 'Herr' was originally a title for a knight, like 'Sir', but had become more like 'Master' or 'Mister'. 'Danneman' was a title for an honourable and reliable self-woning farmer, akin to 'Gentleman'. 'Masters Gentlemen' could perhaps be a good translation.

During the 1850s and 1860s, Sweden performed a shift of land, called laga skiftet (legal shift). Before this, land could be split upon inheritance, leading people to own 1/16, 1/32, 1/64 or even 1/128 of a field. Farming was thus cone communaly, which was not very effective. Peasants could not invest in their farming and bad (read alcholic) peasants were kept under the arms of the reliable ones, since they would get their share even if they did not put in their effort.

The shift in land meant that the villages were broken up and land concentrated around the farmstead.

See for example a village (concentrated in the right of the image) and the land ownership before and after laga skiftet.

This created a large number of crofters, dispossesed peasants and unemployed agricultural workers no longer needed on the countryside as agriculture became far more effective. As Swedish industry had not taken of completely around this time, and combined with the cold, wet and dry years during the 1860s causing near-famine and regular famine in parts of the country.

The homestead act of 1862 offered free land. For a Swedish agricultural worker or crofter, this promised an instant promotion from lower class to middle class and to become a self-owning, respectable farmer. Land in Sweden had been divided up since centuries, and the prospect of making enough money to purchase it was bleak indeed.

Combined with severe exhaggerations on how easy and free life was in America, this compelled a massive eimgration of roughly 1,2 million people from 1840 to 1920.

Many tens of thousands of british and scandinavians left their homeland to travel to Utah, due to the mormon conversions in their home country, the literal LDS belief in the "gathering of Zion", and the assistance of programs such as the Perpetual Immigrant Fund.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_Emigration_Fund

http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/pioneers_and_cowboys/perpetualemigratingfundcompany.html

Initiated in 1849 primarily to help Mormon refugees from Nauvoo, Illinois, migrate to Utah, the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company (PEF) also became a major instrument for gathering Latter-day Saint converts to Utah from abroad. It assisted some 26,000 immigrants--about 36 percent of the approximately 73,000 Latter-day Saints who emigrated from Europe to the United States between 1852 and 1887.
In principle, funds the company expended on immigration were considered loans to those immigrants who benefited from the aid. The repayment of those loans was to provide a perpetual source of assistance for others. In practice, however, only about one-third of the PEF's beneficiaries repaid their loans in full, sometimes with interest; about one-third made partial repayment; the rest repaid nothing.

Many of these European mormons, found disillusionment on the road to "Zion" and many left their handcart companies and wagon trains to remain where they broke company, or to return to other cities.

http://historytogo.utah.gov/people/ethnic_cultures/the_peoples_of_utah/scandinaviansaga.html

Some disaffected among the Scandinavians back trailed to the Midwest from Zion itself, notably the family of woodcarver James Borglum from Jutland, whereby Utah lost a pair of famous future sculptors in sons Gutzon and Solon Hannibal, who one day would carve Mount Rushmore.

I can answer this one for Denmark - I had a class yesterday that focused entirely on this, funny enough!

For Denmark, at least, it was in part because of the new found freedom Danish farmers had received in the past years. Denmark's biggest problem was what is historically called the 'Flourishing Period' in Denmark, especially Copenhagen, and the following downfall from this period.

It all started with the French/Indian war where Denmark, due to previous wars, had stayed entirely neutral. In the wake of this war, and the following wars, Denmark had been slowly creeping in on trade routes that weren't being maintained by other countries in periods of conflict, and on top of this they even sailed warring countries' war supplies under the Danish flag, something that was actually prohibited by the International Convention.

The 7 year war was short-lived, however the economical boom that came in the wake of that conflict doubled Denmark's population and this led to significant reforms of all groups - poor and rich alike. The aforementioned sailing of war supplies under a Danish flag led to England being quite steamed with Denmark. After the war with America had failed tremendously and at the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, England feared we might join France and help 'bridge the gap' in the the French navy with our rather large fleet. Due to this (completely irrational) fear, England thought it best to try and force Denmark to surrender their fleet, as such they landed at Zealand in 1807 and begun a bombardment of Copenhagen and destroyed large parts of the city. They also destroyed any ships they couldn't capture, including transport vessels, and sailed off with the remainder of the Danish fleet, leading to the abrupt end of this period of economic boom.

7 years before this, the Serfdom (Stavnsbåndet) in Denmark had been disbanded completely, a process that had begun in 1788, and finished in 1800. The Danish Serfdom was essentially binding each man from age 14 to 36 to the farm on which he had been born (Although you could buy yourself out of this agreement, but these passes weren't free!). When this was disbanded, farmers were able to move around as they pleased! The prospect of new land in America was a very promising one indeed. After Denmark's economy crashed, Denmark itself went bankrupt, and the new, exciting prospects held even more promise. The bankruptcy led to Denmark losing the dominance that they had attained, and a lot of people migrating. Over 400,000 Danes emigrated from 1807 to 1907, almost topping Ireland in migrations.

As for the travel time, it depended on which kind of vessel you'd choose. A normal sailing ship would take around four to five weeks, while smaller sloops would take around the same time as Ships of the Line. It all depended on the weather and the amount of sails used in the crossing.

Perhaps one of the factors that could have pushed the Southern Chinese to leave would be the Taiping rebellion. I don't have the exact figures but upwards of 30 million (someone who is more confident please correct me) died due to war and famine.