Chapter 8 Immigration

Immigration Moving from one country to another. In the late 1800s immigrants around the world they were fleeing crop failures, shortages of land and jobs, rising taxes, famine, religious and political persecution. Between 1865 and 1920, close to 30 million additional people entered the country.

Push-pull factors There were many push factors which brought immigrants to America but most were pulled by the hope of freedom and economic opportunity. Pogroms were the violent massacre of Jews which swept across Russia in the 1880s. The U.S. offered Russian Jews freedom of religion and the opportunity to build a new life.

Coming to America Most immigrants who came to America came in steerage. Steerage was a large open area beneath the ships deck. “Birds of passage” were young single men who worked for a number of months or years in the U.S. then returned home.

Shift in where immigrants come from. Between 1865 and 1890 about 10 million immigrants came to the U.S. Most came from northwestern and central European countries. In the 1890s, the pattern of immigration shifted dramatically. Most new immigrants came from countries of central, southern, and eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Change in Immigration Policy Until the 1880s, decisions about whom to allow into the country were left to the states. In 1882, the federal government began excluding certain categories of immigrants. In 1891, the Office of the Superintendent of Immigration was formed to determine who was fit to settle in the U.S. and who was not.

Where immigrants landed. More than 70% of all immigrants came through New York City. In 1892, the federal government opened a huge reception center for steerage passengers on Ellis Island. Ellis Island is located in New York Harbor. In 1892, the federal government required all new immigrants to undergo a physical examination. Those found to have contagious diseases faced quarantine or deportation.

Ellis Island

Ellis Island

Ellis Island

Where immigrants lived. Immigrants often sought to live in communities established by previous settlers from their homelands. Few immigrants moved to the South because it offered them few jobs. Ghettos were areas in which one ethnic group dominates. Ghettos offered immigrants the comfort of familiar language and traditions. Some ghettos were formed when ethnic groups wanted to protect themselves from whites. (e.g. Chinatown)

Opposition to immigrants. Restrictive covenants were agreements among homeowners not to sell real estate to certain groups of people. In the mid-1800s American railroad companies recruited about a quarter of a million Chinese workers. Labor unions fought hard to exclude the Chinese as immigrants because they would work for lower wages and bring wage rates down.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 and it prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the country. The Chinese Exclusion Act was not repealed until 1943. In 1910 the Federal government built an immigration center on Angel Island, San Francisco Bay similar to Ellis Island. Even though the Japanese did not compete with union laborers for jobs, labor unions and the political leaders who supported them fought to stop Japanese immigration.

In 1906, the school board in San Francisco ruled that all Chinese, Japanese, and Korean children should attend a separate school. The Japanese government condemned this policy, claiming it violated an 1894 treaty that gave Japanese citizens the right to enter the U.S. freely. The Gentlemen’s Agreement was an unofficial agreement reached by President Teddy Roosevelt with Japanese officials in 1907. It called on San Francisco to end its school exclusion of Japanese and for Japan to stop issuing passports to laborers.

The Webb Alien Land Law passed by California in 1913, banned alien Asians from owning land. The Newlands National Reclamation Act promoted the irrigation of southwestern lands and turned millions of acres of desert into fertile farmland. U.S. entry into WWI drastically increased the demand for laborers from Mexico to grow and harvest food, mine the copper, coal, and other vital minerals needed for war materials.

Immigration from Mexico New opportunities were a “pull” factor that drew Mexican workers to America. The Mexican Revolution in 1910 and the Civil war that followed were “push” factors that resulted in large numbers of Mexicans migrating to the U.S. When the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921 limited immigration from Europe and Asia, labor shortages again drew Mexicans across the border.