Immigration, 1877-1924 U.S. History II

A Century of Immigration: 1820 - 1920 5,907,893 Germans 16.4% of all immigrants 25-36% between 1830-1890 4,578,941 Irish 12.7% of all immigrants 35-45% between 1830-1860 4,195,880 Italians 3,000,000 between 1901-1920 2,147,859 Scandinavians

Why They Left – Push Factors Lack of jobs Agriculture no longer viable Escaping persecution Dodging the draft Irish Tenants Evicted

Why They Came – Pull Factors Wages 2-3 times higher in U.S. Friends & relatives already here Greater economic, social, & political freedom Immigrants on board

How They Came – Means Recruitment Padrones Steamships “Birds of Passage” HMS Majestic, White Star Line, 1889

Cabin vs. Steerage Accommodations

Ellis Island, New York

Covered Entrance

Great Hall

Inspection

Hearing Room

Where Immigrants Settled

Urban Immigrants

Ethnic Ghettoes Never completely homogenous Dumbbell tenements Created organizations to preserve culture Churches Schools Benevolent associations Singing clubs Mulberry St., Manhattan Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000

Tenement Sweatshop Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000

Nativist Attacks Nativists distinguished between good “old immigrants” & bad “new immigrants” “old” immigrants hailed as pioneers who settled as families on the land, assimilated & became citizens “new” immigrants were single men who worked in factories, lived in slums, & were less intelligent & more degenerate Immigrants blamed for evils of urban, industrial America Conservatives claimed they were labor radicals – socialists, anarchists Unions saw them as strikebreakers Social workers decried their unsanitary living conditions Academics claimed they were racially inferior TR warned of danger of “race suicide” Anti-immigrant cartoon from The Ram’s Horn, 10/31/1896

Immigration Restriction Legislation Page Act (1875) – prostitutes & convicts excluded from entry Asian Exclusion: 1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act 1907 – Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan 1917 – Asiatic Barred Zone created 1924 – all “aliens ineligible to citizenship” excluded Foran Act (1885) – contract labor outlawed (except professionals) 1891 – federal Immigration Bureau created Federal inspection centers like Ellis Island built Courts ruled that immigration decisions were administrative – not subject to due process or judicial review

Restrictive Legislation, continued 1882, 1891, 1903 & 1907 acts excluded those with a variety of physical or mental defects 1917 act imposed literacy test on all immigrants “Emergency” Quota Act (1921) – quotas set at 3% of 1910 census figures for each nationality Reed – Johnson National Origins Act (1924) Initial quotas set at 2% of 1890 census figures In 1929 “national origins” quotas took effect, based on estimates of ethnic heritage of white population