Immigration and Urbanization 1880-1917

The New Immigrant Immigrants in the period 1880-1917 came primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe

The New Immigrant Most came as single men, not in family groups 44% eventually returned home Those who stayed for 5 years or longer send for their wives and children to join them I Italian immigrant family coming to meet husband and father

Push Factors Many people in Europe were experiencing economic hardship due to small farm size and unemployment Others were running from ethnic and/or religious persecution. This was especially true of Jews leaving Eastern Europe where they faced repeated “pogroms” or mob attacks and rules that forbid Jews from owning land or attending universities.

Pull Factors Emigrants leaving Southern and Eastern Europe went to western Europe, to Australia, Brazil, Argentina, and increasingly to the United States People made their choices based on advertising from steamship companies, land companies, and employers People also went where they had friends and relatives. Letters back home were probably the key in what was “chain migration” to the new world

The Journey Most immigrants had little money for travel Towns and families often pooled money to send one young man Travel was by “steerage” in the lowest compartments of the steamboats of the day

Arriving Immigrants entered the US through ports cities such as San Francisco, Galveston, and most importantly New York In New York, immigrants were processed at Ellis Island In San Francisco, immigrants were processed at Angel Island Immigrants were subjected to medical inspections and interrogated regarding they money they carried, their destination, their education, etc.

Ellis Island Video

Ellis Island – Hitch Video

Immigrants and the Cities Most immigrants settled in large cities, including Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and most importantly New York By 1910, 40% of the population of New York was foreign born, and 80% of the population was foreign born or had foreign born parents In 1890, 1.4 million people lived in Manhattan; in 1910, 3 million people lived in Manhattan.

Urban life: the extremes of poverty and Wealth in the Gilded Age Immigrants live in crowded often squalid conditions. The most notorious housing for immigrants was the “Dumbbell” Tenement which crowded 24-32 4-room apartments into a plot of land 25 ft x 100 ft in size. Ventilation was provided by a narrow 5-foot wide air shaft

Airshaft of a dumbbell tenement, NYC

Airshafts and outdoor space in NYC tenements

Outdoor toilet (1903)

Immigrant Neighborhoods Immigrants tended to live in neighborhoods with other immigrants Immigrant neighborhoods provided familiar food and support networks, including foreign language press, mutual aid associations Mulberry Street, New York

Employment Immigrants found employment in the new industries, as semi-skilled workers in steel mills, coal mines, and the garment industry In New York, many immigrant women worked at home or in small sweatshops owned by other immigrants that subcontracted with bigger manufacturers

Wealth in the City The new industrial barons of the day also build huge mansions in New York to demonstrate and show case their increasing wealth Andrew Carnegie’s home in NYC. In 1889 Carnegie wrote an essay that described a responsibility of philanthropy by the upper class and self-made rich. He stressed the danger of letting large sums of money get into the wrong hands as it is passed down and that the entrepreneur must put his money to good use. The NYC home of Andrew Carnegie’s associate Henry Clay Frick

Visualizing wealth and poverty in the Gilded Age City bosses and political machines use to provide welfare to immigrants in exchange for political back-up. The bedroom of George Vanderbilt a major railroad owner of the era below. A worker’s Apartment Given what we have seen about changes in business and work, what conclusions can you draw about the Gilded Age and the impact of the railroad that can contextualize these and explain these images?

The Suburb Cities also began developing street car systems that allowed white-collar workers to move into new developed “suburbs” free from the chaos and crowding of immigrant neighborhoods

Anti-Immigrant fears The massive increase in immigration also spurred anti-immigrant hostility. This hostility led to laws banning Chinese immigration in 1882, and then in the 1920s to laws restricting immigration from Europe according to nationality quotas that targeted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe..

Americanization Some patriotic organizations pushed for Americanization of immigrants, pushing American values, history, and citizenship