Immigration

20th Century Immigration By 1900, Eastern and Southern Europeans made up more than half of all immigrants. Of the 14 million immigrants who arrived between 1860 and 1900, many were European Jews. America offered immigrants employment, few immigration restrictions, avoidance of military service, religious freedom, and the chance to move up the social ladder.

Eastern Europe Estonia Latvia Lithuania Armenia Russia Ukraine Romania Poland Hungary

Southern Europe Portugal Spain France Italy Croatia Greece Bosnia Serbia Macedonia Albania Montenegro

Old Immigration Northern Europe Western Europe

Ellis Island Most immigrants took the difficult trip to America in steerage, the least expensive accommodations on a steamship. The 14-day trip usually ended at Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. It served as a processing center for most immigrants arriving on the East Coast after 1892. Most immigrants passed through Ellis Island in a day. However, some faced the possibility of being separated from family and possibly sent back to Europe due to health problems.

Ellis Island

Sample Citizenship Test Ellis Island Ellis Island Records Sample Citizenship Test

Immigrants in the Cities Most immigrants settled in cities. They lived in neighborhoods that were separated into ethnic groups. Here they duplicated many of the comforts of their homelands, including language and religion. Immigrants who learned English, adapted to American culture, had marketable skills or money, or if they settled among members of their own ethnic group tended to adjust well to living in the United States.

Immigrants in Cities New York, 1900

Leaving China Causes: Severe unemployment, poverty, and famine in China; the discovery of gold in California; the Taiping Rebellion in China; the demand for railroad workers in the United States led to an increase in Chinese immigration to the United States in the mid-1800s. In Western cities, Chinese immigrants worked as laborers, servants, skilled tradesmen, and merchants. Some opened their own laundries.

Japanese Immigration Between 1900 and 1908, Japanese immigration to the United States drastically increased as Japan began to build an industrial economy and an empire.

Angel Island In 1910 a barracks was opened on Angel Island in California. Here, Asian immigrants, mostly young men and boys, waited sometimes for months for the results of immigration hearings.

Angel Island

Nativism The increase in immigration led to nativism, a preference for native-born people and the desire to limit immigration. Earlier, in the 1840s and 1850s, nativism was directed towards the Irish. In the early 1900s, it was the Asian, Jews, and eastern Europeans that were the focus of nativism

Anti- Immigrant groups Nativism led to the forming of two anti-immigrant groups. The American Protective Association was founded in 1887. The party’s founder, Henry Bowers, disliked Catholicism. He wanted to stop Catholic immigration. In the 1870s, Denis Kearny, an Irish immigrant, organized the Workingman’s Party of California. This group wanted to stop Chinese immigration. Racial violence resulted.

Chinese Exclusion Act In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act that barred Chinese immigration for 10 years and prevented the Chinese already in America from becoming citizens. This act was renewed by Congress in 1892, made permanent in 1902, and not repealed until 1943.

Urbanization

Urbanization The urban population of the United States grew from about 10 million in 1870 to over 30 million by 1900. Immigrants remained in the cities, where they worked long hours for little pay. Still, most immigrants felt their standard of living had improved in the United States. Farmers began moving to cities because of better paying jobs, electricity, running water, plumbing, and entertainment.

Urbanization Housing and transportation needs changed due to the increase in the amount of people living in cities. As the price of land increased, building owners began to build up. Skyscrapers, tall steel frame buildings, were constructed for this reason.

In the late 1800s, various kinds of mass transit developed to move large numbers of people around cities quickly. Beginning with the horsecar, and later to the more sophisticated electric trolley cars and elevated railroads, engineers created ways to move the ever-expanding population around the city.

Definite boundaries could be seen between where the wealthy, middle class, and working class people lived. Wealthy families lived in the heart of the city where they constructed elaborate homes. The middle class, which included doctors, lawyers, engineers, and teachers, tended to live away from the city

The majority of urban dwellers were part of the working class who lived in city tenements, or dark and crowded multi-family apartments. The growth of cities resulted in an increase in crime, fire, disease, and pollution. From 1880 to 1900, there was a large increase in the murder rate. Native-born Americans blamed immigrants for the increase in crime.

Alcohol contributed to crime in the late 1800s Contaminated drinking water from improper sewage disposal resulted in epidemics of typhoid fever and cholera.

Homework: Due 11/14/13 Think about your own family history. How far back can you go? What are your family dynamics like? Where did your family come from? If they were from anywhere other than California, why do you think they moved?