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1 Topic 8 The New Immigration 1870s-1921
Emma Lazarus, 1883 2 "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!"
Push Factors 3 Push: Worn-out land / Changes in European agricultural system Push: Political discontent with upper-class rule Push: Social discontent – rigid class distinctions Push: Persecution Push: Escape from military service Russian “pogrom”
4 Pull Factors Pull: America - “land of opportunity” – expanding economy – western lands / industrial revolution Pull: Lure of a democratic system Pull: Lure of an open society Pull: No real restrictions on immigration
Sources of “Old Immigration” (Pre-1870s) 5 Great Britain Ireland Germany Scandinavia Holland France Irish Immigrant
The New immigration 1870s - 1921 Italy (Southern Italy / Sicily) 6 The New immigration 1870s - 1921 Italy (Southern Italy / Sicily) Greece (tenant farmers) Austria-Hungary Serbia Rumania Russia Poland Prussia Eastern European Jewish immigrants New Arrivals – Ellis island
Who Opposed Immigration? 7 Who Opposed Immigration? Labor unions Perceived problems with “Americanization” Ethnic and Religious Prejudice Anti-immigrant cartoon
How to become an “American”? 8 Americanization Melting Pot Cultural Pluralism Multiculturalism
Restrictions on Immigration and Immigration Reform 9 Emergency Immigration Acts 1921, 1924 National Origins Plan 1929 Immigration reform 1965, 1980, 1986, 1990
10 Selected Readings Alan M. Kraut, The Huddled Masses: The Immigrant in American Society, 1880-1921 Roger Daniels, Coming To America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. Ellis Island Museum website http://www.ellisisland.org/