ImmigrationChapter 6, Section 1

Why do people migrate (leave)

• Government is oppressive • Freeland • Food• Religious persecutions• Forced military service • Criminal • Jobs/business

Old Immigrants

• Immigrants who arrived before 1890 and typically came from northern and western Europe.

New Immigration

• New Immigration – Immigrants who arrived after 1890 and typically came from Italy, Greece, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Serbia.

• More than 70% of the New Immigrates were men.

Immigrants European Immigrants

• 14 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean

• Miserable conditions on the boat (steerage)

• Steerage was the cheapest accommodations.

• Most arrived at Ellis Island, NY• 12 Million immigrants passed

through Ellis Island from 1892 to 1954.

• You could be sent back to Europe if you had physical health problems.

Chinese Immigrants • Chinese people

immigrated due to famine, unemployment, and poverty.

• Also the Taipei Rebellion occurred, which was a very bloody conflict.

• Chinese immigrants worked as laborers, servants or skilled workers.

Other Asian Immigrants

• Japanese people immigrated due to economic problems in Japan.

• Asian immigrants settled mostly in the west and usually arrived in San Francisco at Angel Island.

Angel Island, San Francisco

Ethnic Cities

• In large cities (example – New York City), immigrants made up a large percentage.

• Immigrants lived in neighborhoods that were separated into ethnic groups like:– Little Italy– China Town– Lower East Side (Jewish)

Nativism

Prejudice of Immigrants

• In the late 1800s, anti-immigrant feelings were largely directed against Asians; Jews; and Eastern Europeans

• Nativism – extreme dislike of immigrants by native-born people.

• Did not want people to immigrant because:– Upset the religious balance.– Take jobs away by accepting lower wages.

Religious Differences

• Some native-born Americans feared the influx of Catholic into the mostly Protestant United States.

Prejudice of Immigrants

• Also, many labor unions opposed immigration, arguing that immigrants would work for low wages or accept work as strikebreakers.

• The Workingman's Party of California was organized to fight Chinese immigration.

• To reduce immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe, congress mandated a literacy test for all new immigrants.

Questions

• Do you think the United States should limit immigration?

• Should people coming into the United States already know English?