1. Immigration

2. Causes ** Famine Land Shortages Persecution “Birds of Passage”
Earn $ and then return home

3. Europeans 1870-1920, 20 mill. Europeans Religious persecution
Russian Jews
Overpopulation = No land
Political change

4. Ellis Island** Inspections 17 million imm. past through E.I.
1st was physical
2nd performed by a government inspector
Documentation
Criminal Past
Work Ability
17 million imm. past through E.I.

5. Chinese / Japanese
, 300,000 Chinese arrived on the west coast
Big Reasons:
Gold RR
Congress limited Chinese imm. in 1882
Hawaii annexation in 1898 increased Japanese immigration.**

6. Angel Island** San Francisco Bay Chinese immigrants
Process similar to Ellis Island

7. Life Rafts**
Immigrants would gravitate towards neighborhoods that housed people from their home country
Ethnic communities that served as a support structure for immigrants.

8. Nativism Nativism: favoritism toward native-born Americans **
“Right” immigrants
English, German
Progressive / energetic
“Wrong” immigrants
Slav, Latin, Asiatic
Down-trodden / stagnant
1896, Literacy Test for immigrants – 40 words in English

9. Anti-Asian Sentiment Chinese accepted jobs for lower $$
Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882
10 year ban on all Chinese except students, teachers, merchants, and gov. officials.
Not repealed until 1943.

10. Gentlemen’s Agreement
Board of Ed. in S.F. segregated Japanese children by putting them in separate schools.
President Teddy Roosevelt: worked out the Gentlemen’s Agreement
Japan would limit imm. of unskilled workers in exchange for repeal of the segregation order.

11. Then & Now
Immigrants now in the U.S.: displaced from war-stricken countries (Serbian Peninsula, E.Europe)
Pacific Islands
Caribbean Islands
Middle East
Africa
Mexico
Border Patrol issues
Differentiated State Laws
Relevancy of Nativism
Jobs
Welfare
Constitutional Rights
Political Debate