The New Immigrants OBJECTIVE: The impact of immigration on the US in the late 19 th and early 20 th Centuries

2 Experience What do you think of immigrants? What are your attitudes toward major American cities? Do you/ or would you want to live in Baltimore city? Why? Why not?

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4 IMMIGRANTS What were the reasons European immigrants had for coming to the US? p. 438 To escape religious persecution Because of population pressure Because of the desire to experience democracy and reform

5 IMMIGRANTS What were the reasons Chinese and Japanese immigrants had for coming to the US? p. 439 In response to the California gold rush To build the railroads To seek higher wages in Hawaii and California

6 IMMIGRANTS What were the reasons West Indian and Mexican immigrants had for coming to the US? p. 439 To find employment Their homes were annexed by the US after the war To find work To flee political turmoil and unrest

7 Life in the New Land What was the journey like? (p.440) What happened when they arrived? –Ellis Island –Angel Island What is culture shock? –Have you ever experience it?

8 By Brown Brothers, ca Immigrant children, Ellis Island, New York. Vintage print.

9 “In 1905, construction of an Immigration Station began in the area then known as North Garrison. Surrounded by public controversy from its inception, the station was finally put into partial operation in It was designed to process Chinese immigrants whose entry was restricted by the Chinese Ex. Law of Immigrants from Europe were all expected with the opening of the Panama Canal. International events after 1914, including the outbreak of World War 1, cancelled the expected rush of Europeans, but Asians continued to arrive on the West Coast and to go through immigration procedures. In fact, more than 97 percent of the immigrants processed on Angel Island were Chinese.”

10 Immigrants: Who are they? Old Immigration VS New Immigration Ireland + Germany Southern Europe (Italians, Greeks) Central Europe (Slavs, Poles, Russians, Hungarians) Increasingly diverse: more countries and more religions, esp. Catholics and Jews 200,000 African-Americans move to Chicago & Detroit NATIVISM reemerges as a counter-reaction, in form of American Protective Association (APA) Congress restricts immigration :Chinese Exclusion Act vs.1886: Statue of Liberty

11 IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS What is the “problem” with the melting pot metaphor for immigration? What were the goals of the members of the American Protective Association?

12 IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS What were some of the ways Nativists attempted to restrict immigration? Social Segregation/Discrimination –Literacy tests –Chinese Exclusion Act –Gentlemen’s Agreement Which of the restrictions were most effective? Which groups experienced the most discrimination? Why?

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The Problems of Urbanization Objective: to understand the promise and problems of urbanization

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18 Poor neighborhood, Philadelphia, 1915 Scenes like this in the immigrant wards of America's great cities stirred middle-class reformers to action at the turn of the century. (Philadelphia City Archives) Poor neighborhood, Philadelphia, 1915 Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

19 Library of Congress Family in an attic home with drying laundry]. CREATED/PUBLISHED [between 1900 and 1910] NOTES title devised by cataloger. Photograph of a photographic print. Possibly immigrants. Detroit Publishing Co. no. P 512. Gift; State Historical Society of Colorado; 1949

20 Growth (Rise?) of Cities Booming population + immigration = explosive urban development Cities hold best and worst of America: richest of the rich, poorest of the poor Must solve problems of crowding, sanitation, education, and economic development/growth

21 URBAN PROBLEMS HOUSING – overpopulation SOLUTION  row houses & dumbbell tenements TRANSPORTATION – getting people to work SOLUTION  mass transit: streetcar & subway WATER – cholera & typhoid, too little CLEAN water SOLUTION  aqueducts, chlorination SANITATION – disease and filth SOLUTION  Sewer lines and sanitation workers FIRE – poor building and little water, NYC & San Francisco fires SOLUTION  plumbing and professional fire depts. CRIME – chaos and crowding hides criminals SOLUTION  professional police forces

22 Religion in the Cities Most mainstream or old line Protestant churches struggle to address plight of urban poor Catholicism thrives, founds schools and parishes SOCIAL GOSPEL is preached (vs. SOCIAL DARWINISM) Salvation Army, YMCA and Christian Scientists are formed in this milieu

23 URBAN REFORMERS Jane Addams: Reformer, studies social ills, founds Hull House in Chicago in 1889 Settlement Houses are founded to provide assistance to poor and new immigrants Run largely by middle-class women reformers Provided aid and education