THE NEW IMMIGRANTS
IMMIGRATION
• Europeans
• 20 million between 1870 and 1920
• Rising population (1800-1900 European population doubled)
• Not enough farm land and much competition in factories
• Chinese and Japanese
• 1851-1883 300,000 Chinese arrived on the west coast
• First to seek gold, then to build railways, then farming
• 1884 Japanese workers begin to emigrate to Hawaii
• Hawaii annexed in 1898 results in Japanese immigration to the west coast
• By 1920 more than 200,000 Japanese lived on west coast
IMMIGRATION
• Ellis Island
• Where immigrants would be inspected and let into U.S.
• Physical examination, serious disease was sent home, document
checks, made sure they could work and had money
• 17 million passed through 1892-1924
• Angel Island
• Where Asian immigrants passed through to get into America
• Harsh questioning, long detention
• Mexico
• Mexicans came after 1902 National Reclamation Act which
encouraged arid farming in south
• 1910 political upheavals drove many to U.S. as well
IMMIGRATION
RESPONSE
• Immigration Restrictions
• Americans viewed America as a melting pot (abandon old
ways to become American)
• Immigrants however did not want o give up old way of life
• The Rise of Nativism
• Nativism: favoritism toward native born Americans
• many believed that English/Anglo-Saxon were the superior
immigrants and others were “down-trodden”
• American Protective Association 1887 launched anti-Catholic
attacks
• Refusal to admit Jews to colleges and clubs was also common
• 1897 Congress passed a literacy test for immigrants
RESPONSE
• Anti-Asian Sentiment
• Native born workers feared their job would go to Chinese
workers
• Asians would work for less
• 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act
• Chinese were banned from 10 years (students, teachers, merchants,
tourists)
• Congress added another 10 years in 1902
• The Gentleman’s Agreement
• 1906 San Fran local board of education segregated Japanese
children by putting them in separate schools
• Teddy Roosevelt in 1907 passed the Gentleman’s Agreement
stating:
• Japanese students could go to normal school in Japan limited
emigration
RESPONSE
• Emergency Quota Act of 1921:
• Imposes national/racial quotas for immigration
• using ethnic ratios from 1890 census, when America was more
Northern European
• an attempt to stem immigration from Southern European nations,
but no limits on immigration overall.
• Immigration Act of 1924:
• The Johnson-Reed law builds upon 1921 law
• puts a cap of 164,000 immigrants per year, nearly all from
Northern Europe. National quotas stay in place. (at that time,
immigrants are 13 percent of total U.S. population … same as
today)
RESPONSE