Immigration

Chapter 15

What would cause millions of people to

pick up their lives and move to a new

country?

A Difficult Journey

• By the 1870s, almost all immigrants

traveled by steamship.

• The trip across the Atlantic Ocean from

Europe took approximately one

week.

• The trip across the Pacific from Asia took nearly three weeks.

ELLIS ISLAND

http://my.hrw.com/ss_2012/mmc/ellis_island/index.html

ANGEL ISLAND

Immigration Restrictions

Nativism

Overt favoritism toward native-born Americans Nativists sometimes objected more immigrants’

religious beliefs than to their ethnic backgrounds. Majority Protestants and thought that Catholics

and Jewish immigrants would undermine the democratic institutions established by the country’s Protestant founders.

In 1897, Congress passed a bill requiring a literacy test for immigrants – President Cleveland vetoed it!

In 1917, a similar bill passed in spite of President Wilson’s veto.

Chinese-Exclusion Act

In 1882, Congress slammed the door on Chinese immigration for 10 years by passing this Act.

Banned entry to all Chinese except students, teachers, merchants, tourists and government officials.

The law was not repealed until 1943.

Immigration Restrictions

The Gentlemen’s Agreement

In 1907 – 1908, Japan’s government agreed to limit emigration of unskilled workers to the US in exchange for the repeal of the San Francisco segregation order.

San Francisco Board of Education segregated Japanese children by putting them in separate schools.

Causes Effects

Immigrants leave their home

countries

Immigrants face hardships in the United States

Some nativists want to restrict immigration

Causes Effects Poverty Religious

Persecution Shortage of Land

Lack of Jobs

Immigrants leave their home countries

Foreign Culture InterrogationDetention

Discrimination Urban Life

Immigrants face hardships in the United States

Intolerance Prejudice Economic

Depression

Some nativists want to restrict

immigration