ImmigrationChapter 6, Section 1
Why do people migrate (leave)
• Government is oppressive • Freeland • Food• Religious persecutions• Forced military service • Criminal • Jobs/business
Old Immigrants
• Immigrants who arrived before 1890 and typically came from northern and western Europe.
New Immigration
• New Immigration – Immigrants who arrived after 1890 and typically came from Italy, Greece, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Serbia.
• More than 70% of the New Immigrates were men.
Immigrants European Immigrants
• 14 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean
• Miserable conditions on the boat (steerage)
• Steerage was the cheapest accommodations.
• Most arrived at Ellis Island, NY• 12 Million immigrants passed
through Ellis Island from 1892 to 1954.
• You could be sent back to Europe if you had physical health problems.
Chinese Immigrants • Chinese people
immigrated due to famine, unemployment, and poverty.
• Also the Taipei Rebellion occurred, which was a very bloody conflict.
• Chinese immigrants worked as laborers, servants or skilled workers.
Other Asian Immigrants
• Japanese people immigrated due to economic problems in Japan.
• Asian immigrants settled mostly in the west and usually arrived in San Francisco at Angel Island.
Angel Island, San Francisco
Ethnic Cities
• In large cities (example – New York City), immigrants made up a large percentage.
• Immigrants lived in neighborhoods that were separated into ethnic groups like:– Little Italy– China Town– Lower East Side (Jewish)
Nativism
Prejudice of Immigrants
• In the late 1800s, anti-immigrant feelings were largely directed against Asians; Jews; and Eastern Europeans
• Nativism – extreme dislike of immigrants by native-born people.
• Did not want people to immigrant because:– Upset the religious balance.– Take jobs away by accepting lower wages.
Religious Differences
• Some native-born Americans feared the influx of Catholic into the mostly Protestant United States.
Prejudice of Immigrants
• Also, many labor unions opposed immigration, arguing that immigrants would work for low wages or accept work as strikebreakers.
• The Workingman's Party of California was organized to fight Chinese immigration.
• To reduce immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe, congress mandated a literacy test for all new immigrants.
Questions
• Do you think the United States should limit immigration?
• Should people coming into the United States already know English?
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