What are some factors that caused immigrants to come to
America?
Slide 3
Who came here? 1840- Old Immigrants Northern, Western Europe
(England, Ireland, Scotland) 1880 -New European Immigrants -
southern and eastern Europe (Russia, Italy, Poland)
Slide 4
Push Factors Poverty Famine Religious and political persecution
(genocide) War
Slide 5
Pull Factors Farm land in the west Jobs and Higher wages in the
cities Gold in the west Religious and political freedom
Slide 6
How did Immigrants find out about America? American
letters
Slide 7
steerage Open area below the main deck of the passenger ships
that housed poorer travelers
Slide 8
With my ears I hear the screams of my neighbors during the
pograms my fellow jews and I endured With my heart, I feel hope
that I can find work in a factory in America and make a better life
for my family and myself With my hands, I hold the America letter
from my relatives which tells me of all the opportunities available
in that country With my nose, I smell the awful stench of the
steerage section on the ship that takes me and hundreds of other
immigrants to America
Slide 9
With my eyes I see the medical inspectors at Ellis Island
quickly examine each immigrant as we pass through. Some have to
return home. With my ears, I hear the legal inspectors ask me
questions in a language that I dont understand. If I answer them
incorrectly I have to return home With my hands, I carry the
suitcases that holds all of my belongings as I board the ferryboat
to New York city With my nose, I smell the familiar aromas of my
home country as I walk down the block of my ethnic neighborhood in
New Yorks lower east side
Slide 10
Ellis Island Immigration center in New York Harbor that was the
port of entry for European Immigrants in 1892
Slide 11
Ellis Island First class passengers sent on through Steerage
passengers undergo medical exam and interview
Slide 12
What happened to those who had incurable eye diseases? Eye
disease like Trachoma meant deportation
Slide 13
Is it true that peoples original names during the interview
process were changed?
Slide 14
What was the trickiest question for immigrants? 1885 Foran Act
made it illegal for U.S employers to import foreign laborers
Prevent new immigrants to replace striking workers
Slide 15
What percentage of immigrants to Ellis Island were denied
entry? 20% failed the medical exam or legal interview Only 2% were
deported Process lasted about two hours
Slide 16
Where did Immigrants live once they made it to America? Lived
in undesirable slums New Yorks Lower East Side tenements Ethnic
neighborhoods
Slide 17
Why did immigrants settle in ethnic communities
Slide 18
With my hands, I pass the hat at the Sons of Italy in America
meeting, where we collect money to help the family of one of our
countrymen who has lost his job. With my eyes, I see the local
political boss helping us immigrants with jobs and social services
if we promise him our votes come election day. With my nose I smell
the aroma of food from my new grocery store With my ears, I hear
the Americanization of my daughter, who learned to recite the
Pledge of Allegiance at the free public school she attends with
other immigrant children.
Slide 19
What challenges did Immigrants face here in America?
Slide 20
Americanization The assimilation of immigrants into American
culture in order to promote loyalty to American values.
Slide 21
Who helped them? Settlement House community center that
provided help to the poor Politicians provided food and jobs in
exchange for votes
Slide 22
Why did some Americans reject immigrants?
Slide 23
They were taking jobs away from native born citizens Odd
customs and culture Different political views
Slide 24
Nativism The policy of favoring the interests of native-born
Americans over those of immigrants.
Slide 25
Chinese Immigrants
Slide 26
What types of opportunities did Chinese immigrants find in
America?
Slide 27
What hardships did Chinese immigrants face here in
America?
Slide 28
Chinese Immigrants Came in search of gold White miners
responded with violence Special taxes took half of their wages
Could not testify against whites in court
Slide 29
Railroads recruit Chinese workers Unequal pay and treatment
$1,000 workers lost their lives
Slide 30
Enduring Violence Brutal beatings and no arrests
Slide 31
Slide 32
Facing Harassment Laws forced them to cut their braids Children
could not attend white schools
Slide 33
How did government limit immigration in the late 1800s
Slide 34
Slide 35
How did the government respond to Nativist demands for
curtailing Chinese immigration?
Slide 36
Slide 37
Chinese Exclusion Act Law in 1882 that prohibited the
immigration of Chinese laborers for 10 years
Slide 38
Angel Island Chinese immigration station located in San
Francisco Bay
Slide 39
Slide 40
What hardships existed for Chinese immigrants being detained at
Angel Island?
Slide 41
What did Chinese immigrants to do express their feelings while
being detained?
Slide 42
Soon after their arrival, Chinese immigrants were given medical
examinations. Because of poor health conditions in rural China,
some immigrants were afflicted with parasitic diseases. The U.S.
government classified certain of these ailments as ghastly and
dangerously contagious and sought to use them as grounds to deny
immigrants admission. Those considered medically unfit were often
deported to China. One immigrant remembered the medical
examination:
Slide 43
When we first came, we went to the administration building for
the physical examination. The doctor told us to take off
everything. Really though, it was humiliating. The Chinese never
expose themselves like that. They checked you and checked you. We
never got used to that kind of thingand in front of whites.
Slide 44
I cannot bear to describe the harsh treatment by the doctors.
Being stabbed for blood samples and examined for hookworms was even
more pitiful. After taking the medicine, I also drank liquid, Like
a dumb person eating the huanglian [a bitter herb ].* *The phrase
in the last line means like a victim who cannot speak to
complain.
Slide 45
Chinese who passed the medical examination returned to their
dormitories to await hearings on their immigration applications.
Guards sat outside the dormitories locked doors. Immigrants usually
languished on their bunks, spending their waking hours daydreaming
or worrying about their futures. Some spent their time gambling.
Others read Chinese newspapers from San Francisco or books brought
from home.
Slide 46
Some women passed the time sewing or knitting. Immigrants were
periodically allowed to go to a small, fenced, outdoor recreation
yard. And women and children were sometimes allowed to walk the
grounds in a supervised group, a privilege denied to men. Mr. Lowe,
who was 16 when he arrived at Angel Island, recalled his stay:
Slide 47
I had nothing to do there. During the day, we stared at the
scenery beyond the barbed wiresthe sea and the sky and clouds that
were separated from us. Besides listening to the birds outside the
fence, we could listen to records and talk to old- timers in the
barracks. Some, due to faulty responses during the interrogation
and lengthy appeal procedures, had been there for years.... The
worst part was the toilet. It was a ditch congested with filth. It
stank up the whole barracks. We slept on three tiers of canvas
bunks. The blankets were so coarse that it might have been woven of
wolfs hair. It was indeed a most humiliating imprisonment.
Slide 48
Bored and filled with a hundred feelings, I am imprisoned in
the building. Seeing the surroundings stirs one who is sad. How can
one stop the tears? I recall the ship starting off for the land of
America. Looking back, the moon has repeated a cycle.
Slide 49
With my heart, I feel the hostility that some Americans feel
toward Chinese immigrants like me, hostility that eventually led to
the Chinese Exclusion Act. With my hands, I carve a poem into the
walls of my barrack on Angel Island, describing my frustration as I
wait for weeks to be allowed into America. With my eyes, I see the
school board in San Francisco unfairly segregate the children of
Asian immigrants into separate schools from white children. With my
ears, I hear rumors of a Gentlemens Agreement between the
governments of Japan and the U.S. that severely limits Japanese
immigration to America.
Slide 50
What are some examples of discrimination of Asians in America
during the early to mid 1900s?
Slide 51
What groups of immigrants are targets of nativists today?
