Immigration Through Ellis Island and Angel Island

Data

1865 – 1914• Appx. 25 million immigrants came to the U.S.• 24 million from Europe• 1.3 million from Canada• 425,000 from Latin America• 450,000 from Asia

Why immigrate to the United States?

Push Factors• Farm poverty and

worker uncertainty• Wars and compulsory

military service• Political tyranny• Religious oppression• Population pressure

Pull Factors• Plenty of land and

work• Higher standard of

living• Democratic political

system• Opportunity for social

advancement

European Immigrants• Europe experienced rapid population growth in the 1800’s

• Crowded cities• Lack of jobs• Food shortages

• Crop failures such as the Irish Potato famine• Social class restrictions• Italy suffered from high rents and a cholera epidemic• Poland and Russia had land shortages, unemployment,

high taxes, and a long military draft• Jews suffered from organized anti-jewish attacks in Russia

and Poland• Armenian Catholics suffered persecution and massacre at

the hands of Turks in the mostly Muslim Ottoman Empire.

Edward Corsi, In the Shadow of Liberty, 1935

• I looked at that statue with a sense of bewilderment, half doubting its reality. Looming shadowy through the mist, it brought silence to the decks of the Florida. This symbol of America – this enormous expression of what we had all been taught was the inner meaning of this new country we were coming to – inspired awe in the hopeful immigrants. Many older persons among us, burdened with a thousand memories of what they were leaving behind, had been openly weeping ever since we entered the narrower waters on our final approach toward the unknown. Now somehow steadied, I suppose, by the concreteness of the symbol of America’s freedom, they dried their tears.”

Emma Lazarus – “The New Colossus” - 1883

“Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to

breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming

shoreSend these, the homeless, tempest-

tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Ellis Island• 1st & 2nd class passengers had a short inspection

on deck and then were allowed to enter New York.• Steerage passengers had to go to Ellis Island first• Tiny island in New York Harbor• Large 3 story processing center

• Medical inspection • Disabled or chronically ill people would face deportation

• Legal Interview• Up to 29 questions• “Do you have work waiting for you in the U.S. ?”

• 20% failed either the medical or legal inspection

Ellis Island• Failed inspection?• Those with treatable illnesses were sent to the Ellis Island

hospital• Legal failures went before a Board of Special Inquiry

• Ultimately, only about 2% of immigrants were turned away and deported back to their country of origin.

Reactions to European Immigrants• Immigrants were generally poor and uneducated• Looked down on by American society

• Strong sense of nativism• An extreme dislike of immigrants by native born people• Saw immigrants as an economic threat• Native workers worried that immigrants were taking their

jobs and lowering wages

• Faced overcrowding in cities and poor living conditions

• Push for the Americanization of immigrants• Feared that increased immigration posed a threat to

American values and traditions• Promoted loyalty to American values

Chinese Immigrants• Thousands of immigrants

were brought over to lay railroad tracks

• Thousands more joined the gold rush• Majority of the immigrants

were men• Most came through San

Francisco

• Many worked in agriculture• Would work for less money

than white workers

Chinese Immigrants• 1870’s – a depression and a drought hits

California’s economy• Blamed the Chinese because they were easy targets

• Mob violence against the Chinese erupts• Driven out of their homes• Murdered• Strong racial component

• Increased feelings of nativism

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882• Prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers,

skilled or unskilled, for 10 years• Prevented Chinese already in the U.S. from

becoming citizens• First time the U.S. restricted immigration based

solely on nationality or race• Allowed a handful of exceptions• Merchants, teachers, students, and relatives of existing

Chinese citizens

• Immigration slowed• 1882 – 40,000• 1884 - 279

Angel Island - 1910• The “Ellis Island of the West”• More secure than the San Francisco processing

center• Prevented illegal immigration• Designed to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act

• More rigorous physical and legal examinations than Ellis Island• Could take days to complete and detainees could be held

for years

• Detainees were locked in overcrowded, unsanitary barracks

• 10% of arrivals were deported

Other Asian Groups• The Chinese Exclusion Act created a shortage of farm labor• Farm owners looked to Japan, Korea, and the Philippines for workers

• Very similar experience to Chinese immigrants• Prejudice• Hostility• Discrimination

• 1906 – San Francisco segregated their schools• President Theodore Roosevelt convinced them to repeal the

segregation rule

• 1907 – 1908: “Gentlemen’s Agreement”• Japan agreed not to let laborers immigrate• The U.S. agreed to allow wives, children and parents of Japanese in

the U.S. to immigrate

Latin American Immigrants• The need for farmworkers was also filled by

Mexican immigrants • Came to escape poverty and civil unrest in Mexico• Higher wages in the U.S.

• Suffered at the hands of native-born Americans• Scorned as inferior to whites• Racist attitudes led to discrimination• Kept in low-level jobs and denied access to public facilities• Segregated schools

French Canadian Immigrants• Were seeking greater opportunities than they had at

home• Majority of them settled in New England and around the

Great Lakes• Worked in textile mills and lumber camps• Spoke French and were Catholic• Resisted Americanization• Came under attack by nativists• “The Canadian French are the Chinese of the Eastern States. They

care nothing for our institutions…Their purpose is merely to sojourn [stay temporarily] a few years as aliens…They are a horde of industrial invaders, not a stream of stable settlers.” - Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Twelfth Annual Report, 1881