Through Ellis Island and Angel Island: The Immigration Experience

Chapter 15 Review

What are push factors?Problems that cause people to move.

What are pull factors?attractions that draw people to another place

What were the difficulties that pushed people from Europe?

• Population growth causedo crowded citieso lack of jobso food shortages

• Hunger caused byo crop failures such as the Irish potato famine

• Lack of arable land (land suitable for crops)

• Religious persecutiono escape deadly attackso pogroms~organized anti-Jewish attacks

What pulled Europeans to the United States?

• Idea of a free and democratic societyo opportunity to achieve their dreams

• Natural resourceso ample farmland, minerals, and forests

• Job opportunities for unskilled workers in o industry o railroad

• Personal communications from friends and relativeso described U.S. as the "land of milk and honey" with

"streets paved with gold"

How did improvements in transportation make immigration easier?

• Most travelled by steamshipo voyage now took 2 weeks instead of 3 months

• Passengers travelled in cabins and steerageo Steerage~area below the main deck

Describe travel in steerage

• Hundreds of strangers were put together in huge rooms

• Slept on rough metal bunks

• Rolling of the ship made them ill

• Seasickness, spoiled food, and filthy toilets created awful stench

• During day, passengers went to main deck for fresh air

What was the Ellis Island Immigration Station?

• The port of entry for most immigrants on the East coast of the United States.

• Located in New York Harbor.

• Steerage passengers passed through the Bureau of Immigration

Explain the medical inspection.

• Upon entering the building, Public Health Service doctors watched people cross through the baggage room and climb the stairs to the Great Hall. Known as the 6 second exam

• Those who limped or showed signs of disease were inspected closer

• In the Great Hall, immigrants went under a physical exam

What were health service doctors looking for in the medical exam?

• variety of health problems such as o lamenesso heart conditionso mental problemso trachoma

What happened to those who had a health problem?

• Most were sent to the hospital

• Disabled individuals or those with incurable diseases were deported

Describe the Legal Interview Process.

• Inspector asked a list of 29 questions to verify the answers that appeared on the passenger list.

• Trickiest question: Do you have work waiting for you in the United States? It was against the law to hire immigrants before coming to the U.S. Those who answered yes would be detained

About how many immigrants were deported?20% failed either the medical inspection or the

legal exam and were deported.

What happened to those immigrants who were detained?

Those with an illness

• sent to a hospital on Ellis Island for therapy until doctor declared them fit

Those who failed legal inspection

• awaited hearing in front of Board of Special Inquiry

• Board reviewed the details of the case and listened to testimony from friends and relatives

• Only 2% failed legal inspection

Where did the majority of immigrants settle?cities such as New York, Boston, Cleveland,

Chicago, or other industrial centers

Urban populations exploded

Where did immigrants tend to live in the cities?

• least desirable areas

• where housing was cheapest

• near factories and shops

• tenement buildings or other run-down slum housing

• Settled among others from their home country

Where did immigrants receive aid from?

• relatives or friends

• immigrant aid society

• settlement houses

What is a settlement house and what type of services did they provide?

Community center that provided services to poor immigrants such as daycare, classes, health clinics, and recreational opportunities.

What are political bosses and why did immigrants turn to them for help?

Powerful leaders who ran local politics in many cities.

They provided jobs and social services to immigrants in exchange for political support of immigrants who could vote.

Explain the Assimilation of Immigrants.Children assimilated or adapted into American

society easier than their parents did.

Education was the main tool of assimilation.

Some patriotic organizations pushed for Americanization of immigrants because they feared that increased immigration posed a threat to American values and traditions

Explain why some Americans rejected immigrants.

• Religious and cultural differences

• Blamed labor unrest on immigrants

• Feared foreign anarchists and socialists might undermine American democracy

• Thought immigrants were taking jobs and lowering wages

Explain Nativism and their influences on immigration restrictions.

• Policy of favoring the interests of native-born Americans over immigrants

• Group of nativists founded the Immigration Restriction League-wanted to limit immigration by requiring that all new arrivals take a literacy test to prove they could read and write.

• Quota laws were put in place

Why did Chinese immigrants settle on the West Coast?

• Work on the railroad

• Gold prospecting

• Worked in agriculture

• Mostly men

• worked for less money

• did the jobs others would not do

Describe the discrimination that Chinese Immigrants endured.

• Californians blamed Chinese workers for the poor California economy

• Suffered mob violence

• Seen as inferior who could not be Americanized

• Chinese Exclusion Act: prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers for a period of 10 years and prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming citizens

• Those allowed to enter: merchants, diplomats, teachers, students, and relatives of existing citizens

What is Angel Island Immigration Station?Immigration station where immigrants went

through a thorough physical exam and an intense legal interview, more involved and detailed than at Ellis Island

Goal was to exclude Chinese who falsely claimed to be related to American citizens and to enforce the exclusion act.

What happened to immigrants who failed

the legal interview at Angel Island.

They could enter an appeal

Detainees were often kept for weeks, months, or even years locked in wooden barracks that were crowded and unsanitary

About 10% of immigrants were deported back to China.

Why did other Asian immigrants come to the US?

• Large scale farmers looked to Japan and Korea and the Philippines for workers

• Many Japanese immigrants had success growing fruits and vegetables

• Koreans were less successful

• Filipinos migrated up and down the west coast working in fruit and vegetable harvest and in hotels and restaurants.

In what ways were Asian Immigrants discriminated against?

• faced prejudice, hostility, and discrimination

• San Francisco segregated Asian children into separate schools from whites

• Gentlemen's Agreement: Japanese officials agreed not to allow laborers to immigrate to the United States

Why did Mexicans immigrate to the US?

• higher wages

• work on the railroad, in the copper mines, on farms and in citrus groves

• Mexican Revolution

• Suffered racism

• kept at low-level jobs

Why did Canadian immigrants come to the US

• Seeking greater opportunity