The New Immigrants and “Becoming American” Like the Market Revolution (also known as the First Industrial Revolution), the Second Industrial Revolution, as I hope you remember, led to increase immigration to America. This makes sense – think about it. Economy is good in America (or so they think) + poor conditions in their home country = immigration to America.

Second Industrial Revolution - 16. 5 million immigrants came to the U Second Industrial Revolution - 16.5 million immigrants came to the U.S. Between 1890 and the outbreak of the First World War (1914), over 16.5 million newcomers entered the U.S. (that’s twice the population of New York City) seeking jobs in the industrial centers/cities of the North and the midwest. Over half arrived not from Ireland, England, Germany, and Scandinavia, the traditional sources of immigration, but from southern and eastern Europe, especially Italy and the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.

Some “native-born” Americans worried about the growing foreign population. These were nativists, or people who wanted to preserve the country for white, American-born Protestants. Some “native-born” Americans worried about the growing foreign population. These were nativists, or people who wanted to preserve the country for white, American-born Protestants. Why no Irish?

Brief History of Chinese Immigration to the United States First wave of immigration: 1850s -1880s (300,000 Chinese immigrants entered the United States) propelled by the gold rush. S.I.R. = Chinese immigrants worked as agricultural laborers, on railroad construction crews, and in low-paying industrial jobs. With economic competition came dislike and even racial suspicion and hatred.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 Suspended immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years. Permitted those Chinese in the United States as of November 17, 1880, to stay, travel abroad, and return. Prohibited the naturalization of Chinese. Some “native-born” Americans worried about the growing foreign population. These were nativists, or people who wanted to preserve the country for white, American-born Protestants.

Paper Sons and Daughters In 1906, The San Francisco earthquake caused a huge fire that destroyed public birth documents. Suddenly a new opportunity for citizenship arose, Chinese men who were already in the United States could claim that they were born in the United States. Other Chinese men would travel back to China as United States citizens and report that their wives had given birth to a son. Consequently, this made the child eligible to be a United States citizen in which they would receive a document for it. These documents could then be used for their actual sons, or sold to friends, neighbors, and strangers. This was termed as a “slot” and would then be available for purchase to men who had no blood relationships in the United States in order to be eligible to enter the United States. Merchant brokers often acted as middlemen to handle the sale of slots.

Performing a close reading of Tung Chin’s Paper Son: One Man’s Story Why? To examine and explore the Chinese-American experience during the Second Industrial Revolution and the process of “becoming American”?

Guiding Questions: Why did Tung Pok Chin immigrate to America? What was Tung Pok Chin’s experience upon first arriving to the United States? How and to what degree did Tung Pok Chin and his family assimilate American culture and integrate into American life?