Post on 30-Dec-2015
GROWING IMMIGRATION Coming to America
Where did they come from?Where did they come from?
MOSTLY FROM:
• Northern/Western Europe (Before 1890)–English, Scots, Irish, Germans,
Scandinavians
• Southern /Eastern Europe (After 1890)–Italians, Greeks, Slavic peoples (Poles,
Slovaks, Czechs, Croats, Serbs, Ukrainians, Russians, Armenians)
To clarify…• Before 1880, most
European immigrants came from northwest Europe
• After 1880, most European immigrants came from southwest Europe
Why did they leave?
Push and Pull Reasons Push and Pull Reasons of Course!of Course!
Over-PopulationOver-Population
How much did the US Population change over time?
• US population 1860: 31.5 million
• US population 1920: 61.5 million•
• What a HUGE addition -
30 million more people!
How many Immigrants came to the United States?
Lack of Jobs
Government Tyranny
Crop Failures!
Land Shortages!
Famine
High High Taxes/ Taxes/ Cost of Cost of LivingLiving
Political or Religious Persecution
How did immigrants get here?• Steamships made of iron
and steel
• 2-3 weeks to 1 week by 1900
• Created “birds of “birds of passage”-passage”-single male worker who came for a short time, earn money, and return home
Steerage – for the “Economically Disadvantaged”
• Most immigrants traveled in Steerage (large open area under the ship’s deck)
• Cheap fares
• Limited toilet facilities withno privacy
Steerage postcard
Ports of Entry
• Boston
• Philadelphia
• Baltimore
• Seattle
• San Francisco
• But New YorkNew York was most popular!
Entrance to USA
• In 1886 greeted by Statue of Liberty in NY harbor
What do you think she What do you think she represented to represented to
immigrants?immigrants?
Castle Garden
•Overwhelmed by 1890!Overwhelmed by 1890!
•70% of all European 70% of all European immigrants arrived in immigrants arrived in
NYCNYC
ELLIS ISLAND
• In In 18921892 an immigration center an immigration center opened at Ellis Island in NY harbor to opened at Ellis Island in NY harbor to
“process” those in lower-“process” those in lower-class/”steerage”class/”steerage”
• Immigrants were given a medical check-up and asked a series of questions
• Sometimes immigrants were “quarantined” (isolated to prevent the spread of disease): tuberculosis, small pox, measles
• Some were even deported due to serious diseases: trachoma or other reasons
The caption reads . . .
Held at Ellis Island – Undesirable emigrants to be taken back by steamship company that
brought them
Deportation of “idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons; …persons with chronic alcoholism
The Ellis Island record of an immigrant who deemed "feebledminded" by US officials, then summarily deported. (source:
ForgottenEllisIsland.com)
After the Medical
Exam, an interview…
• Name?
• Occupation?
• Who paid your fare?
• Can you read or write?
• How much money do you have?
• Have you been to prison or in a poorhouse?
• Where are you going?
• Do you have a job already?
Many Immigrants Received New Names
• Buchenroth=Roth
• Stefanopoulous= Stevens
Urbanization – Growth of the Cities!• Most immigrants tended to settle in the
city of their arrival (i.e. - land in Ellis Island, stay in New York…)
• Ethnic neighborhoods develop – people in the neighborhood share a common language, food, history, etc…(i.e. – Little Italy, Little Greece, Chinatown, etc
Immigrant Work• Unskilled jobs• Low paying – even children had to work• Long hours• Factory work – tedious, tiring, dangerous• So many people needed jobs – you could
be replaced very easily – don’t even think about calling in sick!
The Ellis Island of the West Coast
Angel IslandAngel Island• Located in San Francisco Bay
• Poor conditions:Poor conditions:
• Overcrowded
• Poorly ventilated
• Filthy conditions
• Men and women, including husbands and wives, were separated and not allowed to see or communicate with each other again until they were admitted to the country.
• Immigrants were processed over a longer period of time: weeks or months vs. days on Ellis Island
Where Did Immigrants Settle?
• Most lived with friends and relatives in established communities from homeland
• Communities formed in ports of entry (NY/Boston) and inland cities (Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago) and in mining towns of the west
• Only 2% went to the south –why?
• Limited opportunities
• Mines, mills, and factories
•Friends and relatives helped each other
Jobs for European Immigrants
Sometimes . . .
• In other cases, a Padrone (labor boss) found jobs, provided food and shelter in exchange for large percentage of immigrant wages
Asian (Chinese) Immigrants
• Viewed with suspicion and subject to hostility because the culture was so different!
• Kept to themselveswith otherChineseimmigrants
Jobs for Chinese Immigrants
• On the railroad (Transcontinental Railroad in particular)
• In the agricultural fields
• Mining, fishing, manufacturing, food preparation, laundry
Jobs for Japanese Immigrants
• Initially worked on sugar plantations
• In Southern California in fruit and vegetable production
• Worked in private business and were not involved much with unions, unlike the Chinese
In San Francisco . . . • Korean, Chinese and Japanese students
attended private/separate schools (1906)• Japan stated that an 1894 treaty with the
US prevented such treatment of immigrants
• T. Roosevelt made a compromise with Japanese officials and created the “Gentlemen’s Agreement”
And then there is Mexico
• Starting in 1902 immigration from Mexico was PROMOTED for jobs in the farming and mining industries of the Southwest
Limiting Immigration
Why would the government limit the amount of immigrants coming into the United States?
• Racism and Prejudices• Economics
– Did Immigrants lower wages, drive property values down, and were illegals an expense on tax payers? Did they take all of the menial jobs, take too many of the good jobs, etc.
• War• Overpopulation
Limiting Immigration
How do you limit the amount of immigrants coming into a country?
• Quotas - the share or proportion assigned to each in a division or to each member of a body
• Exclusions - to prevent or restrict the entrance of
• Quotas were used to either limit to overall flow of immigrants into the US, or to put specific limits on the amount of people from a particular country or region of the world
• Exclusions were used to prohibit specific groups from emigrating to the US entirely
Example of a Quota
• Immigration Act of 1924 – the 1890 US Census totaled the amount of immigrants in the US, and then restricted immigration to 2% of each individual group’s total – IE. There were 200,000 Italian
immigrants in the US in 1890. Only 4,000 Italians were allowed entry each year.
Examples of Exclusions
• In 1875, Congress banned criminals and prostitutes from entering the US
• In 1882, “idiots” and “lunatics” and those “at risk” for becoming a public problem were banned from entering the US
• In 1891, “paupers”, “polygamists” and the “diseased” were banned from entering the US
Examples of Exclusions
• Chinese Exclusion Act – pressured by US labor unions, the US Congress prohibit Chinese workers from entering the US, It was instituted from 1882 to 1902, and then became a permanent ban until 1943 when until 1965, only 105 Chinese immigrants were allowed per year.
• Webb Alien Land Law – in 1913, California banned non-citizen Asians from owning farmland