Through Ellis Island and Angel Island: The Immigrant Experience

Chapter 15

Why Europeans Immigrated

• “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

• Where did immigrants come from?

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…”

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?

Ellis Island

• “Six second 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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Three Great Waves

• What affects immigration?– Political and economic turmoil; grass is

greener theory

• Immigration has defined the US in its history