American melting potYou, Whoever You Are

You, whoever you are!...

All you continentals of Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, indifferent of place!

All you on the numberless islands of the archipelagoes of the sea! All you of centuries hence when you listen to me!

All you each and everywhere whom I specify not, but include just the same!

Health to you! good will to you all, from me and America sent!Each of us is inevitable,

Each of us is limitless—each of us with his or her right upon the earth,

Each of us allow'd the eternal purports of the earth,Each of us here as divinely as any is here.

Walt Whitman

Melting pot vs. Salad Bowl

Melting Pot→All immigrants mixed together form the ”American”

Salad Bowl →All immigrants are American, yet keep their cultural heritage from their ”home”

Immigration History

Who?•Northern EuropeansSwedish, Irish, Norwegian, German•Eastern EuropeansRussian, Polish, Jewish•Southern EuropeansItalians, Greeks, Turks•Holocaust victims•Vietnam war refugees•Today: Mexicans, Central/Middle Americans, Somalians

When?

• Late 1800’s-early 1900’s

• Late 1800’s-early 1900’s• 1930’s-1940’s

• 1940’s• 1960’s-1970’s• 1980’s - present

Why did they come? What is the attraction of a country they have

never seen?• These people were

fleeing crop failures, • land and job shortages• rising taxes and famine• escaping religious or

political persecution.• Available land• Plenty of work• Move up social ladder

How did they travel?

• It took 3 months to travel to America at the beginning of the 1800’s

• In steamships (which began to be used in the mid-nineteenth century)it took 14 days to cross the Atlantic

• Most passangers bought passage in steerage – the cheapest option

Statue of LibertyGive 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 life my lamp beside the golden door.

Emma Lazarus- Intended as a sign of friendship between the United States and France and as a monument to political liberty in both nations,- a symbol of refuge and hope for immigrants

Ellis and Angel Island

• Ellis Island—New York– This is where European

immigrants first landed in the U.S. and were processed to decide if they were eligible to stay.

– Processing could take hours

– 12 million immigrants passed through

• Angel Island—San Francisco– Chinese and Asian

immigrants first landed here for processing.

– This could take weeks or months

– Conditions were much harsher on Angel Island than on Ellis Island.

– 175,000 immigrants

African-Largest racial minority in the United States.Now, more than 35 million Americans claim African ancestry, -come from Sub-Saharan Africa ,West and Central African, descendants of enslaved Africans -discrimination-Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Muhammad Ali, M. L. King, Jr.

German

-They were aboard the first boats that came ashore at Jamestown-comprise about 50 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population-live mostly in California, Texas and Pennsylvania,-established the first kindergartens in the United States, introduced the Christmas tree tradition, and originated popular American foods such as hot dogs and hamburgers-John D. Rockefeller, William Boeing, Walter Chrysler, Dwight D. Eisenhower-German words in English: angst, kindergarten, sauerkraut, doppelganger, gemütlich, lederhosen, poltergeist, strudel, schnaps, Übermensch, schnitzel, Wanderjahr

Irish-religious conflicts, lack of political autonomy and dire economic conditions- Settled in New York (too poor to travel)- -discriminated against- Took the jobs no one wanted- "Let Negroes be servants, and if not

Negroes, let Irishmen fill their place..." - - Paddy Wagon, donnybrook, fighting Irish

Scandinavian• Leif Erickson came to Canada almost 5

centuries before Columbus• Immigration increased in the late 19th

century due to mounting economic pressures and overpopulation

• Scandinavian immigrants settled primarily in the Midwest. Norwegians favored Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota.

• 4.5 million people of Norwegian ancestry today

• regional wars and agricultural disasters created tremendous instability in everyday life, official corruption, the policies of powerful state churches, and an increasing disparity between the rich and the poor

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-XEHwUBubk&feature=fvwrel

Italians

• It was an Italian who began the story of immigration to America

• Italians stopped in New York and made their home there.

• Little Italy, Mannhattan • Famous people with Italian

origin: Jon Bon Jovi, Hulk Hogan, Madonna, Robert DeNiro, Danny DeVito, Al Pacino, Frank Sinatra, Mario Puzo

Russian/ Polish • 3.13 million Russian Americans

• 10 million Polish Americans• In 1880, more than six million

of the world's 7.7 million Jews lived in eastern Europe. By 1920, close to 23 percent of the world's Jews move to the US.

• -Babushka, balalaika, gulag, matryoshka, samovar, Ushanka

• -schmuck, schmatta, schlub, yarmulka, kielbasa, pierogi

Japanese-Japanese immigration increased between 1900 and 1919-First immigrants settled in Hawaii, worked in sugar cane fields-On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor. Americans started arresting prominent Japanese Americans—businessmen, journalists, teachers, and civic officials—as security risks. -By the end of the war in 1945, 125,000 people, half of them children, had spent time in what even Roosevelt admitted were concentration camps (California and much of Washington and Oregon) -the postwar years saw dramatic improvements -Today, the Japanese American community is nearly 1 million strong

Mexican-Mexican immigration occupies a complex position in the U.S. history.-Spanish-speaking people have lived in North America since the Spaniards colonized Mexico in the16th century- Mexicans first arrived in present-day New

Mexico in 1598 and founded the city of Santa Fe in 1610.

- 1846 U.S. and Mexico over the U.S. annexation of Texas - Texas, as well as parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada to America

- 20th century – increase of immigrants- projections show that, by the next two

generations, more than 25 percent of the U.S. population will be of Latin American origin. -Influence on English: adios, amigo, barbecue, canoe, desperado, fiesta, guerilla, macho, patio, potato, tornado

-Tex-Mex – chees, beans, meat and spices - chili con carne, chili con queso, nachos, chili gravy, and fajitas

Chinese• Came to America to discover gold • China suffered poverty and famine• Gold fever turned out to be an

illusion, they had no money to come back

• Central Pacific Railroad• Chinese laundries• Chinatowns - San Francisco

Chinatown - the oldest Chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside Asia

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW6f96SgknY&feature=player_embedded

Puerto Rican/Cuban

• Puerto Rico American since 1917

• Started migrating in the 20th century because of poverty and economic depression

• Cubans fled political persecution; Fidel Castro; Cold War

• Miami - the capital of Cuban America and the Latin American world

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/10/us/20090310-immigration-explorer.html?exampleUserLabel=nytimes&exampleSessionId=1236784038906