Section 5.1

Immigration

Today’s Agenda• Current Events

• Immigration Slide Show

• Presentations– George Bellows– Alfred Stieglitz

• Homework– Start reading 5.2

Why did they come to America?

“The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to

land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall

standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles.From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.“"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"”

cries sheWith silent lips. “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-tost to

me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

What motivated them to come?

• “Observe immigrants, you are struck by the fact that from ten to twenty percent are hirsute, low-browed, big-faced persons of obviously low mentality…they clearly belong in skins, in wattled huts at the close of the Ice Age.”

• Professor Edward A. Ross sociologist

Which description best represents the true picture of immigration into America

at the turn of the century?

Both

ObjectivesAt the end of this lesson you should

be able to:

• Describe the change in immigration after 1890 (demography, culture, religion)

• Define assimilation and describe problems associated with it for immigrants

• List social problems faced by city dwellers

What is your ethnicity?• When did your ancestors (grandparents,

great-grandparents) come to America? What year (about)? Where did they live? Occupation? What made them come here?

Describe how immigration changed after 1890.

• Greatly increased 1890-1920– 25 million

• Demographic shift– Before 1890

• From Northern and Western Europe – Great Britain, Ireland, Germany

• Protestant– After 1890 to1920

• From Southern and Eastern Europe– Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia– New Faiths (Catholic, Jewish)– Poor and uneducated

What problems did they encounter?• Assimilation

– Polish immigrant quote pg. 154

• Eugenics– The Passing of the Great Race

(1916)• “lesser breeds” will

“mongrelize” America• Nativism/Xenophobia

– Henry Bowers• Protective Association• Immigration Restriction

League• Literacy Tests

Who wants the flow of immigration to continue?

• Factory Owners

• Why?

• Cheap Labor

How did people in art

react to these new

problems?

George Bellows

Presentation

What about today? How open should our borders be?

Click for clip