1. Immigrants and the United States, 1860-1920
Two November Anniversaries
Peak Years of Immigration to America,
: 10 million arrive
: 15 million arrive
Push and Pull Factors in Explaining Immigration
Changing Sources of Immigration
Immigrants Adjust to America
Social Mobility
Family and Group Strategies, Ethnic Enclaves
Partisan Politics and Urban Welfare Systems
Campaigns for Acculturation, Assimilation, and Americanization

2. Upcoming Dates in HSTAA 110
Tomorrow, 10 Nov.—no section meetings
Saturday, 11 Nov.—Veterans Day Holiday
Monday, 13 Nov. – Submit Rough Drafts of Family History Papers
Next Week in Lecture: Responses to Industrialization—labor and reform movements, and their impact on immigration
Week of Nov.—
* rough drafts returned on Monday or Tuesday
* lectures on Monday and Tuesday on the Great
Depression and World War Two
* no class meeting on Wed. 22 Nov.
* Thanksgiving holiday on Thurs. and Fri.
* Apple Cup on Friday

3. Two November Anniversaries with implications for American Citizenship
November 9, 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall separating East and West Germany
November 11, 1918: Armistice Bringing an end to World War One

4. Numbers of Immigrants to U.S. before 1860
The great majority of these came from Europe,
although Asians (esp. Chinese) began arriving during the 1850s.
Between 1820 and 1860, roughly 5 million immigrants arrived in the U.S.—more than the country’s 1790 total population of just less than 4 million.

5. European Sources of Immigration to the U.S., 1820-1860
(% figure refers to percentage of entire immigration)
British German Irish %B+G+I
1820s 27,489 (18.1%) ,729 (5.1%) ,338 (35.8%) 59%
1830s 75,810 (12.7%) ,454 (25.5%) ,381 (34.6%) 72.8%
1840s 267,044 (15.6%) ,626 (25.4%) ,719 (45.6%) 86.6%
1850s 423,974 (16.3%) ,667 (36.6%) ,119 (35.2%) 88.1%
1860s 606,896 (26.2%) ,468 (34.0%) ,778 (18.8%) 79%

6. Immigrants in Relation to the U.S. Population, 1860-2000
A. Foreign-Born as a Percentage of Total U.S. Population
1860: 12.7% 1900: 13.6% 1940: 8.8% 1980: 6.2%
1870: 14.4% 1910: 14.7% 1950: 6.9% 1990: 8.0%
1880: 13.3% 1920: 13.2% 1960: 5.4% 2000: 11.1%
% 1930: 8.4% 1970: 4.7% 2010: 12.9%
B. Immigrant Totals & Immigrants per 100 U.S. Residents
1860s: 2.3 million, 7.1 per 100
1870s: 2.8 million , s: 0.5 million , 0.4
1880s: 5.2 million, s: 1.0 million, 0.8 per 100
1890s: 3.7 million , s: 2.5 million, 1.7
1900s: 8.8 million, s: 3.3 million, 1.9
1910s: 5.7 million, s: 4.5 million, 2.2
1920s: 4.1 million , s: 7.3 million, 3.2
s: 9.1 million, 3.7

7. World Systems of Migration/Immigration, 1815-1914:
36 million of the world’s 81 million migrants headed to the U.S.

8. Source Regions in Europe for Migrants to the U.S.
(figures for period )

9. Woodrow Wilson (the future U. S
Woodrow Wilson (the future U.S. president) commented in 1902 on the traits of the “second wave” of immigrants from Europe:
“The immigrant newcomers of recent years are men of the lowest class from the South of Italy, and men of the meaner sort out of Hungary and Poland, men out of the ranks where there was neither skill nor energy, nor any initiative or quick intelligence.”
Wilson’s sentiments were shared by most native-born Americans and by many “first-wave” immigrants. By the 1920s U.S. immigration policy had changed in order to put quite restrictive quotas on new arrivals from southern and eastern Europe.
By the way, in the same year Wilson made the above comments he was appointed president of Princeton University. His racism and ethnocentrism never held him back because they were generally typical of white Americans’ views during this period.

10. Distribution of Foreign-Born Population in North America around 1920.
Note the concentration in northeastern cities (the industrial core of the U.S), in the Southwest and on the West Coast, and in Midwestern states that had farmland available.

11. Immigrant Standards of Living, 1910
Minimum Subsistence Income for a Family
of Five in U.S.: $800
Average Family Incomes in U.S. for:
Jews $685
Polish $595
Slovaks $582
Serbs: $462
Wages in the U.S. were anywhere from 4 to 10 times higher than in Europe. It generally cost more to live in U.S. than in Europe (but not 4 to 10 times as much).

12. The photographer Jacob Riis documented living conditions for immigrants in New York City. His book How the Other Half Lives appeared in 1890.

13. Millions of immigrants from Europe entered the U. S
Millions of immigrants from Europe entered the U.S. via Ellis Island in New York Harbor, where over time federal immigration authorities increasingly monitored—and at times rejected—new arrivals.

14. Immigrants tended to go toward cities, where they crowded into ethnic neighborhoods, worked in manufacturing and commercial jobs, participated in municipal politics, and considered opportunities of acculturation for both themselves and their children. This map shows Cleveland’s immigrant mosaic.

15. Chicago in 1920 was another American city defined by its ethnic neighborhoods. The darkest purple districts had populations that were 90% or higher foreign-born or children of foreign-born parents. The medium purple districts were 70-89% foreign-born or children of foreign-born parents, and the lavender 50-69%.

16. Jane Addams founded and ran Hull House in Chicago
Jane Addams founded and ran Hull House in Chicago. It was dedicated to Americanizing immigrants through education and other programs, while at the same time giving limited recognition to the cultures newcomers had brought with them.