Immigrants Reasons:
1. Lured by promise of better life
2. Escape difficult conditions at home
a. Famine
b. Land Shortages
3. Escape religious/political persecution
4. Jobs supposedly plentiful in America
5. Come to earn money then go back
(Bird of Passage)
- Europe:
Northwest: English, Irish, German, Scandinavian
Southeast: Italian, Russian, and Polish
- Asia:
Chinese and Japanese
- Mexico and Caribbean:
Mexican, Jamaican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican
Traveled by steamship to America
- trip across Atlantic took 1 week
- trip across Pacific took 3 weeks
Traveled in “steerage” (cheapest
accommodations in a ship’s cargo hold)
As for conditions below decks, an agent for
the United States Immigration Commission
described them as follows:
“During the twelve days in the steerage I lived
in…surroundings that offended every sense. Only a
fresh breeze from the sea overcame the sickening
odors. Everything was dirty, sticky, and disagreeable
to the touch. In such conditions, disease and even
death were not uncommon.”
Ellis Island: Atlantic side immigration
station in New York Harbor
-
decided whether to admit or reject immigrants
17 million immigrants passed through
Had to pass a physical health exam
Had to pass a govt. inspector’s test
a. able to work?
b. have some money?
c. never been convicted of a felony?
Angel Island: Pacific side immigration
station in the San Francisco Bay
-
decided whether to admit or reject immigrants
50,000 Chinese enter U.S. (1910-1940)
Had to pass a physical health exam
Had to pass a govt. inspector’s test
(much more harsh and longer decision time)
physical health exam
govt. inspector’s test
Immigrants Faced Challenges:
1. find a place to live
2. find a job
3. understand the language
4. understand the culture
How to Cope?
1. create ethnic communities
Where to live?
Tenement buildings
- Multi-family dwelling in urban areas
- Families shared living space
- Lighting & fresh air were scarce
What conditions like?
- Uncomfortable, Crowed, and Dirty
- In New York, 1,231 people lived in only 120
rooms in one part of the city
- In Chicago in one year, over 60% of newborns
never reached their first birthdays
- Many had no home and slept in “5 cents a
spot rooms” where people paid for a small
space to spend the night
An immigrant
himself, Jacob
Riis was well
known for his
photographs
documenting the
lives of
immigrants & the
urban poor in his
book How the
Other Half Lives
Americans
saw country
as a “Melting
Pot”
Problem:
Many immigrants
do not give up
“old” culture
Outcome: immigrants numbers increased
= anti-immigrant feelings emerge
Nativism: favoritism toward native-born
Americans
1. anti-immigration groups begin to form
- Immigration Restriction League
- American Protective Association
2. demand for immigration restrictions
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act: law passed by
Congress which banned Chinese immigrants
for a period of 10 years (few exceptions)
1897 Congress pass law requiring literacy test
for immigrants (President Cleveland veto's)
1906 San Fransico Board of Ed. Segregate
Japanese school children
Outcome: Gentleman’s Agreement: Japan
will limit immigration if segregation repealed