Immigration

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Immigration

• US History

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Nation of Immigrants

• Always has been a nation of immigrants
• After Civil War, industrialization brought even
  more immigrants.
• 1865-1900 13.5 million people from abroad.
• 1920s immigration slows down.

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Three Waves

• Colonial Immigration (to 1776)
• Old Immigration (1776-1850)
• New Immigration (1850-1924)

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Colonial Immigration

• From arrival of Europeans to Declaration of
  Independence.
• In North America, mostly English, but also
  Scotch-Irish, German, Swedish, Dutch.
• Many Africans.
• Why?
• Europeans political and religious freedom
  economic improvement.
• Africans forced

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Old Immigration

• 1776-1850
• From Northern and Western Europe Ireland,
  Germany, Scandinavia
• Why?
• Irish Potato famine in late 1840s.
• Germans wars and failed revolution in 1848.
• In general, economic opportunity.

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Old Immigration

• Areas of Settlement
• Irish Northeastern cities (5-point area of NYC)
• Germans and Scandinavians Some cities mostly
  farms in west

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Old Immigration

• Problems Old Immigrants faced
• Irish and German Catholics experienced resentment
  from Protestant establishment.
• Also fear of economic competition.

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New Immigration

• 1850-1924
• Shift in immigration to southern and eastern
  Europe (Italy, Russia, Poland, Greece, Armenians)
  as well as Asia (Japan, China)
• Why?
• Again economic opportunity, political freedom.
• Religious freedom (Jews in Russia faced pogroms)

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New Immigration

• Most new immigrants settled in cities
• Industrial centers, ports
• Concentrated in ghettos
• Urban area, usually poor, dominated by a single
  ethnic group.
• In NYC Lower East Side - Jewish Little
  Italy Chinatown

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New Immigration

• Chinese Immigration to US
• China overcrowded food shortages Taiping
  Rebellion (1850)
• US Gold Rush Central Pacific RR advertised for
  workers on transcontinental RR

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New Immigration

• Japanese Immigration
• Between 1900-1910
• Rapid industrialization disrupted Japanese
  economy Japanese looked to US for a start over
• 1910 Angel Island in SF Bay
• Immigrants waited for weeks or months for
  immigration hearings.

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Reaction to Immigration

• Nativism belief that native-born Americans were
  superior to immigrants.
• 1880s-90s Nativism emerged even among descendants
  of Old Immigrants.
• Believed that immigrant languages, religions and
  traditions impacted American society negatively.
• Nativist workers feared low wages and loss of
  jobs.
• Much discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes.

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Reaction to Immigration

• Nativist legislation!
• 1850s Know-Nothing Party tried to limit voting
  strength of immigrants to keep Catholics out of
  office to require lengthy residence before
  citizenship.
• Unsuccessful party died out in late 1850s.

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Reaction to Immigration

• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
• Using Wilhelm IIs phrase Yellow Peril
• Common in newspapers owned by William Randolph
  Hearst on West Coast
• California barred Chinese from owning property or
  working in certain jobs.
• Congress followed suit by limiting Chinese
  immigration.

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Reaction to Immigration

• Gentlemans Agreement (1907)
• Pres. Theodore Roosevelt reached informal
  agreement with Japan to halt emigration of its
  people to US.

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Reaction to Immigration

• Literacy Tests (1917)
• Congress barred immigrants who could not read or
  write in their own language.

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Reaction to Immigration

• Emergency Quota Act (1921)
• Limited number of immigrants to US each year to
  350,000.
• National Origins Quota Act (1924)
• Further reduced immigration.
• Favored immigrants from northern and western
  Europe.
• National Origins Act (1929)
• Limited number to 150,000 per year.

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Immigrants and American Society

• Sociological theories on absorption of immigrants
  into a society
• Melting Pot
• people from various cultures meet in a place and
  form a new culture. Difficult to distinguish
  contributions of any one culture.

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Immigrants andAmerican Society

• Assimilation
• Immigrants become like the established American
  culture they give up languages and customs for
  the dominant society.
• Immigrants from Africa, Asia, Caribbean who
  looked least like nativists had hardest time
  assimilating.

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Immigrants andAmerican Society

• Pluralism (salad bowl or mosaic)
• No group really loses its distinctive
  characteristics.
• People live side by side with each group
  contributing in its own way.