ImmigrationImmigration

By Jackie White

Requirements for U.S. citizenship

• Imagine that you are the president of the United States and you must determine whether or not there should be requirements to be or to become a U.S. citizen? If so, what should the requirements be? If none, explain why not. Be prepared to share your requirements with a partner and/or the class.

Citizenship TestCitizenship Test• Take the U.S. citizenship test

to find out if you have what it takes to become a U.S. citizen!

BrainstormBrainstorm

• What words, phrases, or images come to mind when you hear the word IMMIGRANT?

ImmigrationImmigration• What does immigration

mean?• Entering a new country

to settle permanently

Our Ethnic AncestryOur Ethnic Ancestry• We are decedents of our ancestors or

relatives from the past. Trace your family history to the country/countries your ancestors came from.

• We will go around the room and record everyone’s ancestors country of origin on the Smartboard.

Ethnic AncestryEthnic Ancestry• Look closely at our class’s ethnic diversity. What

questions does this raise for you?

Why Come to Why Come to America?America?

• Immigrants including our ancestors came to America for a wide variety of reasons. What might be some reasons your ancestors or relatives came to America?

Push/Pull FactorsPush/Pull Factors• Push Factors-

conditions that push people out of their homeland.

• Pull Factors- conditions that attract people to a new area.

Benito VincenzoBenito Vincenzo• Read the story of Benito Vincenzo. Identify at

least one push factor and one pull factor from the reading.

Coreno, Coreno, ItalyItaly

small village east of Naples in southern Italy

Benito, his wife Carmela, and son Pasquale

• Sailing ship of the 1800’s took 1-3 months to cross the Atlantic Ocean

Steamship of 1901 took less then two weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean

New York City in New York City in 19021902

Little Italy

Tall buildings

““Birds of PassageBirds of Passage””• Immigrants who

came to the U.S. to work and returned to their native country to live

Create a list of Create a list of Push/Pull Factors from Push/Pull Factors from

the storythe story

Document AnalysisDocument Analysis• Activity: In groups of 2-3 read 3-4 primary source

documents and identify the factors for immigration for each document. Be prepared to share your research .

Examples of Push Examples of Push FactorsFactors

• Increasing population• Land scarce in home country• Food scarcity• Political instability• Religious persecution• Revolutions • Poverty• Too few industrial jobs

Examples of Pull Examples of Pull FactorsFactors

• Promise of freedom (religious and political)

• Hope for a new life • Industrial Jobs • Land-large amounts and

cheap• “Streets paved with gold”• In search of American Dream-

socio-economic mobility

European European ImmigrantsImmigrants

o Beginning in the 1890s, increasing numbers came from southern and eastern Europe

o Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia

o Prior to 1890, most immigrants came from countries in western and northern Europe

o England, Ireland, Germany and Scandinavian countries

Journey to AmericaJourney to America• Getting Ready for

your journey. Imagine you are leaving your country, family, and cultural traditions to come to the U.S. What things would you bring with you and why?

Journey to AmericaJourney to AmericaA) What items do you take to remind you about your family & your nation?

B) What items should you bring to practice your religion?

C) What type of clothing will you bring?

D) How much money?

E) What are your hopes & dreams?

Journey to AmericaJourney to America• Activity: Read a

primary source document on what the journey to America was like.

• Write a diary entry or letter to a friend or family member in your native country in which you describe your journey to America.

Immigrants Journeyo Most immigrants

traveled by steamship (approx. 1 week from Europe, and 3 weeks from China)

o Many traveled in steerage, the cheapest accommodations in the lower decks

o Immigrants were crowded together, unable to exercise or catch a breath of fresh air (disease spread and some immigrants died on route)

What might he be pointing at? What do you think they see?

How might they have felt?

Ellis Island Immigration Processing Station-NY

What might this be a picture of?

Ellis Island Present Day

oProcessing location for immigrants in New York harbor

oImmigrants had to pass a physical exam, and diseased individuals were sent home

Ellis Island

As immigrants walked up the stairs to the Registry room, they were closely watched by doctors. What

might the doctors have been looking for?

How might immigrants have felt arriving at Ellis?

Passing the Medical

Inspection at Ellis Island

(Video Clip)

http://www.history.com/videos/passing-the-medical-inspection-at-ellis-island#passing-the-medical-inspection-at-ellis-island

What might these tools have been used for?

Do you think the tools were sterilized and cleaned after each person?

What might this tool have been used for?

Eye exam-inspecting for trachoma a highly contagious eye

disease

What are they inspecting for?

What might this room have been used for?

What do you notice about this room?

How might it have felt to be in the room?

Who Is Acceptable? You Who Is Acceptable? You DecideDecide

• 1. 22 year old male college student who has taken part in protests against his government, but wants to attend college in the U.S. and a good job.

• 2. Daughter of a minor party official in her native land.• 3. Musician/rock star who lost his hand in an accident.

• 4. Pregnant woman from an underdeveloped nation who wants her baby to be born and raised in America.

• 5. Medical doctor who speaks no English.

• 6. Farmer and family who have always been poor for his ancestors, as he, worked marginal lands.

• 7. Military officer who took part in an attempt overthrow of his country’s government.

• 8. Nuclear physicist who helped third world country to build atomic weapons.

Legal Inspection at Legal Inspection at Ellis IslandEllis Island

o A government inspector checked for criminal history

o Made sure the immigrant would be able to work

o Also to see if they had some money (at least $25 after 1909)

ManifestManifest• Activity:Divide into groups of 3-5. Each

group analyze the passenger manifest. From the manifest the group must create a biography of one person’s life

What happens after What happens after immigrants arrive in immigrants arrive in

America?America?

Difficulties Immigrants Face in America

Challenges of Challenges of ImmigrationImmigration

• Read poems about immigration.

• You, Whoever You Are by Walt Whitman

• You Have to Live in Somebody Else’s Country to Understand by Noy Chou

You, whoever you are!...You, whoever you are!...

By Walt WhitmanBy Walt Whitman• All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, indifferent

of place!

• All you on the numberless islands of the archipelagoes of the sea!

• All you of centuries hence when you listen to me!

• All you each and everywhere whom I specify not, but include just the same!

• Health to you! good will to you all, from me and America sent!

• Each of us is inevitable,

• Each of us is limitless—each of us with his or her right upon the earth,

• Each of us allow'd the eternal purports of the earth,

• Each of us here as divinely as any is here.

You Have to Live in Somebody Else's You Have to Live in Somebody Else's

Country to Understand by Noy ChouCountry to Understand by Noy Chou

What is it like to be an outsider? What is it like to sit in the class where everyone has blond hair and you have black hair? What is it like when the teacher says, "Whoever wasn't born here raise your hand." And you are the only one. Then, when you raise your hand, everybody looks at you and makes fun of you.

You have to live in somebody else's country to understand.

What is it like when the teacher treats you like you've been here all your life? What is it like when the teacher speaks too fast and you are the only one who can't understand what he or she is saving, and you try to tell him or her to slow down. Then when you do, everybody says, "If you don't understand, go to a lower class or get lost." You have to live in somebody else's country to understand. What is it like when you are an opposite? When you wear the clothes of your country and they think you are crazy to wear these clothes and you think they are pretty.

• You have to live in somebody else's country to understand. What is it like when you are always a loser. What is it like when somebody bothers you when you do nothing to them? You tell them to stop but they tell you that they didn't do anything to you. Then, when they keep doing it until you can't stand it any longer, you go up to the teacher and tell him or her to tell them to stop bothering you. They say that they didn't do anything to bother you. Then the teacher asks the person sitting next to you. He says, "Yes, she didn't do anything to her" and you have no witness to turn to. So the teacher thinks you are a liar.

• You have to live in somebody else's country to understand. What is it like when you try to talk and you don't pronounce the words right? They don't understand you. They laugh at you but you don't know that they are laughing at you, and you start to laugh with them. They say, "Are you crazy, laughing at yourself? Go get lost, girl." You have to live in somebody else's country without a language to understand. What is it like when you walk in the street and everybody turns around to look at you and you don't know that they are looking at you. Then, when you find out, you want to hide your face but you don't know where to hide because they are everywhere. You have to live in somebody else's country to feel it.

Immigration PoemImmigration Poem• Write a poem about being an

immigrant in America at the turn of the century. Your poem should include reference to some of the challenges immigrants faced being a new comer to America.

Cliff Dwellers (1913)Cliff Dwellers (1913)by George Bellowsby George Bellows

• In the early 1900s, urban areas were overcome with people leaving rural areas and with immigrants new to the country. The skyrocketing population created problems in housing, transportation, water, sanitation and safety. As problems in cities mounted, social reformers established programs to aid the poor and improve urban life.

Cliff DwellersCliff Dwellers• Why do you think the painting is entitled Cliff

Dwellers?• How does the artist create the impression of

cliffs?• What aspects of city life are pictured here? (Use

evidence from the painting to support your response)

• What might be some of the problems of urbanization?

The Good Old Days, The Good Old Days, They Were Terrible!They Were Terrible!

• Skim through “The Good Old Days, They Were Terrible!”

• Identify a few problems associated with housing, sanitation, water, transportation, and safety of city life at the turn of the 19th century.

Challenges of Challenges of UrbanizationUrbanization

What would you do if a fire broke out on the fifth floor of this building?

Do you think the fire escape was there in 1900?

What do you notice about the side of this building?

What might it have been like living inside the building?

What do we call all of the houses that share an interior wall like this?

What would happen if there was a fire in one of the homes?

What is this type of home called?

How many people lived in this home?

What might it have felt like to live inside it?

What is this a picture of?

How did it work?

What would it be like to share this with everyone in your tenement building?

What would it smell like on a hot summer day?

Where did the waste go?

New York Tenement New York Tenement MuseumMuseum

• http://www.tenement.org/Virtual-Tour/index_virtual.html

Challenges of Challenges of UrbanizationUrbanization

• Draw a picture or sketch of what life was like living in the cities in America at the turn of the century. Your drawing how should capture the problems associated with city living.

Personal Immigration Personal Immigration ExperienceExperience

• Interview a family member or friend about their personal immigration experience with that of immigrants at the turn of the 19th century. See discussion question worksheet.

Immigration Political Immigration Political CartoonsCartoons

• Elements of Political Cartoons

• Symbols• Words• Message/meaning

Identify all of the symbols used in this cartoon?

What does each symbol mean?

What is the message?