Conflicted Views on Immigration

LOVE IT HATE IT

New Immigrants

Who came? 25 Million between 1880-1920 1st Wave – Pre 1890

Northern and Western Europe Spoke English, Protestant

2nd Wave – 1890-1920 Southern and Eastern Europe Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish Poor, Illiterate, uneducatedHow many immigrants came to the United States 2000-2010?

Melting Pot

Is the United States still considered a “melting pot” today?

Mixture of people from different cultures and races who blend together by

abandoning their native languages and cultures

Push and Pull Factors Religious and

political persecution

Rising population

Scarcity of land Famine Revolution Poverty

Promise of freedom

New life Jobs Land Money $$Why do people immigrate to

the United States today?

Difficult Journey Steamship

1 week from Europe 3 weeks from Asia

Steerage • Not first class!• Crowded• Disease spread

Ellis Island New York Harbor Arrival for European Immigrants Pass Inspection - Looong process!

• Physical/Mental Examination• Legal Requirements

Language barrier 1892-1924

17 Million

Angel Island Asian immigrants San Francisco Bay 1910-1940

50,000 Chinese Similar procedure, but much more

harsh and dirty

Urbanization

What comes along with urbanization?

“The city has become a serious menace to our civilization. . . . It has a peculiar attraction for the immigrant. … Here is heaped the social dynamite; here roughs, gamblers, thieves, robbers, lawless and desperate men of all sorts, congregate; men who are ready on any pretext to raise riots for the purpose of destruction and plunder; here gather foreigners and wage-workers; here skepticism and irreligion abound.”

-- Josiah Strong, a prominent Midwestern minister, in his best-selling book, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (1885)

What now?

Friction Develops… NATIVISM - overt favoritism toward native-born Americans

• “Right” and “wrong” immigrants• Free, energetic, progressive countries vs.

stagnant and down-trodden countries• Religious objection • Language• Jobs• Segregation

“The Chinese must go!” - Denis Kearney

Chinese Exclusion Act - 1882 Congress banned entry to all Chinese except students, teachers, merchants, tourists, and government officials.But Why?

Many Types of Nativism • Disease• Superstition • Poverty• Anarchy • Sabbath

desecration • Intemperanc

e • Crime The Immigrant: The Stranger at Our Gate from The Ram’s Horn April 25, 1896

Source: www.projects.vassar.edu/1896/0425ramshorn.html

But what about the promise?.... Can you see where this is headed?

How did the immigrants initial experience in America compare to the promise embodied in Emma Lazarus’s

poem?