The Great MigrationThe Largest Mass Movement in Human History

• 1880 to 1921 23 million immigrants arrived on America’s shores

• Almost 46 million people around the world left their homelands

• Over 56 percent- came to the United States. • The United States had no quotas, or limits

• Nor did it require immigrants to have a passport or special entrance papers.

The Great MigrationDemographics of Immigrants After 1880

• The demographic makeup of immigrants changed in the period after 1880 • “Old immigrants” who came primarily from northwestern Europe

before 1880 • “New immigrants” who came after 1880. • 1880 and 1921, approximately 70 percent of all immigrants came

from southern an eastern Europe

• the typical immigrant • Young, male, and either Catholic or Jewish • Most spoke little or no English• Majority were unskilled agricultural laborers with little money or

education

Push Pull FactorEconomic Decline in Europe

• Majority of immigrants came for economic reasons. • In the late 1800s, the agriculturally based economies

declined as a result of the Industrial Revolution. • Farmers who had not mechanized their operations found

themselves unable to compete • local craftspeople often could not compete with city factories

• Disease was rampant…infant mortality was very high • southern Italy-a series of natural disasters • Rising populations put an additional strain on

European economies.

Push Pull Factor Political and Religious Persecution in Eastern Europe

• Eastern European Jews left their homes to escape political and religious persecution.

• After 1881, the Russian government supported violent mob attacks against Jews known as pogroms.

• From 1880 to 1921, over 2 million Jews-one third of Europe’s Jewish population-came to the United States, • 3/4 came from Russia.

Push Pull Factor The Lure of Life in America

• Newspaper articles and letters from family members in America often painted the United States as a “magic land” of unlimited opportunities and riches.

• American businesses and factories sent representatives overseas in search of cheap labor.

• Railroads and steamship lines solicited immigrants’ business • Often the information was inaccurate or outdated

Push Pull Factor Leaving the Homeland

• Many families used all their savings to pay from the trip

• Others spent large sums of money bribing local officials to issue them exit papers or passports

• Many immigrants had to travel hundreds of miles by train or foot to reach the coastal regions

• Immigrants traditionally had emotional farewells with the people they were leaving behind• Many were uncertain that they would ever see their loved

ones again

The Journey Across the Atlantic Steamship Accommodations

• To travel to the United States, most immigrants boarded steel steamships • Was their home from 8 to 14 days

• Most immigrants traveled in the ship’s steerage compartments, located under the ship’s deck at the front and back of the boat. • The compartments typically had no windows, little

ventilation, and were 6 to 8 feet high. • Toilet facilities varied, from one toilet for every 47

passengers to one toilet for every 1,000 passengers.

The Journey Across the Atlantic Living Conditions in Steerage

• Ships often provided steerage passengers with a bare minimum of food

• Steerage passengers spent most of their voyage deprived of sky, sunlight, and fresh air, and the smell was often unbearable

• Contagious diseases such as smallpox and typhoid spread quickly.

The Journey Across the Atlantic Cabin Class

• In the early 1900s, some steamship companies removed the steerage areas and created a special third, or cabin, class for immigrant travel

• Cabin class accommodations consisted of cabins that held two, four, or six beds, providing passengers with more privacy

• Passengers had access to better and more toilet facilities, a dining room, and a lounge.

Arrival in America Arriving in America

• From 1892 to the early 1920s, approximately 75 % of all arriving immigrants entered U.S. through the immigration processing center at Ellis Island

• For many immigrants, their first glimpse of Lady Liberty would be a moment they would remember all of their lives

• Ellis Island, or the Island of Tears where most immigrants would be inspected, questioned, and with any luck, cleared for entrance to U.S.

Medical Inspections First and Second Class Inspections

• First and second class passengers did not have to endure the lengthy inspection process on Ellis Island.

• When a ship arrived in the harbor, a quarantine inspector boarded and checked that none of the passengers had highly contagious or threatening diseases,• the higher class passengers were briefly questioned and

examined by U.S. immigrant inspectors, then disembarked; • The steerage class passengers went to Ellis Island for a

rigorous inspection process.

Medical Inspections Arriving at Ellis Island

• Immigration officials gave each person a tag to pin onto their clothes. • The tag identified each person by a number that

corresponded to a number assigned to them by the steamship on which they traveled.

• groups of 30 for processing.

Medical Inspections Medical Inspections

• Government officials sought to weed out immigrants whom would require public assistance, such as the mentally ill and the sick.

• “Six second exam” by watching them walk up the stairs. • At top of the stairs, immigrants received an inspection

card and underwent a more thorough medical examination.

• The examination usually took about 45 minutes. • If the doctor found anything suspect he drew a letter on the

immigrant’s right shoulder in chalk • typically 20 percent of immigrants had medical problems

Legal Inspections The Registry Hall

• Final legal inspection in the Registry Hall • Immigrants usually waited 2-3 hours to be

questioned, occasionally the wait was as long as a day.

• U.S. inspector’s job to confirm the immigrant’s answers face-to-face, and determine whether the immigrant should be allowed entrance to the U.S.

Legal Inspections The Final Inspection

• Legal inspection lasted approximately 2 to 3 minutes• Assisted by a language interpreter, inspector asked the

immigrants 32 questions to determine• if coming for a legitimate reason• had a proper moral character• unlikely to become a ward of the state, or a violent revolutionary

• Many immigrants remembered their experiences at Ellis Island as one of the worst times of their lives.

• U.S. officials detained approximately 20 % after the legal inspection, but only 2 % were actually sent back to their homeland.

Ethnic Enclaves Leaving Ellis Island

• Immigrants traveling to places other than New York City-approximately 2/3 of the immigrants-could purchase railway tickets in the Railway Room.

• Those immigrants who planned to settle in New York City walked down a pathway and boarded a ferry

Ethnic Enclaves Ethnic Enclaves

• About 2/3 of immigrants settled in urban centers

• By 1920, 75 percent of foreign-born U.S. residents lived in cities.

• Many immigrants initially stayed with friends or relatives in close-knit ethnic neighborhoods, or enclaves,

• Ethnic enclaves provided immigrants with many of the trappings of their country of origin

Living Conditions City Tenement Buildings

• Most cities were ill-equipped to handle the material needs of their increasing populations.

• Most urban-dwelling immigrants lived in tenement buildings

• Tenements typically had six or seven floors, each of which usually contained four four-room apartments.

Living Conditions The Perils of Tenement Living

• Most tenement apartments were filthy, run-down, and had little ventilation, light, or conveniences.

• Fires, diseases, and death were common among immigrant tenement communities.

• One half of Manhattan’s fires occurred in tenement buildings, which made up only 1/3 of the buildings.

• 60 % of immigrants died before their first birthdays.

Living Conditions Rural Living Conditions

• Some immigrants traveled west-and to a lesser extent, south-to settle in small towns and more rural areas

• Most rural immigrants had adequate space and light and a relatively higher standard of living

• The weather was often harsh-including blizzards, dust storms, and droughts

Working Conditions The Immigrant Workforce

• The majority of immigrants worked in industrial jobs, for a variety of reasons. • Most American industries were rapidly growing and in need

of workers. • Employers found in the new immigrants a plentiful and

cheap source of labor. • Immigrants were desperate for work and willing to accept

almost any kind of job• A substantial number of immigrants had no desire to resume

agricultural work• A majority of immigrants had few specialized skills on

which they could rely to earn money

Working Conditions Working Conditions

• Immigrants were particularly vulnerable to worker exploitation, and many labored under intolerable conditions.

• Few employers paid immigrants a living wage. • Many immigrant children needed to work to help

support their poverty-stricken families • Employers demanded that their employees work

from 12 to 16 hours per day. • Working conditions in industrial occupation were

often dangerous, unsanitary, and uncomfortable.

Working Conditions Improved Standard of Living

• Most were better off economically than they had been in Europe.

• One scholar reports that European farm laborers earned a mere $33 a year, compared to the $200 annual salary of the average American farmhand.

American Treatment of Citizens American Nativism

• American nativism was based on the belief that immigrants posed a threat to native-born Americans and their way of life.

• Nativists often held deep-seated prejudices about immigrants and considered the southern and eastern Europeans a different and inferior race

• Many American workers accused immigrant of taking away jobs from “real” Americans.

American Treatment of Citizens American Nativism

• Nativists worked to restrict the number of immigrants entering the United States in several ways. • They pushed for Ellis Island inspectors to reject any

immigrant who could not pass a literacy test• They called for laws restricting the number of immigrants

that could enter the country.

• In 1921 Congress passed the Dillington Bill, which established quotas for the number of immigrants the United States would accept from each nation. • The bill marked the end of America’s open-door policy

toward immigration