The Rising Tide of Immigration:

U.S. Immigration 1870-1920

The Great Migration 1880

The Great Migration

• The Largest Mass Movement in Human History.– From 1880 to 1910, a record setting 23 million

immigrants arrived in America.– At this time the U.S. had no quotas or restrictions

(limits) on how many immigrants entered the U.S.• From 1880 to 1921 approximately 70% of all

immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe.– The typical Immigrant was young, male, and either

Catholic or Jewish.– The majority were poor agricultural laborers with little

money or education.

Push Factors• Reasons Pushing

immigrants to leave their homelands.– Agricultural Decline in

Europe– Political & Religious

Persecution in Eastern Europe

– Groups who came included, Jews from Russia, Greeks from Romania, Turks from Bulgaria, & Poles living under Russian and Austrian-Hungarian rule.

Pull Factors • Reasons pulling

immigrants toward U.S.– Newspaper Articles and

Letters sent from family members painted U.S. as a “Magic” land.

– American businesses & factories sent recrutiers abroad in search of cheap labor.

– Railroads & Steamship companies solicited immigrants businesses by distributing pamphlets that promised a better life in US

– Immigrants faced Hardships as they traveled to the US

The Journey Across the Atlantic

• Steamships Accommodations– Trip lasted 8 to 14 days, with approximately

1,200 to 2,000 people on Board– Most Immigrants traveled in Steerage class.

ARRIVAL IN AMERICA• 1st & 2nd class passangers were

questioned aboard ship and released • 3rd class passengers went to Ellis Island

ELLIS ISLAND• Medical Inspections

– Sought to weed out “undesirables”

• The Great Hall– Part of the Registry Hall,

officals preformed a “six second” exam while immigrants climbed the stairs.

– Given an inspection card at top of stairs.

– Medical Exams lasted about 45 Minutes

– If the doctor found anything wrong the immigrant was marked for further inspection

Legal Inspections

• The Registry Hall– Wait was 2 to 3 hours

long, sometimes as long as a day

• Legal Inspection– Lasted 2 to 3 minutes,

• Only about 2% were deported

Ethnic Enclaves

Ethnic Enclaves

• Before Leaving Ellis Island many immigrants first visited the money exchange office, post office, and Railway room.

• 2/3 of Immigrants left Ellis Island for Cities other than NYC.

• About 75% of immigrants settled in urban centers such as Boston, New York City, Chicago, & Philadelphia.

• Ethnic Enclaves provided immigrants with a sense of home– They included newspapers in native languages, grocery stores

with familiar foods, people in native dress, and churches who were filled with people from the home country. They strengthened Community and Economic ties.

Living Conditions

Living Conditions

• City Tenement Buildings – Most Tenements were run down, low rent

apartment buildings clustered together in the poorest parts of town.

– Tenements had six or seven floors which contained four four-room apartments

• Overcrowding • http://www.tenement.org/

Working conditions

Working Conditions

• The Immigrant Workforce– Majority worked in industrial jobs

• Rapidly growing industries needed workers• Immigrants did not want to work in Agriculture• Immigrants unskilled or semiskilled

• Working Conditions– Immigrants were vulnerable to exploitation– Average salary was 10 cents an hour ($16 dollars a

week needed to live)• Improved Standard of Living

– Most immigrants better off economically than they had been in Europe.

American Treatment of Immigrants

American Nativism

• Both Native-born & assimilated immigrants viewed newcomers with fear, hostility, and suspicion.

• Based on a belief that immigrants posed a threat to native-born Americans and their way of life.

• Nativists often held deep-seeded prejudices about immigrants based on their ethnicity, race, religion, political and social beliefs

Restrictions on Immigration

• Literacy Test • Called for a restriction on the number of

immigrants entering the U.S.• In 1921, congress passed the Dillingham

Bill, which established quotas on the number of immigrants entering the U.S. and ended the U.S. open-door policy on immigration.