Immigrants
Time period
1800-1860
Origins
1820-1840
1840-1860
English Irish(Southern Ireland, Irish Catholics) North European German others
18%
43%
11%
27%
1%
16%
40%
5%
27%
12%
Reasons for Immigration
-German dislocation of industrial revolution and liberal revolution 1848
-Irish looked to escape oppressive English rule and Potato Famine 1845-1849
Places of Immigration
-Most migration took place in the Northeast cities, mainly for the Irish.
-Germans migrated to Northwest.
Occupations
-Irish; mainly unskilled labor-construction gangs (turnpikes, railroads, canals)
-German; farmers, and business in Northwest
Socio-economical Conditions
-Most Germans immigrants were single men or family groups. They have money to migrate to the Northwest and buy
land and create a business
-Irish immigrants mostly young single women. They have no money for land or business. lived impoverished
conditions “shanty Irish”
Important Fact and Statistics
-Immigration in the 1830’s nine fold the number in the 1820’s
-Immigration continue to increase in the forty years before the civil war
-In 1840’s 430,000 immigrants entered the United States
-In 1850 immigrant numbers grew nearly 2 million
-Reduced transportation cost and increasing economic opportunities, and deteriorating economic conditions in
Europe, helped stimulate Immigration boom.
-Few immigrants settled in the south, only 500,000 lived in the slave states. In 1860 ⅓ lived in Missouri mainly St.
Louis
-Immigrant faced discrimination (specially Irish Catholics) from Nativist groups as Native American party and Know
Nothings
By Daniel A. Martinez & Cristian LunaPereyra
Immigrants
Time Period
1860-1940
Origins
1870-1900
Chinese, Scandinavians, Germans , Irish , Russian, Czechs, Latin American, Others
Reasons for Immigration
-California Gold Rush (1848-1855) and Transcontinental Railroad employment
-Migrants from the east were attracted to the west by gold and silver deposits, short grass pastures for cattle and
sheep, and ultimately the sod of the plains and the meadowlands of the mountains.
-The completion of the great transcontinental railroad line in 1869 encouraged settlement in the far west
-Government assistance for settlement in the west with: the Homestead Act of 1862, Timber Culture Act of 1873, The
Desert Land Act of 1877 and Timber and Stone Act of 1878.
Places of Immigration
-Chinese immigrants settled mostly in West, more particularly in California (San Francisco)
-2 million of Europeans (Scandinavians, Germans, Irish, Russians, Czechs, and others) established AngloAmerican settlements in the East
Occupation
-Chinese: Merchants, skilled artisans, fishermen, hotel and restaurant owners. Many Chinese found work building the
Transcontinental railroad (90% of central pacific labor force)
-Some owned Laundromats. Virtually all Chinese women who made the journey, did so sold into prostitution (1880
nearly half Chinese women in California were prostitutes)
-European: Most Europeans were farmers, and railroad workers
socio-economical conditions
-Racism and discrimination especially anti-Chinese sentiment made it difficult for immigrants to advance in the West
Coast economically
-The Homestead Act of 1862 and other government assistance permitted settlers to buy plots of 160 acres for a small
fee if they occupied the land they purchased for 5 years and improved it, and including other benefits and deals.
facts and statistics
-Chinese immigrants were known as “Coolies”
-Anti-coolie clubs emerged in the 1860s and 1870s to ban on employing Chinese and organized boycotts of products
made with Chinese labor
-About ⅓ of the western miners in the 1860s were Chinese immigrants
-Native-Born Americans resented the competition and hostility to foreigners took the form of a Miner’s Tax of $20 a
month on all foreign-born miners
-Political pressure from western states moved Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which prohibited
Chinese laborers from entering the U.S.
-This was the first law passed by Congress to ever restrict immigrants from entering the nation based on their race
and nationality.
-The Chinese Exclusion Act affected the population which declined more than 40% in the 40 years after its passage
- By 1900, nearly half the Chinese population of California lived in urban areas, which then became known as
“Chinatowns”
Immigrants
Time Period
1920-Present
Origins
1920-1960
Asian 4% Eastern Central European 11% Western Southern European 15 % British 8% Italian 9% German 15%
Latin American 35% Others 3%
1995-2003
Latin American 53% Asian 25 % European 14% other 8%
Present
most significant Latinos and Asians, but others constitute Africans, Russian, Middle East, and Eastern Europe
Reasons for Immigration
-Latin American immigrants enormous increase due to exertion from quota system
-available jobs in agriculture and industry during WWII due to labor shortage during war.
-American and Mexican Government agreed in 1942 to Braceros Program (Contract Laborers)
-Growth of Agriculture in far west and southwest recruiting of Hispanic Workers
-Economic crisis in Europe after second world war led to European migration
-Digital Revolution and growth of pacific coast technology corporations, led to immigration of foreign professionals, to
occupy science and technology careers and research.
-1965 immigration reform act-led to immigration increased by eliminating national origins as criterion for admission
-starting in 1959 Cuban Revolution refugees.
Places of Immigration
-Mexican American major minority group outnumbering African Americans. 90 % lived and work in cities in 1960’s,
mainly the south west and pacific coast
-Latin American spread throughout east Coast and south west
-Major Asian immigrant population centered on the west coast
-Europeans concentrated in areas of white collar jobs and professional development, such as pacific coast and east
coast
-Large Cuban refugees immigration during 1960’s in south Florida
-Large Puerto Rican Immigration to major cities such as New York and Chicago
Occupation
-Mexican Americans as war workers, and Braceros. In the late 19 century Latin American mainly perform unskilled
labor and blue collar jobs
-Latin American mainly blue collar and unskilled labor jobs
-European migrants, blue collar and white collar jobs. (Professionals occupation of scientific or technological research
and development careers in late 20th century until today)
Facts and Statistics
-Immigration associated with radicalism, old stock Americans( Nativist and Ku Klux Klan) oppression and repression
of immigrants
-National Origins Act of 1924 , strengthened exclusion of 1921 and banned immigration from east Asia (this affected
mainly the Japanese)
-Immigration official seldom permitted even half that of 150,000 immigrant allowed by the quota system per year to
enter the U.S
-most important Latino Group in the United States are Mexican Americans
-In1960, 3 million Latinos in U.S by 1970 9 million, and by 2006 44 million
-Major increase of illegal immigration over the years
-Cuban dissidents arriving to Florida called Marielitos 1980
-Cesar Chavez and Mexican- American United Farm Workers union
-2006 highest number of foreign-born residents in American History, 35 million.