Final answer:
Southern and eastern European immigrants faced more difficulties than their northern and western predecessors due to economic hardship, cultural differences, and higher levels of discrimination and anti-immigrant legislation in the United States.
Step-by-step explanation:
The late nineteenth-century southern and eastern European immigrants, as opposed to their western and northern European predecessors, tended to face greater challenges upon their arrival in the United States. This is due to a combination of factors such as the timing of their migration, economic conditions, cultural differences, and discrimination faced in the U.S.
Those from southern Italy, Greece, Slavic countries, and Eastern Europe were often fleeing economic hardship, religious persecution, and political unrest. They usually arrived with little money and settled in urban centers to find work, as opposed to earlier immigrants who had the means to move west and purchase land. Their lack of capital and cultural differences made it more difficult for them to assimilate and avoid discrimination. Moreover, new immigrants were subjected to anti-immigrant sentiments and legislation that compounded their difficulties in the new country.
Anti-immigrant legislation, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and various state laws, limited the rights and mobility of these late immigrants. Southern and eastern Europeans often lived in segregated communities, working difficult, low-paying jobs that other groups avoided. The discrimination they faced was based not only on race and ethnicity but also religious bias, as many were Jews or Roman Catholics.