IMMIGRATION IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURYWe’re coming to America!

OLD IMMIGRANTS• From the 1850s – 1870s, more than 2 million people

immigrated to America• 1880s – more than 5 million came• Up to the 1880s, most immigrants:

• Came from the British Isles and Western Europe (Germany, Scandinavia)

• Protestant Christians (except for Irish Catholics)• High literacy rates• Accustomed to a from of representative government

NEW IMMIGRANTS• By 1890, the flow of immigration changed:

• Southern and eastern Europe (Italians, Slavs, Greeks, Poles, Russians)

• Orthodox Christians or Jews• Native countries had little or no tradition of

representative democracy• Largely illiterate and impoverished• Chose factory work in cities to farms

WHY DID NEW IMMIGRANTS COME?

• Out of room in Europe (massive population growth)• America was seen as the land of opportunity• No military conscription• No religious persecution• Wealthy industrialists recruited workers• Persecution in Europe

• ex. Pogroms by the Russian government against Jews

JOURNEY TO AMERICA• Virtually all immigrants up to the 20th Century

traveled by boat• Length of journey

• Across the Atlantic – about 1 week• Across the Pacific – about 3 weeks

• Most immigrants traveled in steerage

• Rarely allowed on deck• Louse-infested bunks• Shared toilets• Disease spread quickly

ELLIS ISLAND• First stop: inspection stations • European immigrants went through Ellis Island in New York (above)• Asian immigrants went through Angel Island in San

Francisco Bay• About 20% were detained a day or more before being

inspected• Only about 2% were denied entry

INSPECTION• To gain admittance to the country, immigrants had

to:• Pass a physical examination by a doctor• Meet with a government inspector who checked to see

that the immigrants had the legal requirements to enter the US• No criminal record, prove one could work, had to have

some money• From 1892 to 1924, an estimated 17 million

immigrants passed through Ellis Island• Between 1910 to 1940, about 50,000 Chinese

immigrants passed through Angel Island

INSPECTION STATION

DORMITORY FOR THOSE WHO WERE DETAINED

FIND YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS

• Ellis Island• http://www.ellisisland.org/default.asp

RETAINING THEIR CULTURE

• Many immigrants resisted assimilation:• Lived in neighborhoods with others from their native

lands• Sent children to religious schools• Read foreign language newspapers• Made the same food and celebrated old world holidays

and traditions• Often their children grew up American and abandoned

the old traditions

GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO NEW IMMIGRATION

• Governments did little to help these new immigrants assimilate

• The task often fell to political machines and party bosses who traded jobs and services for votes and provided:• jobs for the city• Housing, food, and clothing for new arrivals• Ex. – Boss Tweed in NYC, The Jungle

NATIVISTS URGE IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION

• Nativists were a group that favored Native born Americans over immigrants

• Why did Nativists dislike the New Immigrants?• Spoke unfamiliar languages• Weren’t Protestant Christians• High birthrate• Worried they would quickly outnumber Anglo-Saxons• Worried about blood mixing with “inferiors”• Worked for very low wages• Had different political ideas like socialism, communism, and

anarchism• Labor leaders eventually support cutting off the flow of

immigration• Worked cheap, often used as strikebreakers, language

barrier made it hard to unionize them

CONGRESS MOVES TO LESSEN IMMIGRATION

• 1882 – Congress passes a law banning paupers, criminals, and convicts

• Laws later ban polygamists, prostitutes, alcoholics, anarchists, and people with contagious diseases

• 1917 – a literacy test was enacted after 3 presidents vetoed it