Through Ellis Island and Angel
Island: The Immigrant Experience
Chapter 15
What was it like to be an immigrant to the United
States around the turn
of the century?
SECTION 2
Why Europeans
Immigrated to the
United States
What was it like to be an immigrant to the United
States around the turn
of the century?
“OLD” IMMIGRANTS
● 1840 - 1880
● From Northern & Western Europe
● Immigrated through New York City
● From ‘familiar’ countries
○ Irish
○ British
○ Germans
○ Scandinavians
“NEW” IMMIGRANTS
● 1880 - 1920
● From Southern & Eastern Europe
● Immigrated through New York City
● From ‘unfamiliar’ countries
○ Italians
○ Greeks
○ Hungarians
○ Poles
○ Russians
“PUSH” FACTORS
● Population Growth
○ Crowded cities
○ No jobs
○ Food shortages
● Scarcity of arable land
○ Commercial farms
■ Push peasants off land
○ Dividing plots after centuries
● Hunger
○ Crop failures
○ Potato famine
● Religious Persecution
○ Russian / Polish Jews
■ Pogroms- attacks
○ Armenian Catholics
■ massacred
“PULL” FACTORS
● Free Democratic society
● New Industries
○ Jobs to unskilled workers
● Ample farmland, minerals & forests
● ‘America letters’
○ Overstated facts from relatives
○ ‘Streets are paved with gold’
IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSPORTATION MAKE IMMIGRATION EASIER
● Steamship
● Used to take 3 months- now about 2 weeks
● Most traveled in steerage
○ Packed with people
○ Smelly!
■ Vomit, spoiled food, toilets
● Most spent time on the deck during the day
With my ears...
With my nose...
With my heart...
With my hands...
SECTION 3
To Ellis Island &
Beyond
What was it like to be an immigrant to the United
States around the turn
of the century?
ELLIS ISLAND IMMIGRATION STATION
● 1st / 2nd class had a brief examination on board and were free to enter New York
immediately
● Steerage passengers were taken on a ferry to Ellis Island
● Staffed by officers of the Bureau of Immigration
○ See if immigrants were fit to enter
MEDICAL EXAMS
● Immigrants were given ID tags
● 6 second exam
○ Observed for limps, wheezing- any sign of disease and pulled for closer inspection
● Physical Exam / Eye exam
○ Chalk used to mark clothing for a suspected disease
○ L- lameness, X- mental, E- eye condition
● Disabled / incurable illness- face deportation
LEGAL EXAMS
● Primary Inspector- with interpreter
○ Match 29 questions that were asked at port of departure
○ “Do you have work waiting in the United States?”
■ Want to appear eager to work- but not a contract laborer
COMPLETING THE PROCESS
● Took several hours
○ High stress / high anxiety
● 20% failed medical or legal
○ Sent to Ellis Island Hospital for treatment of curable ailments
○ Hearing with the Board of Special Inquiry
● 2% were deported
BEYOND ELLIS ISLAND: LIFE IN THE CITIES
● Most immigrants stayed in New York City or an industrial center
○ Boston, Cleveland, Chicago
○ 1870 - 1920- Percentage of Americans in cities grew from 25% to 50%
● Settled in least desirable areas
○ Cheap housing- tenements
○ Near factories / Shops
○ Settled with others from their own countries
With my eyes...
With my ears...
With my nose...
With my hands...
SECTION 4
Responses to New European
Immigration
What was it like to be an immigrant to the United
States around the turn
of the century?
Most new immigrants are not welcome
● Why?
IMMIGRANTS RECEIVE AID FROM SEVERAL SOURCES
● NO government assistance
● Relatives / friends
● Immigrant Aid Society
○ Ethnic organizations- started as social groups
○ Collect for families in need
■ Sons Of Italy in America
■ Polish National Alliance
IMMIGRANTS RECEIVE AID FROM SEVERAL SOURCES
● Settlement House
○ Community center
○ Daytime care for children
○ Classes, health clinics
○ Recreation
● Political Bosses
○ Political leaders in cities
○ Assistance in exchange for votes
ASSIMILATION OF IMMIGRANTS
● Many held onto their customs / language
● Children assimilate easier
○ Public Schools
● Americanization
○ Immigration posed a threat to American values and traditions
SOME AMERICANS REJECT IMMIGRANTS
● Religious and cultural differences
● Economic threat
○ Take jobs, lower wages, scabs
● Labor unrest
○ Anarchists / socialists
● Nativism- favor native born
Americans
With my eyes...
With my ears...
With my heart...
With my hands...
SECTION 5
Immigration from
Asia
What was it like to be an immigrant to the United
States around the turn
of the century?
CHINESE IMMIGRANTS SEEK GOLD MOUNTAIN
● Gold Mountain = California
● Men came through San Francisco
○ Work hard- return rich, end up staying
● Mining, Railroad, Construction, Agriculture
○ Reliable, steady workers
○ “Stoop” laborers
● Willing to work for less pay
○ Created friction between races
EXCLUSION ACT: SHUTTING THE DOORS ON THE CHINESE
● Chinese are blamed for California’s problems
○ Racism- seen as inferior- could never be Americanized
○ Mob violence- driven out of homes, murdered
● Nativists wanted Chinese Immigration reduced
○ Chinese Exclusion Act 1882- no Chinese immigration for 10 years
○ 40,000 (1882) / 279 (1884)
ANGEL ISLAND: ELLIS ISLAND OF THE WEST
● Angel Island Immigration Station- 1910
○ Made to enforce the law by keeping arrivals isolated and to prevent escape
● Physical exams
● Legal exams
○ More intense- hoping to catch lies
● Takes weeks, months and even years to complete the process
○ Crowded, unsanitary barracks
● 10% sent back
OTHER ASIAN GROUPS IMMIGRATE TO THE U.S.
● Chinese Exclusion Act created a shortage of farm laborers
○ Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos- increased immigration
● All Asian immigrants faced prejudice, hostility and discrimination
● 1906- San Francisco segregated schools
OTHER ASIAN GROUPS IMMIGRATE TO THE U.S.
● Japanese- success in growing fruits and vegetables
○ Ethnic neighborhoods
● Gentlemen’s Agreement
○ Secret negotiations between the Japanese and U.S. government- 1907 - 1908
○ Japanese would not allow laborers to emigrate if the U.S. allowed wives, children and parents of Japanese Americans to immigrate
With my eyes...
With my ears...
With my heart...
With my hands...
SECTION 6
Immigrants from
North and South
What was it like to be an immigrant to the United
States around the turn
of the century?
CROSSING THE BORDER: IMMIGRANTS FROM MEXICO
● Shortage of farm workers led to an increase in workers from Mexico
○ Travel made easier with the Railroads
● “Pulls”
○ Higher wages
○ Availability of work- railroads, copper mines, farms, citrus groves (new irrigation technology)
● “Pushes”
○ 1910- Mexican Revolution- unrest / violence
● Discriminated against- segregated, lower pay
CROSSING THE NORTHERN BORDER: THE FRENCH CANADIANS
● 1865 - 1900- 900,000 immigrants from Canada
○ French Speaking Catholics- Quebec
● Arrived by train to New England / Great Lakes region
○ Textile mills
○ Lumber camps
● Different language, religion, customs- resistant to Americanization
○ Drew attention from nativists
With my eyes...
With my ears...
With my heart...
With my hands...
