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Immigration
The
changing
face of
America.
"Give me your tired,
your poor,
Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe
free,
The wretched refuse
of your teeming
shore.
Send these, the
homeless,
tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside
the golden door.”
There were many
reasons for coming
to America.
• People came to
escape religious
persecution, they
came for political
freedom, they
came to find jobs,
and they came so
that they could
own their own
farms.
People came to America and settled
in the cities of the Northeast
If you came
from
Europe,
the main
point of
entry was
through
New York
City
Ellis Island
Most of the
immigrants who
passed through Ellis
Island were poor.
They crammed by
the thousands
aboard steamships
that took weeks to
cross the Atlantic
Ocean. Most spent
all the money they
had just to ride in
third class — called
steerage.
Immigrants
entered the main
building through
its ground floor
baggage room.
They left their
trunks, suitcases
and baskets here
until they were
finished.
The first test the immigrants had to pass
became known as the "six second medical
exam." As the immigrants climbed the stairs
to the Great Hall, doctors stood at the top
and watched. They were looking for anyone
having difficulty coming up the steps.
The main
purpose of
medical exams
was to find
persons with
contagious
diseases or
conditions that
would make
them unable to
work.
If their problem
was curable,
immigrants were
sent to the
island's hospital.
If it was not, the
steamship
company that
brought them
would have to
pay to send them
back.
The Great Hall
The Great Hall
was the large
waiting room of
Ellis Island.
Immigrants
waited here for
their interviews
with legal
inspectors after
finishing their
medical exams.
At best, the
entire process
through Ellis
Island took three
to five hours.
But sometimes
problems came
up, like family
members waiting
for a relative to
be treated in the
hospital ward.
Some families
stayed for days on
Ellis Island, others
for weeks, and
still others for
months.
After passing the medical exams, immigrants
had to prove they could legally come into
America. Inspectors rejected any immigrant
with a criminal record or those suspected of
being indentured servants.
In the money exchange area immigrants
exchanged the money of their homeland for
dollars, and purchased any train tickets they
needed. Laws passed in 1909 required each
immigrant to have at least 20 dollars before
they were allowed to enter America.
Just beyond the
money
exchange was
the exit from
Ellis Island. Staff
members
referred to this
spot as the
kissing post
because of all
the emotional
reunions that
were witnessed
there.
Early immigrants were most often
from Germany and Ireland
The potato
famine had
hit both
countries
and made
emigration
a way to
survive.
Magazines in Germany write
articles about the good life in
America
This one has an
article called
“Take Me
Along”
German immigrants came
with a dream
The Cartoon is
about what a
German
immigrant
thinks his life
will be like in
America and
the harsh
realities of
real life on the
farm
The Irish
immigrants left
a rural lifestyle
in a nation
lacking modern
industry. Many
immigrants
found
themselves
unprepared for
the
industrialized,
urban centers in
the United
States..
Though these
immigrants were
not the poorest
people in Ireland
(the poorest were
unable to raise the
required sum for
steerage passage on
a ship to America),
by American
standards, they
were destitute.
They often had no money beyond the fare for
their passage, and, thus, settled in the ports of
their debarkation. In time, the sum total of
Irish-Americans exceeded the entire population
of Ireland. New York City boasted more
Irishmen than Dublin, Ireland!
Later, immigrants from other parts
of Europe, like the Italians came to
America
"When they got to
America, they learned
three things:
- that the streets were
not paved with gold;
- that the streets were
not paved at all;
- and that they were
expected to pave
them."
Between 1880
and 1920,
four million
Italian
immigrants
crossed the
Atlantic to
the United
States.
These Italians
came in search
of the "American
Dream." They
were seeking a
life that they
could never have
within the
borders of
poverty stricken
Italy.
Originally,
almost all of
the emigrants
from southern
Europe were
men between
the ages of
eighteen and
forty five.
They planned to
remain in the U.S.
for a year or two,
and then return to
Italy with money.
By 1900, more and
more of the
immigrants were
women and
children.
Families came with
the hope of settling
down in the United
States and creating
a new life. The
new immigrants
usually settled into
cities such as New
York City and
Chicago.
Scandinavians – came early 1900’s
Some
Scandinavians
formed
collectively-owned
businesses, or
cooperatives.
Cooperatives had
been well known
in many
Scandinavian
countries.
Finnish American Cooperative Bakery, Brooklyn,
NY
Scandinavian
America came
to be dotted
with
cooperatively
owned farms,
dairies, and
stores.
Writer and Danish
immigrant Jacob
Riis led a
journalistic crusade
to expose the
horrific living
conditions of
America's urban
slums, which
included many new
immigrants.
Riis' book How the
Other Half Lives, a
classic of
muckraking
literature, brought
about a great
wave of protest
and led to major
housing reform in
the U.S.
Norway sent 1
million people
between 1820 and
1920. Indeed,
some estimates
suggest that
during the great
immigrations of
the 19th century
Norway lost a
higher proportion
of its people to
the U.S. than any
country other
than Ireland.
Eastern Europeans came to
America
Russian Empire in 1890
By the end of the
19th century, this
vast country
suffered from
overpopulation,
widespread
famines and
political unrest.
Many of the Empire’s
peoples joined the
great worldwide
migration of the last
decades of the
century. Soon the
Empire would be
overthrown in a
socialist revolution,
then torn apart by
years of war.
Three groups to join the exodus were the
Russians, the Poles and the Jewish people of
Eastern Europe. All three groups took different
paths, but their journeys would soon bring them
to America.
The Lower East Side
The capital of Jewish America at the
turn of the century was New York’s
Lower East Side.
This densely
packed district of
tenements,
factories, and
docklands was a
starting point for
recent immigrants,
and hundreds of
thousands of the
new arrivals from
Eastern Europe
settled there on
arrival.
More than onehalf of all
Eastern
European
Jewish
immigrants
worked in
manual
occupations,
predominantly
in the garment
industry.
Jewish family doing piecework in New York tenement, 1912
The Jewish neighborhoods of New York and
Chicago were home to airless sweatshop
factories, where women, teenagers, and
children worked long hours cutting, sewing,
and finishing clothing for pennies per piece.
Boss
Tweed
Political Machine
Leader for
Tammany Hall in
NYC! Controlled
everything, from
building projects,
street cleaning,
elections,
pollution, etc…
Tweed hated
the pictures
being drawn of
him in the
paper… He
didn’t care what
they wrote and
even took pride
in it, but he said
“the people can
see the
pictures!!”
What if you didn’t come from Europe?
California’s
Immigration
Station
We are all familiar with Ellis
Island on the Atlantic coast, but
many do not know of the
existence of Angel Island on the
Pacific coast where the
incoming Asians were received.
Location
of Angel
Island
Japanese "picture brides“ are a
unique feature of Angel Island.
Generally
these "picture
brides" have
never seen
their future
husbands, till
meeting them
at Angel
Island.
These girls are given this curious name
because their marriages are arranged
in Japan by photograph.
The 1908
Gentlemen's
Agreement
between the
U.S. and Japan
restricted
immigration of
laboring men,
but allowed wives.
Men frequently wed
"picture brides"
from their home
villages in
marriages that were
arranged by their
parents.
After an
exchange of
photographs
and family
histories, the
bride would
come to the
United States.
Because the U.S.
government
didn't recognize
the legality of
such weddings
until 1917,
group marriage
ceremonies were
conducted in
immigration
offices.
Issei (first generation) group and the
next generation
The Chinese
experience in
America began
with dreams of
gold, as legends
of instant
wealth in
California lured
hopeful
adventurers
across the
Pacific Ocean.
The railroads made
use of this new pool
of Chinese labor. In
the middle of the
nineteenth century,
the U.S. railroad
companies were
expanding at a
breakneck pace,
straining to span the
continents as
quickly--and
cheaply--as they
could.
Since language
barriers and
racial
discrimination
barred them
from many
trades,
however, they
often launched
new
businesses.
Many of the
shops,
restaurants, and
laundries in the
growing mining
towns of
California were
operated by
Chinese
immigrants.
In the face of a hostile public, and in
response to hard times and legal
exclusion, Chinese immigrants began to
build communities unlike any others in
North America: Chinatowns.
A Chinatown served
as a safe haven and
second home for
Chinese
immigrants, a
place to shop for
familiar food, to
worship in a
traditional temple,
or to catch up on
the news from the
old country.
The door to the Chinese American dream
was finally slammed shut in 1882, when
Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion
Act.
This act was the first significant restriction
on free immigration in U.S. history, and it
excluded Chinese laborers from the
country under penalty of imprisonment
and deportation.
It also made
Chinese
immigrants
permanent
aliens by
excluding them
from U.S.
citizenship.
Long before immigrants
from other nations
arrived on its shores,
Native Americans
called the North
American continent
their home. Today, the
majority of Americans
trace their family
origins to a country
other than the United
States.
The United States
has been
characterized as a
"melting pot" in
which each
ingredient blends
into a single dish.
Likewise, the United States has been
characterized as a "salad bowl" in
which each ingredient reserves its own
flavor and texture while contributing
to the aggregate salad.
“We become not a
melting pot but a
beautiful mosaic.
Different people,
different beliefs,
different yearnings,
different hopes,
different dreams.”
Jimmy Carter