November 9th, 2015

Mr. Severson
U.S History

Immigration
&
Industrialization
The New Immigrant

Overview

Free write

Class Discussion

Group work

Presentations

New Immigrants Come to America

History:

Economic opportunity and religious freedom.

Primarily Protestants from northern and western Europe.

They came as families and settled on farms, many saved
money for the journey or had a skill, trade, or education.
German and Irish Catholics were also a large portion of this
old immigration

New Immigrants Cont.

Beginning

in 1870 New immigrants arrived.

From southern and eastern Europe, immigrated increasingly

until WWI.
Often unskilled, poor, Catholic or Jewish, and settled in cities.
After 1900 immigrants from southern and eastern Europe
made up 70% of all immigrants.

Push and Pull

Push

factors:

1880s farmers in Mexico, Poland, and China were forced from

their land because of land reform and low prices.
Beginning in 1840 China and eastern Europe experienced
repeated wars and political revolutions.
1880s Russians and eastern European Jews fled religious
persecution.
Pull:

Plentiful land and employment: 1862 Homestead Act and aid

from railroad companies made western farmland inexpensive.
Work in railroads, mines, oil fields, produce, or factories. Some
hoped to find gold.
Chain immigrants joining family or friends who had already
immigrated.

The Immigrant Experience

Common

themes:

Tough decision to leave home and family, difficult journey,

difficulties of new language and culture.
The

Journey:

Expensive.
Brought only what they could carry.
Traveled in STEERAGE, the worst accommodations on the ship.
Illness was prominent and likely.
At

the Ports:

To be allowed in immigrants must be: Healthy and show that they

had money, a skill, or a sponsor to provide for them.
Most arrived in New York Harbor and in 1892 they were
processed at Ellis Island

The Immigrant Experience

At

the ports Cont.

All of the third-class passengers were sent to Ellis Island.

Due to preliminary screening done by the ship owners only about
2% were denied entry.
Chinese and other Asian immigrants arrived in San Francisco Bay
and processed at ANGLE ISLAND (1910).
Angle Island proved to be formidable and seemed to be designed
to filter out Asian immigrants. Turned away unless proof of
American citizenship or of relatives living in America could be
provided.
Ellis Island took hours. Angle Island took weeks or months and
provided poor conditions.

Opportunities and Challenges in America

Immigrants

Assimilate into Society

New Immigrants mostly stayed in cities, living in ethnic neighborhoods

called ghettoes.
Some cities had a high immigrant population with San Francisco and Chicago
at 40%.
Exclusionist policies forced these ghettoes, but these provided familiarity
and specialty shops that brought a taste of their culture to America.
AMERICANIZATION programs were ran through volunteer institutions known
as settlement houses.
On the opposite side, fraternal associations such as the Polish National
Alliance, provided social services and financial assistance.
It was believed America was a MELTING POT. In which white people of
different nationalities blended to create a single culture.(Term originated
from a play in 1908).

Opportunities and Challenges in

America

New Immigrants Face Hostility

NATIVISM faced many newcomers.
Religious tension, protestants were suspicious of Catholicism, the
religion of Irish, German, Italian, and Polish immigrants.
Native born white Protestants would not hire, vote for, or work with
Catholics or Jewish peoples.
Nativist prejudices were backed by scientific research thank linked
immigrants physical characteristics to criminal tendencies or lower
intellectual abilities.
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT passed in 1882 prohibited immigration by
Chinese laborers, limited the civil rights of Chinese immigrants already
in the United States and forbade the naturalization of Chinese
residents.
In the same year Congress passed another act that prohibited entry of
anyone who was a criminal, immoral, a pauper, or likely to need public

Opportunities and Challenges in America

Questions??