history of immigration
TRANSCRIPT
HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION IN USA
THE POPULATION OF THE U.S
Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
QUESTIONS
Where did the immigrants come from? When did they arrive? Why did they leave their home countries? Where did they settle? Where did they work? What aspects of their culture did they bring with
them? What impact did immigrant cultural traditions have on
the United States?
FACTS
Due to potato rot which began in 1845, the potato crop in Ireland began to fail.
From 1845 to 1850 there were famine conditions in Ireland.
More than one million people died of starvation.
One-fourth of the Irish population moved to the United States.
FACTS
Because of improved farming methods such as crop rotation-and therefore greater abundance of food-the population of Europe doubled between 1750 and 1850.
These improvements reduced the need for farm workers → many peasants were forced off land that they had lived on for generations.
FACTS
The passage to the United States in sailing vessels took three months, on the average, at the beginning of the 1800s.
The passage in steamships (which began to be used in the mid-nineteenth century) took ten days.
The Russian government began to carry out pogroms (organized attacks) against the Jews of eastern Europe.
FACTS
A Norwegian worker could earn up to 4-5 dollars a day in the United States.
This was more than triple the wage that the same person could have earned in Norway at that time.
FACTS
The U.S. Congress passed the Contract Labour Law in 1864.
Employers could make contracts with workers in other countries and many employers lent money to foreign workers to pay for their transportation to the United States.
After the workers arrived, they were required to pay the money back out of their wages.
THREE GREAT WAVES OF IMMIGRATION
1815-1860: 5 million immigrants
- mainly English, Irish, Germanic, Scandinavian, and others from northwestern Europe.
1865-1890: 10 million immigrants
- again mainly from northwestern Europe.
1890-1914: 15 million immigrants
– mainly from Eastern Europe.
REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION
There are two types of motivation for immigration:
- Push factors (reasons to leave home country),
- Pull factors (reasons for settling in USA).
REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION – 1607-1830
Political Freedom.
Religious Tolerance.
Economic Opportunity - People want a better life - better job - more money.
Political Refugees fear for their lives.
Some want free atmosphere.
Forced Immigration (slavery).
Family Reunification.
REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION 1830- 1890
Land plentiful, and fairly cheap.
Jobs were abundant, wages high.
Birthrate → decline.
Industry and urbanization → increase.
Notion that in America, the streets were, "paved with gold”.
Religious and political freedom.
REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION 1890-1914
Jews came for religious freedom.
Italians and Asians came for work.
Russians came to escape persecution.
America had jobs.
America had religious freedom.
America was hyped up in many countries as "Land of Opportunity„.
WHO WERE THE IMMIGRANTS? 1830-1890
Nationality → Mainly Irish, English and Scandinavians.
CircumstancesThe Irish → potato famine.They resented the British rule of their
country.British landlords.The British Protestantism. British taxes. The average life expectancy was 19.The British → look for better opportunities of
work.
Age: Irish: Teenager to Young Adult.
British: Most immigrants from Britain were fairly young, although not quite as young as their Irish counterparts.
Social Classes: Most Irish → tennant farmers before they came
to the United States.
They had little taste for farm work and little money to buy land in America anyway.
The British → professionals, independent farmers, and skilled workers.
THE IRISH Settled in New York (too poor to
travel).
Discriminated against.
Poor living conditions (80% of Irish infants died in New York).
Took the jobs no one wanted.
"Let Negroes be servants, and if not Negroes, let Irishmen fill their. place..."
With the arrival of Eastern Europeans the Irish no longer lowest class.
Became policemen & firemen.
WHO WERE THE IMMIGRANTS? 1890 - 1914
Italians Voluntary White Catholics and Roman
Catholics
Eastern Europeans Voluntary White Jewish & Christian
Greeks Voluntary White Eastern Orthodox
Russians:• Voluntary• White• Jewish
EASTERN/SOUTHERN EUROPE IMMIGRANTS
Immigrants from Southeastern Europe blamed for increasing problems
1880 – 1920 →New York grew by 300%, Chicago → 400%, L.A→1000%
These newcomers were often described by what they were not: Not Protestant Not English-speaking Not skilled Not educated Not liked.
Anglo-Saxon Myth created
Restrictions on immigration gradually imposed
Anti-Catholic feelings Anti-eastern European
feelings Polish immigrant
assassinated the American president (McKinley
NORWEGIAN SETTLERS Nearly 1 million between
1820-1920
Why? Land Social and political reasons Higher wages Increase in poulation Cleng Peerson ”Sloopers”
Where? Most settled in the Mid
West 1851 - Treaty of Traverse
des Sioux 1862 – Homestead Act
VIEWS ON IMMIGRANTS
” The ones who come here are usually the most stupid of their nation. Few understand our language, so we cannot communicate with them.. It has been reported that young men do not believe they are true men until they have shown their manhood by beating their mothers. They do not believe they are truly free unless they also abuse and insult their teachers.
And now they are coming to our country in great numbers. Few of their children know English. They bring in much of their own reading from their homeland and print newspapers in their own language. In some parts of our state, ads, street signs, and even some legal documents are in their own language and allowed in courts.
Unless the stream of these people can be turned away, they will soon outnumber us so that we will not be able to save our language or our government. However, I am not in favour of keeping them out entirely. All that seems necessary is to distribute them more evenly among us and set up more schools that teach English. In this way, we will preserve the true heritage of our country.”
Benjamin Franklin about German immigrants in 1751
IMMIGRATION LAWS 1790 → Naturalization rule establishes →a two-year residency requirement for
immigrants wanting to become U.S. citizens.
1875 → No convicts or prostitutes.
1882 → Immigration from China is stopped; ex-convicts, lunatics, idiots, and those unable to take care of themselves are excluded. A tax (50 cents) must be paid by immigrants.
1892→ Ellis Island opens.
1903 → No political radicals, epileptics, professional beggars.
1907 → No feeble-minded, tuberculars, persons with physical or mental defects, and persons under age 16 without parents. Tax on new immigrants is increased ($8).
1910 → No criminals, paupers, diseased.
1917 → Immigrants over 16 years old must pass literacy exam.
1921 → Annual immigration limited to 350 000. Quotas for each nationality are introduced.
1924 → immigration limited to 165 000 annually.
The nationality quota is revised to 2% of each nationality's representation
MELTING POT VS SALAD BOWL
Melting Pot → All immigrants mixed together form the ”American”.
Salad Bowl → All immigrants are American, yet keep their cultural heritage from their ”home”.
POPULATION IN US.
THE END ;)