Immigration in the late 19 th Century

1. Immigration in the late 19th Century We’re coming to America!

2. Old immigrants • From the 1850s – 1870s, more than 2 million people immigrated to America • 1880s – more than 5 million came • Up to the 1880s, most immigrants: • Came from the British Isles and Western Europe (Germany, Scandinavia) • Protestant Christians (except for Irish Catholics) • High literacy rates • Accustomed to a from of representative government

3. New Immigrants • By 1890, the flow of immigration changed: • Southern and eastern Europe (Italians, Slavs, Greeks, Poles, Russians) • Orthodox Christians or Jews • Native countries had little or no tradition of representative democracy • Largely illiterate and impoverished • Chose factory work in cities to farms

4. Why did new Immigrants come? • Out of room in Europe (massive population growth) • America was seen as the land of opportunity • No military conscription • No religious persecution • Wealthy industrialists recruited workers • Persecution in Europe • ex. Pogroms by the Russian government against Jews

5. Journey to America • Virtually all immigrants up to the 20th Century traveled by boat • Length of journey • Across the Atlantic – about 1 week • Across the Pacific – about 3 weeks • Most immigrants traveled in steerage • Rarely allowed on deck • Louse-infested bunks • Shared toilets • Disease spread quickly

6. Ellis Island • First stop: inspection stations • European immigrants went through Ellis Island in New York (above) • Asian immigrants went through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay • About 20% were detained a day or more before being inspected • Only about 2% were denied entry

7. Inspection • To gain admittance to the country, immigrants had to: • Pass a physical examination by a doctor • Meet with a government inspector who checked to see that the immigrants had the legal requirements to enter the US • No criminal record, prove one could work, had to have some money • From 1892 to 1924, an estimated 17 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island • Between 1910 to 1940, about 50,000 Chinese immigrants passed through Angel Island

8. Inspection Station

9. Dormitory for those who were detained

10. Find Your family members • Ellis Island • http://www.ellisisland.org/default.asp

11. Retaining their culture • Many immigrants resisted assimilation: • Lived in neighborhoods with others from their native lands • Sent children to religious schools • Read foreign language newspapers • Made the same food and celebrated old world holidays and traditions • Often their children grew up American and abandoned the old traditions

12. Government response to new immigration • Governments did little to help these new immigrants assimilate • The task often fell to political machines and party bosses who traded jobs and services for votes and provided: • jobs for the city • Housing, food, and clothing for new arrivals • Ex. – Boss Tweed in NYC, The Jungle

13. Nativists urge immigration restriction • Nativists were a group that favored Native born Americans over immigrants • Why did Nativists dislike the New Immigrants? • Spoke unfamiliar languages • Weren’t Protestant Christians • High birthrate • Worried they would quickly outnumber Anglo-Saxons • Worried about blood mixing with “inferiors” • Worked for very low wages • Had different political ideas like socialism, communism, and anarchism • Labor leaders eventually support cutting off the flow of immigration • Worked cheap, often used as strikebreakers, language barrier made it hard to unionize them

14. Congress moves to lessen immigration • 1882 – Congress passes a law banning paupers, criminals, and convicts • Laws later ban polygamists, prostitutes, alcoholics, anarchists, and people with contagious diseases • 1917 – a literacy test was enacted after 3 presidents vetoed it