Immigration

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Immigration

• A scholar, Oscar Handlin, once wrote
• Once I thought to write a history of the
  immigrants in America. Then I discovered that
  the immigrants WERE American history.

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The Great Migration

• 1880-1921 - 23 million immigrants
• old immigrants - before 1880 - northwestern
  Europe
• new immigrants - after 1880- southern and eastern
  Europe

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Push and Pull Factors

• Reasons for leaving
• wars
• famine
• religious persecution
• overpopulation
• Leaving the homeland - hardships
  
  

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Journey Across the Atlantic

• Crowded steerage - diverse group
• Horrible conditions
• no windows - little ventilation
• 1 toilet for 1000 passengers
• spread of disease

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Arrival in America

• 75 processed through Ellis Island (Island of
  Tears)
• Lady Liberty
• 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-tossed to me, I lift my lamp
  beside the golden door.

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Medical Inspections

• 1st and 2nd class had short examination
• Steerage class loaded on to barges and taken to
  Ellis Island
• Medical inspections were often harsh and
  traumatic

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Inspectors Examine Female Immigrants
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Inspectors Examine the eyes of immigrants
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Legal Inspections

• Long wait in Registry Hall
• Inspectors asked 32 questions
• Many remember Ellis Island as one of their worst
  experiences
• Why should I fear the fires of hell? I have been
  through Ellis Island.

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Immigrants leave ship after inspections
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Ethnic Enclaves

• Two thirds of immigrants settled in urban areas
• By 1920 75 of foreign-born U.S. residents lived
  in Cities
• Many stayed in close-knit ethnic enclaves
• Enclaves provided
• sense of community and security
• familiar food, languages and institutions

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Living Conditions

• Most cities ill-equipped
• no adequate sewage system
• housing scarce
• Tenement Conditions
• crowded
• filthy and run-down
• fire, diseases and death common
• Some traveled west to small towns

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Nativism policy of favoring the interests of
native-born Americans over those of immigrants.