2. Through Ellis Island and Angel Island: The Immigrant Experience
Chapter 15

3. Why Europeans Immigrated
“Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
Where did immigrants come from?

5. Push / Pull Factors What is a push / pull factor?
PUSH: population growth, hunger and religious persecution
Pogroms – organized, anti-Jewish attacks
PULL: opportunity, jobs, land and the sometimes misleading America letters
“land of milk and honey…streets paved with gold…”

6. The Trip What too three months now took two weeks due to steamships
Seasickness, spoiled food and filthy toilets
Separation on the ship by class
What did third class passengers face?

7. Ellis Island “Six second exam” 29 Question Exam
Marked clothing with chalk (L,H,X and E)
Faced possible deportation
29 Question Exam
“Do you have work waiting for you?” / Foran Act of 1885
About 2% of immigrants were denied entry
Ride on ferry to NYC

8. Urban Populations Explode
Most immigrants settled in places like New York, Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, etc.
Lived in areas with those who spoke the same language
Riis’s imagined map of the city (p. 192)

9. American Response
New immigrants had to “find their own way” financially
Who could they rely on?
“pass the hat”
Settlement Houses – established as a community center to help guide immigrants
Political Bosses –
Assimilation / Americanization
Happened with children at school, needing to fit in

11. American Response Cultural differences created backlash
Anarchy / Socialism
Nativisim spreads like wildfire
Religious and cultural differences and economic downturn fueled the fire
By the 1920’s Congress had passed legislation to slow immigration
Became based on quota

12. Immigration from Asia
Immigrants, mainly from China, came to strike it rich on Gold Mountain (California)
Majority were men, most ended up staying in the US
Friction between white men and Chinese immigrants grew over labor
Chinese worked for less

13. Immigration from Asia
“…utter heathens, treacherous, sensual, cowardly, cruel…” - Henry George
Chinese “could never be Americanized”
Mob violence towards Chinese
Economic woes blamed on Chinese
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) – no immigration of Chinese for 10 years

14. Angel Island “Ellis Island of the West” Detained for questioning
Asked extremely specific questions to prevent Chinese from forging their way into the country
Could be detained for weeks, months, even years
Angel Island = miserable place

15. Other Asian Immigrant Groups
Immigrants came as farm laborers and service industry workers from:
Korea, Philippines, and Japan
Anti-Asian feelings caused segregation – led to a Gentleman’s Agreement between TR and Japan
Japanese allowed emigrants, with certain family demands

16. Immigrants From North and South
As immigration slowed from Asia, farmers found new laborers from Mexico
Higher wages and plentiful opportunity – Mexican Revolution was also a push factor
Faced similar segregation and racist attitudes from white people
Canadians immigrated without many problems – hard to tell them apart

17. Three Great Waves What affects immigration?
Political and economic turmoil; grass is greener theory
Immigration has defined the US in its history