New Immigrants in a Promised Land

Why did millions of immigrants decide to make the difficult journey to the United States? What problems did the “new immigrants” face in adapting to American life? Why were some Americans opposed to increased immigration?

Why Immigrants Came Push Factors Scarce land Chapter 21, Section 1 Push Factors Scarce land Farm jobs lost to new machines Political and religious persecution Revolution Poverty and hard lives Pull Factors Promise of freedom Family or friends already settled in the United States Factory jobs available

The New Immigrants Chapter 21, Section 1

The voyage across the ocean was often miserable. Ship owners jammed up to 2,000 people in steerage, the airless rooms below deck. For most European immigrants, the voyage ended in New York City, where they were greeted by the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of hope and freedom.

First, immigrants had to go through a receiving station. After 1892, the receiving station in New York was on Ellis Island. Here they had a medical inspection. The few who appeared unhealthy were sent home. Often, if American officials had trouble spelling immigrants’ names, they simply changed them

After 1910, many Asian immigrants entered through Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. To discourage Asian immigration, new arrivals were often delayed on the island for a long time. Immigrants from both Europe and Asia faced a new land whose language and customs they did not know.

Many immigrants had unrealistic expectations about what they would find in the United States. They had to adjust to reality. In large American cities, immigrants packed into city slums. The immigrants tended to settle in their own neighborhoods, where people spoke their own language and carried on their own customs.

Newcomers were faced with learning American ways. They struggled with acculturation, the process of holding on to older traditions while adapting to the ways of a new culture. Children acculturated more quickly

Even before the Civil War, nativists tried to limit immigration and preserve the country for native-born white Protestants. Nativitists argued that immigrants would not fit into American culture. Many workers resented the immigrants for working for low pay. Other people feared them because they were different. Nativists targeted Jews and Italians in the Northeast, Mexicans in the Southwest, and Asians on the Pacific Coast.

In the West, as the Chinese population grew, so did prejudice and violence against them. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese laborers from entering the country. No one who left could return It was the first law to exclude a specific national group from immigrating. It was repealed in 1943.

In 1887, nativists formed the American Protective Association to work for restricted immigration. Congress responded by passing a bill that denied entry to people who could not read their own language. Vetoed by Grover Cleveland