Immigration and
Culture
Unit I
What is an emigrant?
An emigrant leaves their land
to live in another country. The
person is emigrating to
another country
Illustration of Irish emigrants
aboard ship on their way to
America
What is an immigrant?
An immigrant is a person who
once resided somewhere else
and now lives in your country.
Immigrants at Ellis Island
after arriving in America
What is a Refugee?
A refugee is an exile who flees
for safety
Refugees fleeing
Civil War in
Southern Sudan
What is a Displaced Person?
A displaced person is a person who
has been forced to leave his or her
native place
Young Pakistani, Internally
Displaced Person's from
military operations
What is Nativism?
Nativism is a policy of favoring
native inhabitants as opposed
to immigrants
Are Native Americans displaced
people or refugees?
Write a 1 or 2 paragraph response and be ready
to share your ideas with the class
through class discussion.
“The Age of Jackson”
Popular hero of War of 1812
Became President in 1828
Indian Removal Act
• relocated 5 tribes from southeast
• Cherokee
• Choctaw
• Chickasaw
• Seminole
• Creek
“Trail of Tears”
Your group will research one of the 5 Native American groups (Cherokee,
Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, or Creek) displaced by the Indian Removal Act.
Research your assigned group using the following questions as a guide:
1. What was the people’s original culture?
2. Why was the group removed from its original homeland?
3. What did the group experience during the removal?
4. How did the tribe adapt to its new home in Indian territory?
Each group must prepare a brief report to the class based on its research
including illustrations and maps.
Indian Removal Act
Transcontinental Railroad
California
• Gold Rush 1849
• Agriculture
• cut off from rest of the country
Pacific Railroad Act (1862)
• Union Pacific from Omaha west
• Central Pacific from Sacramento east
Completed in 1869 –
Promontory, Utah
Transcontinental Railroad
Irish Immigrants – Union Pacific Railroad workers
Chinese Immigrants – Central Pacific workers
Nativism and Discrimination
Chinese Immigrants
Gold rush in California
Building of Transcontinental RR
Chinese Exclusion Act –
1822
The Act excluded Chinese "skilled
and unskilled laborers and Chinese
employed in mining" from entering
the country for ten years under
penalty of imprisonment and
deportation.
May 10, 1869 – Promontory, Utah
By the end of the 1800’s four more railroads crossed the country
Homestead Act of 1862
• 160 acres of public land free
• had to settle and farm the land for
5 years
• thousands moved west (including immigrants)
Oklahoma Land Rush – 1889
• 2 million acres of Creek & Seminole land
• 50,000 settlers
• 1 year later 260,000 in Oklahoma territory
• 1890- millions of acres of Sioux land in SD
The Second Great Removal
1871- Federal Government Decree:
• All Western Native American Nations must
agree to relocate
• Northern plains Nations were assigned to
western half of present day South Dakota
• Southern plains Nations were assigned to
what is now Oklahoma
• Once placed on the reservation they had to
accept the federal government as guardian
The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887
Ended practice of treating each Indian
nation separately
Native Americans lost two rights:
1. Could no longer negotiate treaties
to protect their lands
2. Could no longer vote on laws
governing their fate
Dawes Act decreed that parcels of land
be given to individuals, not nations
Severalty: a separate and individual
right to possession or ownership
that is not shared with any other
person.
Clear attempt to break down Native American loyalty
to their own nations
Each family was allowed 160 acres (many reformers saw this as a good
thing, compared it to the Emancipation Proclamation)
Left over land was sold to white settlers
Native American children sent to government boarding schools
Effect?
• within 20 years Native Americans retained only 20% of their original
reservation lands
Americanization and Assimilation
Parents often coerced into sending children
“assimilation through total
immersion”
Forced to abandon their Native
American identity
• new haircuts
• European-American style clothes
• new English names
• forbidden to speak their native language
(even with each other)
• required to attend Christian churches
Male Carlisle School Students 1879.
Native American group of Carlisle Indian Industrial School Male and
Female Students
Portrait of Native
Americans from the
Cherokee, Cheyenne,
Choctaw, Comanche,
Iroquois, and Muscogee
tribes in American attire.
Photos dates from 1868
to 1924.
What happens to culture when people are
forced to assimilate?
Write a 1 or 2 paragraph response and be ready
to share your ideas with the class
through class discussion.
What are Push/Pull Factors?
Push Factors: Conditions that drive people to leave their homes
Examples:
Land scarce in home country
Political and/or religious persecution
Revolutions
Poverty
Pull Factors: Conditions that attract people to a new area
Examples:
Promise of freedom (religious and political)
Hope for a new life
Jobs/ Industry
Land
“Streets paved with gold”
Immigration in America
Four Major Eras
1.
2.
3.
4.
Colonial
Mid- 19th Century
Turn of the 20th Century
Post 1965
1. Colonial Period (less than 1 million)
• During the seventeenth century, approximately 175,000 Englishmen
migrated to Colonial America
• Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America
during the 17th and 18th centuries arrived as indentured servants
2. Mid 19th Century
“Old Immigration”
1830 to 1860:
Mostly Irish and German
1860 to 1890:
still mainly Northern Europeans (England,
Germany, Scandinavia)
many came to settle the frontier near growing railroads
Many Americans welcomed these “old immigrants”
as an asset to America as they were:
•
•
•
•
•
•
workers for factories, mines, railroad
farmers for the west
consumers for agricultural and industrial products
men with special abilities and talents
additional manpower for military
easily assimilated in American society
Exception: Irish & Chinese
German Immigrants
• early to mid 19th century fleeing economic hardships
and autocratic government
• “old immigrants”
• better shape economically than Irish – arrived with
some resources
• pushed out to the mid-west and set up model farms
prospered quickly
• strong supporters of public schools
Keep immigrants out!
Immigrants were blamed for such things as:
• the corruption of city government
• low industrial wages
• degradation of life in the cities
Reading Quiz
(10 points)
1. What group of people did the Know-Nothing Party regard as
superstitious, ignorant, and dominated by Rome?
2. What event in the 1860’s caused the nativist movement to virtually
disappear for a few years?
3. In the late 1800’s, nativists claimed that people from which
sections ( regions) of Europe lacked intelligence and motivation?
4. A resurgence of which organization in the 1920’s led to a renewal
of anti-Catholicism and anti-Semitism?
5. Why did labor unions fight for restrictions on immigration?
Nativism and Discrimination
Irish Immigrants
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
people were Ireland’s greatest export
poor, uneducated
Roman Catholic (mistrusted)
faced discrimination
stayed in Eastern cities (too poor to go west)
“The Know-Nothings” – smear campaign
stuck together became politically powerful
The New York Times want ad 1854
An Irish thug and a Catholic priest carve up the Democratic Party goose that laid
the golden eggs.
Thomas Nast – Harper’s Weekly
Caption: "Uncle Sam's Lodging House"
Source: Puck
Date: June 7, 1882
'Look here, you, everybody else is quiet and peaceable, and you're all the
time a-kicking up a row!'"
"the raw Irishman in America is a nuisance, his son a curse.
They never assimilate; the second generation simply shows
an intensification of all the bad qualities of the first. . . .They
are a burden and a misery to this country." Further, Irish
had corrupted our politics, lowered the standards of domestic
service, and waged an "imbecilic and indecent war" against
the English government. The time had come to clear the
Irishman from Uncle Sam's lodging house, where all races
and nationalities, except the Irish, got along with each other!
Puck
June 7, 1882
Push Factors:
Irish: no self rule and potato famine
Germans: after revolution of 1848
Italians and Greeks: fled poverty
Austrians and Russians: fled heavy
taxation and military service
Jews: fled persecution
3. Turn of the
th
20
Century
“New Immigration”
1890 to 1920
mostly southern and eastern Europeans: Italy, Greece,
Austria-Hungary, Russia, Poland
•
•
•
•
•
came in much larger numbers than earlier immigrants
largely poor and illiterate – fleeing European cities
“birds of passage” – stayed short time, worked, and returned
settled mainly in cities near factories NOT frontier
had more difficulty assimilating as they were different from
Americans – tried to preserve “Old Country” traditions
• largely Roman Catholic or Jewish
• native-born Americans feared immigrants would try to “establish”
the Catholic church at the expense of Protestantism
Opposition to “New Immigrants”
Reasons to Oppose the New Immigrants:
• with the frontier closed, there was no land for them
• new immigrants competed for jobs that should belong to Americans
• they were harder to “Americanize” and had little education
• they created ghettos and felt no need to learn American ways
• they were “inferior” to Old Immigrants (Nordic Supremacy)
New York Harbor
Statue of Liberty and Ellis
Island
Point of entry for millions of
European immigrants
Ellis Island
New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of
immigrants to the United States
nation's busiest
immigration station
from 1892 to 1954
12 million immigrants
Ellis Island
• Today, over 100 million Americans - one third of the population – can trace their
ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America at Ellis Island
• Peak year at Ellis Island was 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed
• All-time daily high occurred on April 17, 1907, when 11,747 immigrants arrived
• Those immigrants who were approved spent from two to five hours at Ellis Island
• Arrivals were asked 29 questions including name, occupation, and the amount of
money carried
• Those with visible health problems or diseases were sent home or held in the
island's hospital facilities for long periods of time
• Some unskilled workers were rejected because they were considered "likely
to become a public charge."
Ellis Island
"The Island of Tears" or "Heartbreak Island"
Denied admission to the U.S. and sent back to their countries of
origin for reasons such as:
- having
a chronic contagious disease
- criminal background
- insanity
“Old vs. New Immigrants”
Immigrant Groups – link to immigration by country of origin
Research and answer the following questions dealing with your
assigned immigrant group
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
During what time period (years) did the greatest number of people come to America?
What were the push/pull factors that led to their leaving home and coming to America?
Where did they settle?
What types of jobs did they hold after coming to America?
What was the reaction of Americans to their arrival?
What effect did their religion have on their assimilation into American life?
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAESpeakS.htm
Country
Germany
Ireland
Britain
Italy
Russia
Austria-Hungary
Denmark
Finland
Norway
Sweden
France
Greece
Portugal
Turkey
Holland
Peak Year
European Immigration 1820-1920
Country
Total
Germany
5,500,000
Ireland
4,400,000
Italy
4,190,000
Austria-Hungary
3,700,000
Russia
3,250,000
England
2,500,000
Sweden
1,000,000
Norway
730,000
Scotland
570,000
France
530,000
Greece
350,000
Turkey
320,000
Denmark
300,000
Switzerland
258,000
Portugal
210.000
Holland
200,000
Belgium
140,000
Spain
130,000
Rumania
80,000
Wales
75,000
Bulgaria
60,000
Immigration and Illiteracy
Year of Arrival in the United States
Unable to read or write in any
language
1896
83,196
1897
44,580
1898
44,773
1899
61,468
1900
95,673
1901
120,645
1902
165,105
1903
189,008
1904
172,856
1905
239,091
1906
269,823
1907
343,402
Chapter 11
Postwar Turmoil
Early 1880’s
Welcome To All
1890’s
The Red Scare
Anti Communist panic that swept
the US in 1919 and 1920
Two small Communist parties had
formed in the US by 1919
( 1/10 of 1% of population)
Fear that a Communist revolution like
in Russia might happen here
During WWI the Germans were hated,
after the war hatred spread to anyone
born in another country
Sacco and Vanzetti
Italian immigrants
Radicals who advocated a political
and social revolution, anarchism
- restraint of one person by
another is evil
- do not recognize the authority of
any government
Convicted of robbery and murder of
shoe factory guard and paymaster
Many people thought they were
“railroaded” due to their political
beliefs
A Climate of Fear
A. Mitchell Palmer
President Wilson’s attorney general
Worried about the Bolshevik theory that
promoted violent revolution
June 2, 1919
- bombs explodes in 8 cities across US
- one in front of Palmer’s home in DC
- evidence the bomber was Italian
immigrant and anarchist
Within the Justice Dep’t, he started the
General Intelligence Division
- investigate domestic radical activities
The Palmer Raids
Series of raids targeting suspected anarchists and immigrants who
were considered to be a “threat” to America
November, 1919 – raids on the
Union of Russian Workers in 12 cities
December, 1919 – 249 aliens were
deported to Russia, “The Soviet Ark”
- most not terrorists or
criminals but only favored
nonviolent radical causes
January, 1920 - more than 4,000
people (many US citizens) arrested
in 33 major cities in one night
- many were denied legal
council, food, water, heat
bathroom facilities
The Palmer Raids
Some critics challenged the raids calling them unAmerican
American public was generally supportive
By summer of 1920, the Red Scare seemed to
be over
Raids and deportations served to demoralize
American radicals
Businesses had broken a rash of strikes
Bolshevism had failed to spread beyond Russia
Labor Unrest
In the middle of the Red Scare
Outbreak of strikes
Brought threat of revolution uncomfortably close to home
Coal Strike of 1919
Lasted for 1 month in the late fall
Threatened to paralyze country
Needed coal to heat homes and to
run factories
394,000 coalminers were given a
presidential order to go back to work
Miners won none of their demands
and returned to the same working
conditions
The Seattle General Strike
Seattle General Strike - 1919
Started with striking workers
in shipyards
Led to other unions within the
city striking in sympathy
Domino effect – before long it
became a city-wide strike
affecting most unionized workers
“ There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody,
anywhere, anytime.”
Calvin Coolidge
Closing the Doors
Red Scare, Palmer Raids echoed
in mainstream America
Quota system in 1921
3% of number of people in the U.S. from
that country according to 1910 census
National Origins Act, 1924 – excluded
Asians altogether and reduced percentage
to 2%
By 1930’s immigration slowed to a
trickle
The Great Migration
Between 1916 and 1920, half a million
African Americans left the South for
new jobs in the North
Many were WWI veterans who
resented discrimination they
experienced during the war
Began to seek better opportunities in
the North
Chicago Defender – newspaper that
gave blacks information about living
conditions and jobs in the North
Better Pay for African Americans
Between 1910 and 1930 African American
populations in northern cities swelled
Chicago: from 44,000 to 235,000
Cleveland: from 8,500 to 68,000
Many Northern whites reacted
violently to the Great Migration
The Great Migration
Racial Unrest
In 1917, race riots in 26 Northern cities
1919 race riot in Washington DC
Southern blacks were competing with
whites in the North for jobs
Newspaper accounts of rumored black
violence fueled the flames
-200 sailors and marines beat blacks
-exchanged gunfire
-Wilson called in federal troops
-4 killed, 11 wounded
-300 people arrested
-Marcus Garvey
The Ku Klux Klan
The Klan made a strong resurgence in
the 1920’s in all parts of the country with
attacks against Blacks, Jews, Catholics,
immigrants
Goal? guard against U.S. becoming “impure”
Became strong in northern cities such as
Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Indianapolis
where many African Americans had
recently migrated
THE DUST BOWL
• A severe drought gripped the
Great Plains in the early
1930s
• Wind scattered the topsoil,
exposing sand and grit
• The resulting dust traveled
hundreds of miles
• One storm in 1934 picked up
millions of tons of dust from
the Plains an carried it to the
East Coast
Kansas Farmer, 1933
Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas - 1934
Storm approaching Elkhart, Kansas in
1937
Dust buried cars and wagons in South Dakota in 1936
Photographer Dorothea Lange captures a family headed
west to escape the dust storms
HARDEST HIT REGIONS
• Kansas, Oklahoma,
Texas, New Mexico, and
Colorado were the
hardest hit regions
during the Dust Bowl
• Many farmers migrated
to California and other
Pacific Coast states
• Became known as
Oakies
Boy covers his mouth to avoid dust, 1935
RURAL LIFE DURING THE
DEPRESSION
Between 1929-1932 almost ½ million
farmers lost their land
• While the Depression was
difficult for everyone,
farmers did have one
advantage; they could grow
food for their families
• Thousands of farmers,
however, lost their land
• Many turned to tenant
farming and barely scraped
out a living
On The Farms
• due to the many foreclosures banks
would auction off many farm properties
• farmers often staged Penny Auctions
to save their neighbor’s farms
• neighbors would bid a couple of dollars
for a property and return it to the
original owners
• would intimidate outside buyers from
bidding
Tenant Farmers
Mostly lived in South and
didn’t own the land
As Depression lingered the
government paid farmers
to let their land go unfarmed
This reduced surplus crops,
raised demand and prices
Many tenant farmers were
thrown off the land where
they had lived and worked
their entire lives
Internment of Japanese Americans
During WWII
More than 100,000 Japanese –
Americans moved from their homes
to relocation camps
February, 1942 – Government moved
all Japanese-Americans to camps in
western states
Forced to sell property and possessions
Stark living conditions in military barracks
Supreme Court supported the plan
saying it did not violate civil rights
Later ruled couldn’t be held once their
loyalty was established – camps were
being dismantled by then
Hispanic Americans
Americans who have come from
or descended from people who
have come from Spanish speaking
lands
Fastest growing group in the country
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•
•
•
3 million in 1960
15 million in 1980
27 million in 1995
44 million today
Hispanic Americans
Five Major Groups:
Mexican Americans
Puerto Rican Americans
Cuban Americans
Those from Central America
Those from South America
Issues?
Lack of political representation
due to Hispanic diversity
Mexican Americans
More than 1 million fled following
Mexico’s 1910 Revolution
Others trace ancestry to Mexican
War 1840’s
Many maintained ties with relatives in
Mexico, moved back and forth
Bracero program: farm workers with
temporary papers started in WWII
(until 1965)
Undocumented immigrants – people
who lack legal papers
Exploitation/Fear of deportation
Puerto Ricans
Since Puerto Rico is a possession
of the U.S., Puerto Ricans may
enter this country as citizens
Large numbers moved to the
U.S. in the years following WWII
throughout the 1960’s &70’s
Large population in cities,
particularly New York City
Cuban Americans
Many arrived after Fidel Castro
overthrew the government in
1959
Many more following the Cuban
Missile Crisis in 1962
Second migration between
1965 and 1970
Large numbers settled in Miami
as well as large cities such as
New York
Many faced few problems establishing
themselves, left for political (not
economic reasons)