1. Unit 10, Section 1 – Immigration By Mr. Thomas Parsons
Learning Targets:
1.) Be able to explain what factors led to immigrates coming to America, and provide evidence on their overall impact American culture/society.
2.) Be able to identify key methods of how immigrants successfully adapted to American society.
3.) Be able to analyze/evaluate the American immigration experience from the past ( ) to the present.

2. I. Europeans Flood Into the United States
By the late 1800s, most European states made it easy to move to America.
Migration restrictions lifted, assets released
America offered immigrants
employment,
few immigration restrictions,
avoidance of military service,
religious freedom,
and the chance to move up the social ladder

3. By the 1890s, eastern and southern Europeans made up more than half of all immigrants:
Italians, Greeks, Poles, Slavs, Slovaks, Russians and Armenia
Of the 14 million immigrants who arrived between 1860 and 1900, many were European Jews.

5. A difficult trip
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.

6. Ellis Island served as a processing center for most immigrants arriving on the East coast after 1892
Most immigrants passed through Ellis Island in a day.
Some faced the possibility of being separated from family.
Those who failed inspection were sent back to Europe due to health problems.

7. 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.

8. Those who adjusted to living in the United States:
Those who learned English quickly,
Those who adapted quickly to American culture,
Those having marketable skills or money,
Those that settled among members of their own ethnic group

9. II. Asian Immigration to America
Chinese immigration to the United States in the mid-1800s increased due to:
Severe unemployment and poverty in China
Famine in China;
The discovery of gold in California;
The Taiping Rebellion in China – 20 million died
The demand for railroad workers in the United States

11. B. In Western cities, Chinese immigrants worked as:
laborers,
servants,
skilled tradesmen,
and merchants.
Some opened their own laundries.

12. Japanese immigration to the United States
Between 1900 and 1919, drastically increased
Japan began to build an industrial economy and an empire
Farmers were pushed out.

13. Angel Island in California
Barracks were built to house would be immigrants from Asia.
Opened in 1910
Mostly young men and boys, waited sometimes for months for the results of immigration hearings.

14. III. The Resurgence of Nativism
The increase in immigration led to nativism:
Nativism is an extreme dislike for foreigners by native-born people and 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.

15. Nativism led to the forming of two anti-immigration groups.
The American Protective Association had 500,000 members by 1887.
The party’s founder, Henry Bowers, disliked Catholics and foreigners.
He wanted to stop immigration.

16. The Workingman’s Party of California.
Organized in the1870s by Denis Kearny, and Irish immigrant.
This group wanted to stop Chinese immigration.
Radical violence resulted.

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

18. Closing Assessment:
Directions: Answer the following prompts in at least 2-3 complete sentences. 1.) What encouraged immigrants to come to America, and provide evidence/examples explaining their impact on American society? 2.) Explain how immigrant’s best adapted to American society, and what methods today would immigrants need to be successful? 3.) Analyze how immigration in America is viewed today, and does America still provide the same opportunity as it did in the 1800’s (give examples/evidence why or why not)?