Immigration

Question of the day!

• If you could get on a plane and leave Ohio tomorrow, where would you go AND what would be your reason for leaving?

Follow-up question:

• Based on your reason for leaving, would you say that you’re being PUSHED out of Ohio for negative reasons or PULLED to somewhere else for a positive reason?

• We will: look at the reason’s that people from other countries came to America in the late 1800’s.

• I will: be able to recall what immigrants encountered when they settled in the U.S.A.

• persecution

Push/Pull Factors – 1890’s• Ireland potato famine

• Russia religious persecution

• Italians/Asians work

• My cousin wrote me a letter from America. He says he's making good money -- much more than he ever had at home. The factory works around the clock, every day, even Sunday! They always need new workers. He promises me I will have work if I come! I can stay at the boarding house where he stays.

--Josef, Poland, 1905

Ellis Island – East Coast

Angel Island – West Coast

Worked hard.

Assimilated.

Close comm.’s

Russian Jews after their synagogue has been burned down.

Distribution of Swedish settlers in the U.S.

What do you notice about where they came from and where they settled?

In America• Tenements a block of apartments

Crowded – Smelly – Dirty

Tenement Life:Small, cramped on the inside.

Pretty dirty on the outside too.

Some worked inside their home for work or extra income.

Small Group:

• Name some sights, sounds, and smells that you’d encounter in a big city like NY, Chicago, or Philadelphia.

• Urban housing was overcrowded and unsanitary. Many found it very difficult to accept. An old Italian saying summed up the disillusionment felt by many:

"I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, found out three things: First, the streets weren't paved with gold; second, they weren't paved at all: and third, I was expected to pave them." In spite of the difficulties, few gave up and returned home.

• Immigrants came to work:

–Steel plants.

–Coal mines.

–Construction.

–Stores.

–Factories.

Cigar rolling factory

Exit/Entry Ticket

•Write a short paragraph about YOU being an immigrant and coming to America. The more imaginative/original, the better.• (50 pts.)

Life in the City

• We will: look at what the conditions were for immigrants in the cities.

• I will: be able to describe what living conditions were for people living in big cities.

Questions to Ponder

• Why all dressed up?

• Why central park?

• What does the amusement park and the stroll in the park tell us about the standard of living in the Industrial Age and Urbanization

• Sanitation in big cities were lacking.

• Toilets were outside.

• New York City started out looking like this:

Notice how high and outward the city has grown!

Cities grew taller and wider!

As you might expect…

• Crime rates began to climb.

• Gangs began to form.

Crime rate in SF over the decades.

Immigrants arrive in large numbers.

Street “gang” members being supervised on trash clean-up by the police.

Don’t try running from these cops!

Transportation was improving.

• As transportation improves, people can now start to live outside of the urban center “suburbs” now start to form.

• Long Island

See NYC across the harbor?

• People in cities could now commute to work.

The 1st subway in NYC.

Article: Old vs New Immigrants

• Move to your “test” partner please.

• Text Tag share out.

• Two “waves” of imm.’s– 1830-1860 Irish & German (also:

English & Scandinavia) (Northern Europe)

– 1880-1920 Italy, Greece, A-H, Russia, Poland

(Southern &Eastern Europe)

• Settled into close-knit neighborhoods ghettos.

• Political bosses politicians from your neighborhood who could “get things done”.

• Bosses part of a political machine.

• Whole system worked on “patronage”.– Appt.’s to government jobs as long

as you voted for the “right guy”.

• Ethnic jobs:– Italians/Polish construction jobs.– Greeks/Russians/It./Pol. mills and

mines.– Greeks/Chinese restaurants/laundry– Jews garments/tailors

• Contract laborers imm.’s who had their passage to Am. paid for by a businessman, then forced to work for low wages to pay off the debt.

Why did immigration drop after 1920?

Nativism: Cause and EffectNativism: Definition

 Causes of Nativism? Religious differences Competition for Jobs cause lower wages lack of willingness to

assimilate

 Effect of Nativism? Job Discrimination Anti-Imm. Groups Anti-Imm Laws

Government enacts Anti-Immigrant Laws

• Chinese Exclusion Act 1882-1943– First time gov’t restricts immigration targeting

one racial group

• National Origins Act 1920-1961– Pressure from Nativist groups and labor

unions– Est. a 2% Quota on Immigration– Purpose:

• To reduce immigration as a whole• To target “undesirable” immigrants

more than “desirable” immigrants!

HOW IT WORKSTake total # of people living in America from each foreign nation. Take 2% of that number to determine how many immigrants are allowed into the Nation per year

Example:

Great Britain: Immigrating to America since 1607Population in 1920: 3.5 Million @ 2% = 70,000

Italy: Immigrating to America around 1880 Population in 1920: 200,000 @ 2% = 4000 per year

How does the National Origins Act accomplish it’s PURPOSE?

Analyzing Nativism Through Sources

• Political Cartoon