Urban America- Immigration Why Did Millions Come to America?

European Immigration Old Immigrants: Northern and Western Europe- Ireland, England, Germany –Mainly Protestant (except for Irish) New Immigrants: Southern and Eastern Europe- Italians, Greeks, Poles, Slavs… –Mainly Catholic or Jewish

How’d They Get Here? On a 14-day voyage in steerage. Steerage: the most basic and cheapest accommodations on a steamship.

Where’d They Go First? Ellis Island: in New York Harbor –45 min. medical inspection –Legal inspection (detained 20%) –If “aroused suspicion” sent back (2%)

Meanwhile, on the West Coast: Angel Island: in San Francisco Bay Detained & processed Asian immigrants

Asian Immigration Reasons for Immigration: –China was suffering from severe unemployment, poverty, and famine. –Gold discovered in California in 1848 –Taiping Rebellion- 20 million dead –Construction of transcontinental railroad.

Where Did European Immigrants Live? In neighborhoods separated into ethnic groups: –“Little Italy” or Jewish “Lower East Side” –They spoke native languages, created their own churches, clubs, and newspapers

Overcrowded multifamily apartment buildings More than 2/3 of New York’s 1.5 million lived here. Tenements:

What Do “Real Americans” Think?

Nativism Preference for native-born people and a desire to limit immigration. American Protective Association: 500,000 members in the Northeast and Midwest

Reasons for Nativism: –Irish Catholics could outnumber Protestants –Immigrants worked for low wages or as strikebreakers –Immigrants did not assimilate and brought disease and radicalism

New Immigration Laws 1882 law bans convicts, paupers, and mentally disabled. 50-Cent head tax on each immigrant