Immigration

By Jackie White

Objective: • Understand how immigration requirements are

influenced by political, economic, & social factors.

Requirements for U.S. citizenship

• Imagine that you are the president of the United States and you must determine whether or not there should be requirements to be or to become a U.S. citizen? If so, what should the requirements be? If none, explain why not. Be prepared to share your requirements with a partner and/or the class.

Citizenship Test• Take the U.S. citizenship test to

find out if you have what it takes to become a U.S. citizen!

Objective• Identify several reasons why immigrants left their

homelands (PUSH) and came to America (PULL).

Main Idea: Why It Matters Now:

Terms & Names:

Immigration from Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and Mexico reached a new high in the late 19the and early 20th centuries.

This wave of immigration helped make the United States the diverse society it is today.

Ellis IslandAngel IslandMelting potNativismChinese Exclusion ActGentlemen’s Agreement

Brainstorm

• What words, phrases, or images come to mind when you hear the word IMMIGRANT?

Immigration• What does immigration

mean?• Entering a new country

to settle permanently

Our Ethnic Ancestry• We are decedents of our ancestors or

relatives from the past. Trace your family history to the country/countries your ancestors came from.

• We will go around the room and record everyone’s ancestors country of origin on the Smartboard.

Ethnic Ancestry• Look closely at our class’s ethnic diversity. What

questions does this raise for you?

Why Come to America?

• Immigrants including our ancestors came to America for a wide variety of reasons. What might be some reasons your ancestors or relatives came to America?

Push/Pull Factors• Push Factors-

conditions that push people out of their homeland.

• Pull Factors- conditions that attract people to a new area.

Benito Vincenzo• Read the story of Benito Vincenzo. Identify at

least one push factor and one pull factor from the reading.

Coreno, Italy

small village east of Naples in southern Italy

Benito, his wife Carmela, and son Pasquale

• Sailing ship of the 1800’s took 1-3 months to cross the Atlantic Ocean

Steamship of 1901 took less then two weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean

New York City in 1902

Little Italy

Tall buildings

“Birds of Passage”• Immigrants who

came to the U.S. to work and returned to their native country to live

Create a list of Push/Pull Factors from

the story

Document Analysis• Activity: In groups of 2-3 read 3-4 primary source

documents and identify the factors for immigration for each document. Be prepared to share your research .

Examples of Push Factors

• Increasing population• Land scarce in home country• Food scarcity• Political instability• Religious persecution• Revolutions • Poverty• Too few industrial jobs

Examples of Pull Factors

• Promise of freedom (religious and political)

• Hope for a new life • Industrial Jobs • Land-large amounts and

cheap• “Streets paved with gold”• In search of American Dream-

socio-economic mobility

European Immigrants

o Beginning in the 1890s, increasing numbers came from southern and eastern Europe

o Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia

o Prior to 1890, most immigrants came from countries in western and northern Europe

o England, Ireland, Germany and Scandinavian countries

Objective• Content: Describe the journey immigrants

endured and their experiences at the United States immigration stations.

• Skill: Write a diary/letter capturing the difficulties immigrants faced in their journey to America.

Journey to America• Getting Ready for

your journey. Imagine you are leaving your country, family, and cultural traditions to come to the U.S. What things would you bring with you and why?

Journey to AmericaA) What items do you take to remind you about your family & your nation?

B) What items should you bring to practice your religion?

C) What type of clothing will you bring?

D) How much money?

E) What are your hopes & dreams?

Journey to America• Activity: Read a

primary source document on what the journey to America was like.

• Write a diary entry or letter to a friend or family member in your native country in which you describe your journey to America.

Immigrants Journeyo Most immigrants

traveled by steamship (approx. 1 week from Europe, and 3 weeks from China)

o Many traveled in steerage, the cheapest accommodations in the lower decks

o Immigrants were crowded together, unable to exercise or catch a breath of fresh air (disease spread and some immigrants died on route)

What might he be pointing at? What do you think they see?

How might they have felt?

Ellis Island Immigration Processing Station-NY

What might this be a picture of?

Ellis Island Present Day

oProcessing location for immigrants in New York harbor

oImmigrants had to pass a physical exam, and diseased individuals were sent home

Ellis Island

As immigrants walked up the stairs to the Registry room, they were closely watched by doctors. What

might the doctors have been looking for?

How might immigrants have felt arriving at Ellis?

Passing the Medical

Inspection at Ellis Island

(Video Clip)

http://www.history.com/videos/passing-the-medical-inspection-at-ellis-island#passing-the-medical-inspection-at-ellis-island

What might these tools have been used for?

Do you think the tools were sterilized and cleaned after each person?

What might this tool have been used for?

Eye exam-inspecting for trachoma a highly contagious eye

disease

What are they inspecting for?

What might this room have been used for?

What do you notice about this room?

How might it have felt to be in the room?

Journey to America• Activity: With a

partner or group of 3 write a diary entry or letter to a friend or family member in your native country in which you describe your journey to America.

Who Is Acceptable? You Decide

• 1. 22 year old male college student who has taken part in protests against his government, but wants to attend college in the U.S. and a good job.

• 2. Daughter of a minor party official in her native land.• 3. Musician/rock star who lost his hand in an accident.

• 4. Pregnant woman from an underdeveloped nation who wants her baby to be born and raised in America.

• 5. Medical doctor who speaks no English.

• 6. Farmer and family who have always been poor for his ancestors, as he, worked marginal lands.

• 7. Military officer who took part in an attempt overthrow of his country’s government.

• 8. Nuclear physicist who helped third world country to build atomic weapons.

Legal Inspection at Ellis Island

o A government inspector checked for criminal history

o Made sure the immigrant would be able to work

o Also to see if they had some money (at least $25 after 1909)

Manifest• Activity:Divide into groups of 3-5. Each

group analyze the passenger manifest. From the manifest the group must create a biography of one person’s life

What happens after immigrants arrive in

America?

Difficulties Immigrants Face in America

ObjectiveContent: Identify and understand the challenges and discrimination immigrants experienced being new comers to America.

Skill: Write a poem about what it is like to be an immigrant in America at the turn of the century, incorporate the challenges or difficulties immigrants encountered being new comers to America.

Challenges of Immigration

• Read poems/songs about immigration.• Identify the challenges immigrants

faced being new comers to America.• The New Colossus by Emma Lazurus• Twelve Hundred More by Anonymous• You, Whoever You Are by Walt Whitman • You Have to Live in Somebody Else’s Country to

Understand by Noy Chou

The New Colossus“…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!” ~1883

Discussion QuestionsWhere is this poem inscribed? On the base of the Statue of LibertyWho wrote the poem? Emma LazurusWhat do each of the following words mean?a)huddled-grouped togetherb)Masses-groups of peoplec)Yearning-intense desire/longingd)Wretched- miserable, pitifule)Refuse-discard, rejectf) Teeming-swarmingg)Tempest-disturbanceh)Tost- toss/thrownWho is the poet referring to or describing?Which immigrants are allowed into America?Is this poem welcoming or unwelcoming to immigrants? (Give a specific word or passage from the poem and explain what it means)If you were an immigrant based on this poem how would you anticipate being treated by Americans?

Twelve Hundred MoreO workingmen dear, and did you hearThe news that’s goin’ around?Another China steamerHas been landed here in town.Today I read the papers,And it grieved my heart full soreTo see upon the title page, “O, just Twelve Hundred More!”

O, California’s coming down, As you can plainly see.They are hiring all the ChinamenAnd discharging you and me;But strife will be in every townThroughout the Pacific shore, And the cry of old and young shall be, “O, damn, ‘Twelve Hundred More.’”

Discussion QuestionsWhat does each of the following words mean?

a) Steamerb) Grievedc) Dischargingd) Strife

Find a word, phrase or passage and explain what it reveals about American’s attitudes towards Chinese immigrants in the 1870’s?

What obstacles, problems, challenges, or difficulties does this song reveal that immigrants faced in America?

Compare and contrast this poem to “The New Colossus.” What contradictions are revealed about Americans attitudes towards immigrants at the time?

You, Whoever You Are By Walt Whitman

• 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.

“You Have to Live in Somebody Else's

Country to Understand” by Noy Chou

What is it like to be an outsider? What is it like to sit in the class where everyone has blond hair and you have black hair? What is it like when the teacher says, "Whoever wasn't born here raise your hand." And you are the only one. Then, when you raise your hand, everybody looks at you and makes fun of you.You have to live in somebody else's country to understand.

What is it like when the teacher treats you like you've been here all your life? What is it like when the teacher speaks too fast and you are the only one who can't understand what he or she is saving, and you try to tell him or her to slow down. Then when you do, everybody says, "If you don't understand, go to a lower class or get lost." You have to live in somebody else's country to understand. What is it like when you are an opposite? When you wear the clothes of your country and they think you are crazy to wear these clothes and you think they are pretty.

You have to live in somebody else's country to understand. What is it like when you are always a loser. What is it like when somebody bothers you when you do nothing to them? You tell them to stop but they tell you that they didn't do anything to you. Then, when they keep doing it until you can't stand it any longer, you go up to the teacher and tell him or her to tell them to stop bothering you. They say that they didn't do anything to bother you. Then the teacher asks the person sitting next to you. He says, "Yes, she didn't do anything to her" and you have no witness to turn to. So the teacher thinks you are a liar.

You have to live in somebody else's country to understand.

What is it like when you try to talk and you don't pronounce the words right? They don't understand you. They laugh at you but you don't know that they are laughing at you, and you start to laugh with them. They say, "Are you crazy, laughing at yourself? Go get lost, girl." You have to live in somebody else's country without a language to understand. What is it like when you walk in the street and everybody turns around to look at you and you don't know that they are looking at you. Then, when you find out, you want to hide your face but you don't know where to hide because they are everywhere. You have to live in somebody else's country to feel it.

Immigration Poem

• Write a poem about being an immigrant in America at the turn of the century.

• Your poem must include specific examples of challenges immigrants faced being a new comer to America.

Objectives: Learning: Understand the effects of urbanization on America. Skill: Draw a picture or sketch to visualize problems with housing, transportation, water, & sanitation in the nations cities.

Main Idea: Why it Matters Now:

Terms & Names:

The rapid growth of cities forced people to contend with problems of housing, water, & sanitation.

Consequently, residents of U.S. cities today enjoy vastly improved living conditions.

UrbanizationAmericanizationTenementMass transitSocial Gospel MovementSettlement houseJane Addams

Cliff Dwellers (1913)by George Bellows

• In the early 1900s, urban areas were overcome with people leaving rural areas and with immigrants new to the country. The skyrocketing population created problems in housing, transportation, water, sanitation and safety. As problems in cities mounted, social reformers established programs to aid the poor and improve urban life.

Cliff Dwellers• Why do you think the painting is entitled Cliff

Dwellers?• How does the artist create the impression of

cliffs?• What aspects of city life are pictured here? (Use

evidence from the painting to support your response)

• What might be some of the problems of urbanization?

Challenges of Urbanization

What would you do if a fire broke out on the fifth floor of this building?

Do you think the fire escape was there in 1900?

What do you notice about the side of this building?

What might it have been like living inside the building?

What do we call all of the houses that share an interior wall like this?

What would happen if there was a fire in one of the homes?

What is this type of home called?

How many people lived in this home?

What might it have felt like to live inside it?

What is this a picture of?

How did it work?

What would it be like to share this with everyone in your tenement building?

What would it smell like on a hot summer day?

Where did the waste go?

New York Tenement Museum

• http://www.tenement.org/Virtual-Tour/index_virtual.html

The Good Old Days, They Were Terrible!

• Skim through the book “The Good Old Days-They Were Terrible!”

• Identify a few problems associated with housing, sanitation, water, transportation, and safety of city life at the turn of the 19th century.

Challenges of Urbanization

• Draw a picture or sketch of city living in America at the turn of the century.

• Your drawing must capture several problems associated with city living in the areas of housing, transportation, water, & sanitation.

Personal Immigration Experience

• Interview a family member or friend about their personal immigration experience.

• Compare & contrast their story with that of immigrants at the turn of the 19th century.

• See discussion question worksheet.

Objective:

• Skill: Identify elements of political cartoons and determine the cartoonists message.

Immigration Political Cartoons

Elements of Political Cartoons:• Symbols• Words• Message/meaning

Identify all of the symbols used in this cartoon?

What does each symbol mean?

What is the message?