1. The Rising tide of Immigration

2. Introduction What is an immigrant?
An immigrant is a person who once resided somewhere else and now lives in a different country.
Immigrants at Ellis Island
after arriving in America

3. Introduction
Steerage

5. 1. Why might they be leaving their homeland?
2. Why might they be going to a new place?

6. Introduction What are Push/Pull Factors? Possible Push Factors:
Religious persecution
Political persecution
Economic limitations of the home country
Protection from war and revolutions in the home country
Famine / lack of good farming land
Possible Pull Factors:
Religious freedom
Political freedom
Economic possibilities / abundance of jobs
Peace
Family reunification
Better living conditions
Abundance of land
Hope for something better

7. Immigration in America
Introduction
Immigration in America
We are going to look at two different eras of immigration to the U.S.:
Old Immigration New Immigration
Time Period: mid 1800s Time Period: late 1800s – early 1900s
(Basically during the Gilded Age)

8. “Old Immigration” 1830 to 1860: Mostly Irish and German 1860 to 1890:
still mainly Northern Europeans (England, Germany, Scandinavia)
many came to settle the frontier near growing railroads

9. “Old Immigration” Homestead Act of 1862 Oklahoma Land Rush – 1889
160 acres of public land free
had to settle and farm the land for
5 years
thousands moved west (including immigrants)
Oklahoma Land Rush – 1889
2 million acres of Creek & Seminole land
50,000 settlers
1 year later 260,000 in Oklahoma territory
1890- millions of acres of Sioux land in SD

11. “Old Immigration”

12. “Old Immigration”

13. “Old Immigration”

14. “Old Immigration”

15. “Old Immigration” Many Americans welcomed these “old immigrants”
3. Why might these “old immigrants” be embraced by most U.S. citizens?
workers for factories, mines, railroad
farmers for the west
consumers for agricultural and industrial products
men with special abilities and talents
additional manpower for military
easily assimilated in American society

16. “Old Immigration”
Early 1880’s
Welcome To All

17. Transcontinental Railroad
California
Gold Rush 1849
Agriculture
cut off from rest of the country
Pacific Railroad Act (1862)
Union Pacific from Omaha west
Central Pacific from Sacramento east
Completed in 1869 – Promontory, Utah

18. Transcontinental Railroad

19. Transcontinental Railroad
Irish Immigrants – Union Pacific Railroad workers

20. Transcontinental Railroad
Chinese Immigrants – Central Pacific workers

21. Transcontinental Railroad

22. Transcontinental Railroad

23. Transcontinental Railroad

24. Transcontinental Railroad
May 10, 1869 – Promontory, Utah
By the end of the 1800’s four more railroads crossed the country

25. “New Immigration”
1890 to 1920
mostly southern and eastern Europeans: Italy, Greece, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Poland
came in much larger numbers than earlier immigrants
largely poor and illiterate – fleeing European cities
“birds of passage” – stayed short time, worked, and returned
settled mainly in cities near factories NOT frontier
had more difficulty assimilating as they were different from
Americans – tried to preserve “Old Country” traditions
largely Roman Catholic or Jewish
native-born Americans feared immigrants would try to “establish”
the Catholic church at the expense of Protestantism

26. “New Immigration” What is Nativism?
Nativism is a policy of favoring native inhabitants as opposed to immigrants

27. “New Immigration” Opposition to “New Immigrants”
4. What could be some reasons why people might oppose “new immigrants”?
Reasons to Oppose the New Immigrants:
with the frontier closed, there was no land for them
new immigrants competed for jobs that should belong to Americans
they were harder to “Americanize” and had little education
they created ghettos (enclaves) and felt no need to learn American ways
many believed they were “inferior” to Old Immigrants

28. Nativism: “New Immigration” Keep immigrants out!
Immigrants were blamed for such things as:
the corruption of city government
low industrial wages
degradation of life in the cities

29. Discrimination: Irish Immigrants
“New Immigration”
Discrimination: Irish Immigrants
people were Ireland’s greatest export
poor, uneducated
Roman Catholic (mistrusted)
faced discrimination
stayed in Eastern cities (too poor to go west)
“The Know-Nothings” – smear campaign
stuck together became politically powerful

30. “New Immigration”
Caption: "Uncle Sam's Lodging House" Source: Puck Date: June 7, 1882
'Look here, you, everybody else is quiet and peaceable, and you're all the
time a-kicking up a row!'"

31. "the raw Irishman in America is a nuisance, his son a curse
"the raw Irishman in America is a nuisance, his son a curse. They never assimilate; the second generation simply shows an intensification of all the bad qualities of the first They are a burden and a misery to this country." Further, Irish had corrupted our politics, lowered the standards of domestic service, and waged an "imbecilic and indecent war" against the English government. The time had come to clear the Irishman from Uncle Sam's lodging house, where all races and nationalities, except the Irish, got along with each other!
Puck
June 7, 1882
“New Immigration”

32. “New Immigration”
An Irish thug and a Catholic priest carve up the Democratic Party goose that laid the golden eggs.
Thomas Nast – Harper’s Weekly

33. Ellis Island New York Harbor Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
Point of entry for millions of
European immigrants

34. Ellis Island New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of
immigrants to the United States
nation's busiest
immigration station
from 1892 to 1954
12 million immigrants

35. Ellis Island
Today, over 100 million Americans - one third of the population – can trace their
ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America at Ellis Island
Peak year at Ellis Island was 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed
All-time daily high occurred on April 17, 1907, when 11,747 immigrants arrived
Those immigrants who were approved spent from two to five hours at Ellis Island
Arrivals were asked 29 questions including name, occupation, and the amount of
money carried
Those with visible health problems or diseases were sent home or held in the
island's hospital facilities for long periods of time
Some unskilled workers were rejected because they were considered "likely
to become a public charge."

36. Ellis Island 5. Why are they sitting in “holding pens”?
6. What might they be feeling as they are waiting?

37. Ellis Island 7. What is happening in this scene?
8. Is the treatment they are receiving fair or not? Why?

38. Ellis Island "The Island of Tears" or "Heartbreak Island"
Denied admission to the U.S. and sent back to their countries of origin for reasons such as:
- having a chronic contagious disease
- criminal background
- insanity

39. “New Immigration” Chinese Exclusion Act – 1882
Nativism and Discrimination: Chinese Immigrants
Gold rush in California
Building of Transcontinental RR
Chinese Exclusion Act – 1882
The Act excluded Chinese "skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese employed in mining" from entering the country for ten years under penalty of imprisonment and deportation.

40. “New Immigration”

41. “New Immigration”

42. European Immigration 1820-1920
Country
Total
Germany
5,500,000
Ireland
4,400,000
Italy
4,190,000
Austria-Hungary
3,700,000
Russia
3,250,000
England
2,500,000
Sweden
1,000,000
Norway
730,000
Scotland
570,000
France
530,000
Greece
350,000
Graphs and Statistics

43. Graphs and Statistics Interpreting graphs:
9. What can we learn about Irish immigration by looking at this graph?
10. Can we make guesses about the “push” and “pull” factors that Irish immigrants may have experienced?

44. Graphs and Statistics Chinese immigration to the United States
Interpreting graphs:
11. What can we learn about Chinese immigration by looking at this graph?
Chinese immigration to the United States

45. Graphs and Statistics Immigration and Illiteracy
Year of Arrival in the United States
Unable to read or write in any language
1896
83,196
1897
44,580
1898
44,773
1899
61,468
1900
95,673
1901
120,645
1902
165,105
1903
189,008
1904
172,856
1905
239,091
1906
269,823
1907
343,402
Graphs and Statistics
12. What does this graph tell us about immigration during the “3rd Wave of Immigration” to the United States?

46. Graphs and Statistics Interpreting graphs:
13. What do these graphs tell us about immigration during the Gilded Age?
14. What might it tell us about immigration today?

47. 15. What is this political cartoon making new immigrants out to be?

48. 16. Who is the man coming down the gangplank?
17. Who are the men on the dock?
18. Who do the shadows represent?
19. What are the men on the dock trying to tell the arriving immigrant?
20. What is the irony of this cartoon?