IMMIGRATION AND URBANIZATION

AMERICA…. Where anyone can be a success? Where everyone has an equal chance ?

CONTEMPORARY VIEWS ON SUCCESS Social Darwinism: In society, the most “fit” succeed Those not “fit” do not succeed Weak culture will die out, the strong will survive Not the role of the government to intervene or help the “weak” Success Gospel: Belief that the successful were chosen by God The unsuccessful were also chosen by God Sounds a little like…..?

THE NEW IMMIGRATION, million immigrants came to the United States between 1815 and 1915 Many of the rest settled in cities across the country where they soon outnumbered native-born whites Over the course of the century, the sources of immigrants for the United States changed Until 1880, three-quarters of those coming to the U.S. (“old immigrants”) came from the British Isles, Germany, and Scandinavia By 1890, these nationalities were only 50 percent of the total with the rest (“new immigrants”) coming from southern and eastern Europe Italian Catholics were the most numerous followed by Eastern European Jews and then Slavs

PUSH AND PULL FACTORS Immigrants came to the United States for a variety of reasons: Dissatisfaction with life at home was basic to the decision to migrate Lack of economic opportunity Political, religious oppression in their home countries Efforts to modernize European economies also stimulated immigration- crime, poverty, disease Government policies pushed others to leave Opportunity also lured thousands to the United States

IMMIGRATION TO THE U.S

THE NEW IMMIGRATION, Europeans came primarily to work: Most were young, single men with few skills Jews most often came in family groups When times were good and American industry needed large numbers of unskilled workers, immigration was heavy Many workers hoped to earn enough money in the United States to realize their ambitions at home Twenty to thirty percent of Italians returned home

NATIVISM : FEAR & HATRED OF IMMIGRANTS "The problems which so sternly confront us to-day are serious enough without being complicated and aggravated by the addition of some millions of Hungarians, Poles, south Italians, and Russian Jews."-- Francis A. Walker, The Atlantic Monthly; June, 1896

1890

CONTEMPORARY

IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION There were restrictions on immigration to America since the colonial period, but not until the late 19th Century did legislation become particularly restrictive, focusing on groups of people sectioned by ethnicity, profession, and national origin.

1875 IMMIGRATION ACT (PAGE ACT) "That it shall be unlawful for aliens of the following classes to immigrate into the United States, namely, persons who are undergoing a sentence for conviction in their own country of felonious crimes other than political or growing out of or the result of such political offenses, or whose sentence has been remitted on condition of their emigration, and women "imported for the purposes of prostitution." In particular it named Asian workers, and prostitutes to "end the danger of cheap Chinese labor and immoral Chinese women"

1882 IMMIGRATION ACT $0.50 tax would be levied on all immigrants landing at United States ports. – used to pay for immigration agents and administration Also gave powers to deny entry to "convicts (except those convicted of political offenses), lunatics, idiots and persons likely to become public charges.“ In 1891, the list of undesirable citizens was expanded to include, among others, paupers, diseased people, and those who had their passage paid by someone else.

1917 QUOTA ACT "That the following classes of aliens shall be excluded from admission into the United States: All idiots, imbeciles, feeble- minded persons, epileptics, insane persons; persons who have had one or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; persons of constitutional psychopathic inferiority; persons with chronic alcoholism; paupers; professional beggars; vagrants; persons afflicted with tuberculosis in any form or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease;" Also designated an “Asiatic Barred Zone”, a region that included much of Asia and the Pacific Islands from which people could not immigrate.

1924 NATIONAL ORIGINS ACT Limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States through a national origins quota. The quota provided immigration visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality in the United States as of the 1890 national census. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia. Who would it favor? During congressional debate over the 1924 Act, Senator Ellison DuRant Smith of South Carolina argued that immigration restriction was the only way to preserve existing American resources: " It seems to me the point as to this measure—and I have been so impressed for several years—is that the time has arrived when we should shut the door. We have been called the melting pot of the world. We had an experience just a few years ago, during the great World War, when it looked as though we had allowed influences to enter our borders that were about to melt the pot in place of us being the melting pot."