Immigration

1890-1910

Old Immigrants

• Protestants

• Northwest Europe

• England, Germany

• Holland

• Scandinavia

New Immigrants

• Southern and Eastern Europe

• Czechs

• Russians

• Greeks

• Hungarians

• Poles

New Immigrants

• Also

• Arabs

• Armenians

• Chinese

• Japanese

• French Canadians

Why did they Come ?

• To escaper persecution

• Poverty

• Racial intolerance (Jews in Russia)

• To work for the railroad

• To work for steamship companies

The Voyage

• Voyage across the Atlantic was difficult

• Most traveled below deck/ steerage

• No privacy, poor ventilation,

• Noise

• Cramped quarters disease

Ellis Island

• New York harbor• Screened for physical and mental health• Mental disorders, serious health defects or

contagious diseases were turned backand deported• Background check• Job skill• Relatives in america

Reality in America

• Lived in cities

• Forced to settle for unskilled low paying employment

• Substandard housing

• Deteriorating neighborhoods

• Tenements/slums

• Better than where they came from

Northeast and Midwest

• Patchwork quilt• Ethnic neighborhoods• Spoke same languages• Followed same customs from the old country• Religious institutions• Community centers• Benevolent : to assist immigrants in cases of

unemployment – religious and non-religious

Employment for the Immigrant

• Bottom of the labor ladder

• Nations”dirty work

• Mines, sweatshop, construction

• Exhausting and hard

• Poor wages

• Long house

• Unsafe conditions

Anti-immigrant feelings

• Nativists: argued that the newcomers would never fit into American society

• Blamed them for crime, poverty and violence

• Took jobs away from native born American

• Led to rise of union