GROWING IMMIGRATION

1. GROWING IMMIGRATION

2. Where did they come from? • The Americas • Asia • Northern Europe (before the Civil War) • English, Scots, Irish, Germans, Scandinavians

3. Where did they come from? • Southern Europe, Eastern Europe (After the Civil War) • E. European Jews/Southern Italians/Greeks Slavic peoples (Poles, Slovaks, Czechs, Croats, Serbs, Ukrainians, Russians, Armenians)

5. Why did they leave? • Overpopulation • Lack of jobs • Government tyranny • Crop failures • Land shortages • Rising taxes and famine • Escaping religious/political persecution

6. How did they get here? • Steamships made of iron and steel • 2-3 weeks to 1 week by 1900 • Operated on a schedule like railroads • Created “birds of passage”-single male worker who came for a short time, earn money, and return home

7. Steamships • Most immigrants traveled in Steerage (large open area beneath ship’s deck) • Cheap fares • Limited toilet facilities, • no privacy, poor food

10. In 1886 greeted by Statue of Liberty in NY harbor

12. ELLIS ISLAND“Gate to America” or “Golden Door” • 70% of European immigrants arrived in NYC • Processed through within hours or days

13. ELLIS ISLAND“Gate to America” or “Golden Door” • In 1892 an immigration center opened at Ellis Island in NY harbor • Immigrants were given medical check-up and a series of questions

19. Sometimes immigrants were “quarantined” (isolated to prevent the spread of disease) • Some were even deported due to serious diseases

20. Name? • Occupation? • Who paid your fare? • Can you read or write? • How much money do you have? • Have you been to prison or in a poorhouse? • Where are you going? • Do you have a job already?

21. Many immigrants received new names • Buchenroth=Roth • Stefanopoulous= Stevens

22. Angel Island • San Francisco • Horrible conditions • Processed through within weeks or months.

23. Angel Island • Designed to enforce Chinese Exclusion Act • Prohibited immigration of Chinese workers for 10 yrs. • Prevented Chinese living in US from becoming citizens • Thought they were taking jobs of whites

28. Asian Immigrants • Exclusion Act created labor shortages • Hired more workers from Japan, Korea, & Philippines

29. Asian Immigrants • Segregated Asian children in schools - TR ended this in 1906 • Gentlemen’s Agreement – Japan agreed not to allow workers into US. US agreed to let families of Japanese living in US to immigrate

30. Mexican Immigrants • Farmers needed cheap labor • (TX, NM, AZ, CA) • High wages attracted Mexican workers • Treated as inferior, low wages, & segregated schools

31. French Canadian Immigrants • Many were Catholics from Quebec • Settled in New England & Great Lakes • Took jobs in textile mills & logging camps

34. Jobs for Immigrants • Mines, mills, and factories • Friends and relatives helped each other

35. Where did immigrants settle? • Most lived with friends and relatives in established communities • Many stay in port city neighborhoods called Ghettos • Areas dominated by one ethnic or racial group

36. Where did immigrants settle? • Only 2% went to the south

37. Immigrant Ghettos • Filled w/ tenements – low cost apartments, designed to hold many families • Very poor living conditions • Rats, Open Sewers, Disease, & Fire

40. City Growth • Increase city pop. = creation of suburbs • Suburb – residential communities surrounding the cities

41. Rise of Political Bosses • Political Machine – unofficial city org. that kept a party / group in power. • Headed by a single leader / “Boss”

42. Rise of Political Bosses • Why does no one stop the Political boss? • City government grows powerful to provide for people’s (immigrants) needs • Fire protection, transportation, etc • Exchange of favors • Politicians offer jobs, contracts to immigrants for their support (votes) • They helped poor people when gov’t or industry would not

43. Rise of Political Bosses • Most Famous - William “Boss” Tweed • Ran Tammany Hall - Democratic Party in NYC • Brought down by Political Cartoonist – Thomas Nast