Migration to the USA

LO’s — understanding the migration process Describing the volume of migration to the USA

SC — discussion, answering exam style questions

Complete the graph below using your information sheet

Years 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

1861-70 Germany Ireland Britain Italy

1871-80 Germany Britain Ireland Austria

1881-90 Germany Ireland/ Britain Austria Italy

1891-1900 Italy Austria Germany/ Russia Ireland

1901-1910 Austria/ Italy Russia Poland Britain

1911-1920 Italy/ Poland/ Russia

Austria Britain Ireland/Germany

Task 2

Collect a map of Europe.a- shade in the countries which sent to most immigrants between 1851 and 1890.b- shade in the countries which sent the most countries between 1891 and 1920

Questions— Answer in sentences Where did most immigrants come from between 1851-1890?Where did immigrants come from between 1890 and 1920?Between 1851 and 1920 where did most immigrants come from?

Source C New York People, published in 1920

These new immigrants are different from people who came here twenty years ago. Then most of the immigrants spoke English or German. Now we have Italians and Poles and Russians. We never heard of them years ago.

How fully does Source C describe the types of immigrants moving to the USA by 1920?

Migration Patterns

Patterns of immigration

Looks at the numbers of people moving from one place to another.

If the number of people moving/ places where people move from stay the same — the pattern of migration stays the same.

If the numbers of people moving or the places they move from changes then historians say the pattern of migration changed.

The population of the USA increased between 1870 and 1920.A likely reason for that change is because more people arrived in the USA between 1851 and 1920.The biggest change in the population took place between 1900-1920.Between 1900 and 1920 the population of the USA increased by 30 million.Between 1851 and 1931 there was always at least 2 million people migrating to the USA every 10 years.

Compare Question

Compare Sources A and B about the effects of immigration.

Source A Andrew Chapman, New York policeman, 1920

The population of New York has grown so that it is 40 times bigger now than it was fifty years ago. The growth is caused entirely by immigration from abroad ... The flood of people from Italy, Russia and Eastern Europe has led to overcrowding and bad housing conditions in some areas of the city but the new arrivals provided willing hands to build the railways, dig the subways and build the bridges.

Source B

It was the unskilled labour provided by the new immigrants which made possible the very fast growth in American industry around the year 1900.Immigrants speeded up industrial growth. Without immigration the number of people available to work would have been much lower than it was with the result that America would not have been able to grow so quickly.

Compare Question

Source C

American culture? There ain’ t such a thing. American culture is a mix of every culture in the world. Soon we’ll all just be Americans. Yesterday I was asked, ‘What’s an American?’ The only answer I could give was ‘Somebody who came from somewhere else’ .

Source E

We all had our own areas of the city. We called our area Little Italy. We were safe there coz all us Italians lived there. Just round the block there was Little Poland and Little Russia. We spoke and ate and sang and prayed just like we had back home and we were free to do that. America was the land of the free.

On what points do sources C and E agree or disagree?

Problems for Migrants

What problems face new immigrants when they arrive in the USA?

Immigrant tensions

“Old Immigrants” – families who have lived in the USA for several generations

Thought they were important because they had made money, and their ancestors arrived a long time ago

They despised new immigrants who had only just arrived and were poor

- Had mostly arrived from Northern Europe

“New Immigrants” – had only just arrived in the USA

Came from Southern Europe

Arrived with very little English, so stayed near friends from the ‘old country’

Seldom mixed with other groups and kept to themselves – to outsiders they seemed strange and ‘no American’ so tension between the old and new immigrants was the result of snobbery, racism, ignorance and prejudice

WASP’s thought that they were better than everyone else – the most successful people in America in the early 20th century were usually WASPs

WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant

1920’s America

Mexicans– moved north to escape poverty and war in their own country. They suffered because they were Catholic, ‘new immigrants’ and had coloured skin

Orientals – People from Asia moved to the USA to find jobs such as building the railways. By 1900 the railways had been built and there was a strong prejudice against the ‘yellow’ people.

Native Americans

Native (Red) Indians – an ethnic minority, they had a different culture and ethnicity. They are now called Native Americans as they are the only people who are not descended from immigrants

19th century – Natives were pushed off of their land on to reservations (land that the white government allowed them to live on)

Blacks

Until the 19th century ‘Blacks’ had been slaves

1860’s slavery stopped

Largest racial minority with very few rights

Many lived in poverty and saw opportunity in the north so began to migrate within the USA

How fully does source A describe the prejudice to new immigrants? (5)

Source A is from a letter to the Boston News in 1910.

We created this nation by our sweat and blood. We made this country a Protestant nation. We came from countries in Europe that shared an Anglo Saxon tradition of hard work. Now we must suffer the arrival of the dirty, unwashed crowds from lazier countries. People with brown skins and yellow skins arrive daily. Catholics and Jews spread their superstitious beliefs in this Protestant country. Power in America should be in the hands of the ‘WASP’ people who made it great.

Task

Collect and complete the hand out “ Immigrants and Slum Housing”

Complete questions 2-6 in your jotter

Open Door Closes

LO’s - Describe what is meant by an ‘open door policy’

Understand why America ‘closed’ its doorDescribe why America passed new laws to

discriminate against specific minorities

Open Door Closes

LO’s - Describe what is meant by an ‘open door policy’

Understand why America ‘closed’ its doorDescribe why America passed new laws to

discriminate against specific minorities

Problems faced by

new immigrants

Problems faced by

new immigrants

Language Barrier

Language Barrier

Racial TensionRacial

Tension

Poverty

Poverty

Slums

Slums

Religious Conflict

Religious Conflict

1882 Chinese Exclusion act - restricts immigration into the USA

1902 Chinese immigration made illegal

1907 Japanese government promised to stop emigration to the USA

1918 Open door policy was closing and US policy towards immigrants was becoming more racist

1921 The law said that only 3% of each nationality living in the USA in 1910 would be allowed to enter the USA.

1924 Total of 150,000 immigrants for each year and the proportion from each country was decided on the sizes of the national groups in the USA by the 1890 census.

Effect of 1921/24 Immigration Acts was discrimination against southern Europeans.

Effect of 1921/24 Immigration Acts was discrimination against southern Europeans.

Dillingham Commission

The commission thought that immigrants from places like A-H, Russia, Italy, Turkey, Lithuania, Rumania and Greece were inferior compared to the WASP- type immigrants who came over in

the 1890’s.Recommends- literacy test

1918- Great War ends, increasing number of immigrants from southern Europe

Result — unemployment rises, strikes and letter-bomb campaigns against politicians

Impact — Stopped immigration – increases racism

Dillingham Commission

The commission thought that immigrants from places like A-H, Russia, Italy, Turkey, Lithuania, Rumania and Greece were inferior compared to the WASP- type immigrants who came over in

the 1890’s.Recommends- literacy test

1918- Great War ends, increasing number of immigrants from southern Europe

Result — unemployment rises, strikes and letter-bomb campaigns against politicians

Impact — Stopped immigration – increases racism

Why were Americans against

immigration in the 1920’s?

Why were Americans against

immigration in the 1920’s?

Fear of unemployme

nt

Fear of unemployme

nt

Believed immigrants were inferior

Believed immigrants were inferior

Believed immigrants

were criminals

Believed immigrants

were criminals

Housing shortageHousing shortage

Fears of revolutionFears of

revolution