Immigration
Objective:
Assess the problems with immigrant
intolerance in America
APK
• What does it mean for a person to be an
immigrant to a country?
• Has anyone within the last 2 generations
(Grandparents) come to the US?
– What was the experiences like?
Are you an immigrant or have you
emigrated?
• Immigrant – a person who comes IN to a new
country for an extended period of time;
possibly making it their new home
• Emigrant – a person who has EXITED their
home country in order to become part of a
new country
CFU:
Does America currently have an immigration of emigration problem?
Many immigrants settled in
communities w/other
immigrants from same
country.
They also formed organizations to
help each other.
Pair Share:
How would a community organization help immigrants?
Hyphenated Americans
• Didn’t fit in so changed who they where
• Chinese-, African-, Italian-, Russian-, Polish• Americans born here disliked the new identity
Pair Share:
How are these people viewed today?
Does the hyphen cause more problems then if we were just Americans?
CFU:
Are they truly Americans?
IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS
• America called a MELTING POT…. Fact that
many cultures & races had blended .
• But, many immigrants refused to give up their
culture….
CFU:
Can America be a
melting pot if people hold
onto their roots?
Some Americans didn’t like so many
immigrants living in the U.S.
• NATIVISM- Obvious preference for nativeborn Americans.
• Nativism gave rise to anti-immigrant groups.
Also led to a demand for immigration
restrictions.
CFU:
Define nativism in your own words?
CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT
1882
• Chinese immigrants worked for low wages.
• Labor groups pressured politicians to restrict
Asian immigration.
• Banned all but a few Chinese immigrants.
• Not lifted until 1943.
Pair Share:
Why do you think that America wanted to limit immigrants?
Does this idea go against the melting pot theory?
CFU:
Which group was limited from coming to the US?
Why did the Nativists oppose new immigration?
Although immigrant workers were often the *backs* that this country was built on (during the
Second Industrial Revolution), many Americans saw them as a threat.
They:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
practiced different religions
spoke different languages
engaged in criminal action
spread radical political ideas
worked cheaply which lowered everyone’s wages
Pair Share:
Why would these cause
Americans to question
new immigrants?
a.
b.
All in all, the immigrants were a great addition to America because:
industrialization accomplishments would have been impossible
without their hard work
their cultures brought new dimensions to American life that
(ultimately) resulted in a stronger society.
CFU:
Did the immigrants have
a positive effect on the US?
REACTION AGAINST
IMMIGRATION
• Nativism:An opposition in immigration which originated in the
U.S. politics with roots in the country’s historic role as a melting
pot.
• Know-Nothing Party:A Nativist American Political movement of
the 1850’s.It was empowered by popular fears that the country
was being overwhelmed by Irish Catholic Immigrants.
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 ( Yellow Peril):A U.S federal law
passed on May 6, 1882. Those revisions allowed the U.S. to
suspend immigration.
• National Origins Act(1924,1929):A discrimetory U.S.
immigration law passed in 1924. It was designed to cutail
immigration from new source countries such as Russia, Poland,
and Italy by allocating them small quotas.
THEORIES OF IMMIGRATION
• “Melting Pot” Theory: It’s an analogy for the way in which
homogeneous societies develop,in which the ingredients in the pot
(people of different cultures, races and religions) are combined so as to
develop a multi-ethnic society.
• Assimilation:The process where by a minority group gradually adopts
the customs and the attitudes of the prevailing culture.
• “Salad Bowl” Theory: Newly arrived immigrants don’t lose their aspects
but characteristics of each culture are still identifiable within the larger
American society much like the ingredients in a salad are still
identifiable, yet contribute to overall make up of the salad bowl.
Closure