1. Immigration A scholar, Oscar Handlin, once wrote:
“Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants WERE American history.”

2. The Great Migration 1880-1921 - 23 million immigrants
old immigrants - before northwestern Europe
new immigrants - after southern and eastern Europe

4. Push and Pull Factors Reasons for leaving
wars
famine
religious persecution
overpopulation
Leaving the homeland - hardships

6. Journey Across the Atlantic
Crowded steerage - diverse group
Horrible conditions
no windows - little ventilation
1 toilet for 1000 passengers
spread of disease

8. Arrival in America
75% processed through Ellis Island (Island of Tears)
Lady Liberty
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

12. Medical Inspections 1st and 2nd class had short examination
Steerage class loaded on to barges and taken to Ellis Island
Medical inspections were often harsh and traumatic

13. Inspectors Examine Female Immigrants

15. Inspectors Examine the eyes of immigrants

16. Legal Inspections Long wait in Registry Hall
Inspectors asked 32 questions
Many remember Ellis Island as one of their worst experiences
“Why should I fear the fires of hell? I have been through Ellis Island.”

17. Immigrants leave ship after inspections

18. Ethnic Enclaves Two thirds of immigrants settled in urban areas
By % of foreign-born U.S. residents lived in Cities
Many stayed in close-knit ethnic enclaves
Enclaves provided:
sense of community and security
familiar food, languages and institutions

19. Living Conditions Most cities ill-equipped Tenement Conditions
no adequate sewage system
housing scarce
Tenement Conditions
crowded
filthy and run-down
fire, diseases and death common
Some traveled west to small towns

23. Nativism: policy of favoring the interests of native-born Americans over those of immigrants.