DECENNIAL IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES, 1880-1919
(source: U.S. Bureau of the Census Monograph, no. 7, 1927, pp. 324-25).
1880-1889
Totals
%
5,248,568
1890-1899
%
3,694,295
1900-1909
%
8,202-388
1910-1919
%
6,347,380
NORTHERN
EUROPE
United
Kingdom
810,900
15.5 328,579
8.9
469,578
5.7
371,878
5.8
Ireland
764,061
12.8 405,710
11
344,940
4.2
166,445
2.6
Scandinavia 761,783
12.7 390,729
10.5 488,208
5.9
238,275
3.8
France
48,193
0.9
1.0
0.4
60,335
1.0
German
Empire
1,445,181
27.5 579,072
15.7 328,722
4.0
174,227
2.7
Other
152,604
2.9
2.3
112,433
1.4
101,478
1.6
Poland
42, 910
p.8 107,793
2.9
(na)
(na)
AustriaHungary
314,787
6.0
534,059
14.5 2,001,376
24.4 1,154,727
18.2
Other
(Serbia,
Bulgaria)
-
-
52
.1
.4
.4
Russia
182,698
3.5
450,101
12.7 1,501,301
18.3 1,106,998
17.4
Romania
5,842
.1
6,808
.2
57,322
.7
13,566
.2
Turkey
1,380
.1
3,547
.1
61,856
.8
71,149
1.1
36,616
86,011
67,735
CENTRAL
EUROPE
34,651
27,180
EASTERN
EUROPE
SOUTHERN
1880-1889
EUROPE
1890-1899
1900-1909
1910-1919
Greece
1,807
.1
12,732
.3
145,402
1.8
198,108
3.1
Spain
3,995
.1
6,189
.2
24,818
.3
53,262
.8
Portugal
15,186
.5
6,874
.7
65,154
.8
82,489
1.3
Italy
276,660
5.1
603,761
16.3 1,930,475
23.5 1,229,916
19.4
Other
Europe
1,070
-
145
-
454
-
6,527
.1
Turkey in
Asia
1,098
-
23,963
.6
66,143
.8
89,568
1.4
Other
68,763
1.3
33,775
.9
171,837
2.1
109,019
1.7
British
North
America
492,865
9.4
3,098
.1
123,650
1.5
708,715
11.2
Mexico
2,405
-
734
-
31,188
.4
185,334
2.9
West Indies
27,323
.5
31,480
.9
100,960
1.2
120,860
1.9
Central/South
America
2,233
-
2,038
.1
22,011
.3
55,630
.9
Australia
7,271
.1
16,023
.4
40,943
.5
10,414
.2
ASIA
AMERICA
FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT IMMIGRANT AMERICA
AMERICAN IMMIGRATION 1870-1920:
FROM A HETEROGENEOUS TO A MULTICULTURAL
SOCIETY
From 1870 to 1920, nearly 25 million immigrants came to the U.S.From 1900 to 1920, southeastern Europe provided
3,522,000 immigrants. Italy alone accounted for 3,156,000 immigrants, while Russia and Poland supplied 2,519, 000
people. There were more immigrants from Japan (213,000) and Mexico (270,000) than from France (136,000), the
Netherlands (167,000) and Switzerland (158,000). Canada (921,000) supplied more immigrants than England
(867,000).
Ellis Island, just outside New York City, was the single largest receiving station for immigrants around the turn of
the century.
From 1908 to 1914, officials recorded about 6,800,000 arrivals and about 2,000,000 departures.
92% of people arriving in the port of New York in 1910 declared that they were joining friends or relatives. From
1897 to 1902, Italian immigrants alone sent home about 100 million dollars in remittances.
Some ninety percent of immigrants settled in the North or West. Only a small percentage trickled into the South.
In 1910 foreign-born men and women comprised about 53% of the national industrial labor force. In 1910 75% of
the populations of New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Boston were made up of immigrants and their
children. In 1916 in San Francisco, 75% of the population regarded a foreign language as a primary tongue.
The National Origins Act of 1924 set a quota of about 150,000 total immigrants a year disproportionately
distributed to England and Northern Europe, with few slots allotted to southern and Eastern Europe (and none for
Asians). This law was the basis of U.S. immigration policy until 1965.
In the 1860s and 1870s the Chinese, mostly men, made up some 10-15% of the population of many western states.
After the Chinese Exclusion Acts and the filling of the West by pioneers, that percentage dropped rapidly. Still, the
Chinese population in the country continued to grow, mostly because of high birth rates and Chinese immigration
from Canada.
In 1882 about 30,000 Chinese immigrants entered the country, bringing the total to 150,000. In that year, Congress
passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring most Chinese immigration to the U.S. for ten years. The law was
subsequently renewed and made "permanent" in the early twentieth century.
In 1924 Congress excluded further Japanese immigration to the U.S.
In 1917 Congress passed a Literacy Test Act, requiring immigrants to be literate in some language.
SIGNIFICANT DATES
1882: First Chinese Exclusion Act begins series of acts designed to keep out Asian immigrants
1880-1920: greatest period of immigration in American history prior to 1965
1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire calls attention to working conditions for immigrants
1917: Espionage Act
1918: Madison Grant's The Passing of the Great Race articulates "nativist" and racist fears
1919: Abrams V. U.S. court case, upholding condition of immigrant who had spoken out
against World War One--but with famous dissent from Oliver Wendell Holmes
1924: National Origins Act