1. Immigration During the Gilded Age
Scott Lee, Jeyson Man, Andy Zhou

2. Background
From , 13.5 million immigrants arrived in US.

3. “Old” Immigrants (1800-1880) Ethnicities: Religion: Motives:
Irish, German, northern Europeans ( England, Scandinavia, etc)
Religion:
Protestants, Catholics
Motives:
Irish : potato famine
German: liberal and intellectuals escape after Revolution of 1848
Northern Europeans: settle the frontier near railroads in the west.

4. “Old” Immigrants (1800-1880) Workers for factories, mines, railroads
Farmers for the west
They had special abilities and high rate of literacy
Manpower for military
Easily assimilated in American society
Accepted because spoke same language and worship same religion

5. “New” Immigrants (1891-1920) Ethnicities: Religions: Motives:
Southern and Eastern Europe (Russian, Greek, Polish, Austrians, Jews)
Religions:
Catholic, Orthodox, Judaism
Motives:
Push factors
Crops failure, famine
Persecution
Poverty
Pull factors
Promise of freedom
“Perfect America”
Factory jobs, better lifestyle

6. “New” Immigrants (1891-1920) Not literate and highly skilled
Flocked cities of New York and Chicago
Resistant to Americanization
Frontier closed  no more land
Created ghettoes, not willing to learn American ways

7. Asian Immigrants Ethnicity: China and Japan
Religion: Buddhism and others
Motives:
Hired by California construction companies
Went to west coast due to gold rush
Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad
Better life

8. Immigrant Experience Ellis Island (New York)
If poor, travel in steerage (worst accommodation on the ship)
Came through processing center in Ellis Island
Handled 12 million European Immigrants
Asked a list of questions
Do you have money, relatives or a job in the United States? Are you a polygamist? An anarchist? … etc
Doctors then look for signs of disease  quarantine

9. Immigrant Experience Angel Island West version of Ellis Island
San Francisco bay
Designed to filter out the Chinese immigrants
Chinese were turned away unless they were citizens or had relatives in America

10. Life of Immigrants
Immigrants live in their own separated neighborhood (Little Italy, Chinatown… etc)
Kept most of their cultures
Can only find low paying jobs
Many were forced into tenement housing
Small cramped apartment buildings

11. Anti-immigration Nativism
Extreme dislike for foreigners by native-born people and a desire to limit immigration
Immigrants might take all the jobs
Restrictive Covenant- agreements among house-owners not to sell real estate to certain of group of people

12. Anti-immigration Chinese Exclusion Act Gentlemen’s Agreement
Banned Chinese immigration for 10 years
Banned from becoming citizens
Attend segregated school
Gentlemen’s Agreement
Limit the immigration of Japanese
Japanese students can attend public schools
Japanese government would stop granting Japanese passports to US.

13. Americanization
Help newcomers to learn English and adopt American culture
“Melting Pot”

14. Sources: