Immigration Why Did Millions Come to America?

Economic and employment opportunities Avoid forced military service Avoid religious persecution European states made it easy: Take life savings with them New laws allowing peasants to leave villages Reasons for Immigration: PUSH / PULL FACTORS

European Immigration Old Immigrants: Northern and Western Europe- Ireland, England, Germany –Mainly Protestant New Immigrants: Southern and Eastern Europe- Italians, Greeks, Poles, Slavs… –Mainly Catholic or Jewish

How’d They Get Here? On a 14-day voyage in steerage. Steerage: the most basic and cheapest accommodations on a steamship.

Where’d They Go First? Ellis Island: in New York Harbor –45 min. medical inspection –Legal inspection (detained 20%) –Those who “aroused suspicion” sent back (2%)

Where’d They Live? In Ethnic Ghettos: –“Little Italy” –Jewish “Lower East Side” –They spoke native languages, created their own churches, clubs, and newspapers –This what “Ghetto” really means

Overcrowded multifamily apartment buildings More than 2/3 of New York’s 1.5 million lived here. Tenements:

What Do “Real Americans” Think of “New Immigrants from Eastern Europe?

The Resurgence of Nativism Preference for native-born people and a desire to limit immigration. American Protective Association: 500,000 members in the Northeast and Midwest

Reasons for Nativism: Nativists Thought : –Irish Catholics could outnumber Protestants –Immigrants worked for low wages or as strikebreakers –Immigrants did not assimilate and brought disease, crime and radicalism

NATIVISTS ORGANIZE American Protective Association: founded in 1887 by Henry Bowers. A Group who wanted to stop Catholic immigration. Workingman’s party of California: organized in the 1870s to fight Chinese immigration. Party won seats in California’s legislature.

New Immigration Laws 1892 law bans convicts, paupers, and mentally disabled. 50-Cent head tax on each immigrant Chinese Exclusion Act: barred Chinese immigration for 10 years and prevented Chinese already here from being citizens. –Many immigrants protested –Act made law in 1902.

Chinese Exclusion Act: barred Chinese immigration for 10 years and prevented Chinese already here from being citizens. –Many immigrants protested –Act made law in 1902.

Asian Immigration Reasons for Immigration: –China was suffering from severe unemployment, poverty, and famine. –Gold discovered in California in 1848 –Taiping Rebellion- 20 million dead –Construction of transcontinental railroad PUSH OR PULL FACTORS?.

Where’d They Go First? In 1910, California opened a barracks on Angel Island to process Asian immigrants. –Delay could last for months –Mostly young males –Wrote poems on the walls

Questions: Where did the first wave of European immigrants come from? How about the second wave, where did they come from? What were Nativists afraid of ? Why do you think Asian immigrants were treated worse than European immigrants? What is the meaning of the term PUSH AND PULL FACTOR in relation to immigration?