The Great Immigration and Urbanization

1880-1921

Urban Growth: 1870 - Urban Growth: 1870 - 19001900

Urbanization and the Electric Streetcar• Allowed middle class

shoppers and workers to move farther away from the inner city core to greener and cleaner suburbs-”the Streetcar Suburb”

• Led to immigrants and poorer working class to pour into the cities where the middle class left

The Great Migration• 23.5 million immigrants

arrived in the USA from 1880-1921

• They were called the “New Immigrants”

• 70% came from Southern and Eastern Europe

• 30% came from Asia (especially China) and some from Latin America

The Southern and Eastern European Immigrants

• Italy, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Russia and Jews from many of these countries

• Religion-mostly Catholic Christian or Jewish

• Spoke little or no English

• Unskilled farmers with little money or little education

PUSH and PULL Factors causing the Great Immigration

Eastern and Southern European Immigrants

PUSH Factors (what pushed people away from where they

lived)1. Famine and disease (cholera epidemic)

2. Natural disasters-earthquakes and volcanoes-especially in Italy

3. Lack of jobs and overpopulation

4. Religious Persecution (especially for Jews in Russia and Poland)

PULL Factors (factors in America that attracted them to

immigrate)1. The USA was viewed as “the magic

land”-unlimited opportunities

2. Factories recruited overseas

3. Pamphlets with false advertising

4. The Homestead Act-free land

The Journey to America• Often cost a family or

individual a whole life’s savings

• Usually 1 or 2 members of a family would come here first

• The boats to the America were overcrowded

• RMS Titanic (1912) most of the poorer immigrants were trapped on lower decks when the ship sank

Arrival in America-Ellis Island

• 75% of immigrants arrived at Ellis Island in New York Harbor

• 1910- 6 million came to Ellis Island

• The immigrants were inspected, questioned and w/ any luck cleared for entry into the USA

• Ellis Island replaced Castle Garden

Ellis Island, NY

                                                                                                                   

Where is Ellis Island?

The Medical Inspections

• 1st and 2nd class boat passengers didn’t have to endure the medical inspections

• 6-second exam

• 45-minute thorough physical

• Especially checked for a very contagious eye infection called trachoma

• They checked your entire body and marked you w/ an “X” with chalk if you had a “medical defect”

Medical Exam

                                                                                                                   

Legal Inspection

• Occurred at the Registry Hall• You were asked your name- many times the

inspectors couldn’t spell it right• Asked you 32 questions and then they processed

you• Only 3% of the immigrants failed and were sent

back home• 20% of immigrants were kept in hospitals due to

physical or mental reasons

Legal Inspection

                                                                                                                   

The Registry Hall (Ellis Island)

Break for“The Cities”video

The Immigrant Experience Working and Living in America

The Cities and Factories

Leaving Ellis Island

• You either took a ferry to settle in New York City greeted by waiting friends or relatives

• Or you took a ferry to a railroad station in New Jersey and traveled to another city or to the Western homesteads

Ethnic Neighborhoods• 2/3 of all immigrants settled

in the big cities of the east (Philly, New York, Boston, Baltimore)

• The immigrants settled in ethnic neighborhoods or enclaves- very crowded

• Greek, Italian (“Little Italy), Polish, German, Jewish and Irish neighborhoods were established-some still exist (South Philly is still mostly Italian)

Mulberry Street – “Little Mulberry Street – “Little Italy”Italy”

The Melting Pot Theory

• Melting Pot-the belief that a new and mixed society would develop blending all the new and old immigrant groups

• Unlike many of the Mexican immigrants today, the immigrants learned English

• At the same time each ethnic group would still maintain some of its own culture, foods, religion and language, etc.

• Are we a “melting pot” today?

Polish immigrants

Italian Immigrants

Greek Immigrants

                                                                                                                                

       

Jewish Immigrants

Living condition for the New Immigrants

• The big cities were not ready to handle all the new immigrants

• Many immigrants lived in tenements• Tenements were run-down, low-rent apartment

buildings• Immigrants were crowded together sometimes as

many as 20 in a 3-room apartment• $10-$20 a month for rent

Living condition for the New Immigrants

• No windows, no bathrooms-as many as 100 people had to share a community bathroom

• The tenement apartments were havens of foul stink, disease and rats

• Some immigrants could escape the cities and live on the frontier, but there were other challenges as you saw in Frontier House

Struggling Immigrant Struggling Immigrant FamiliesFamilies

Tenement Slum Tenement Slum LivingLiving

New York City Tenement Apartments

Working Conditions for New Immigrants

• Most immigrants worked in the city factories

• Why hire immigrants?

1. Plentiful and cheap labor

2. Immigrants were desperate for any kind of job

3. Factory jobs required little skill

Working Conditions for New Immigrants

• The Immigrants were exploited (taken advantage of)

• Worked 12-16 hour work days 6 or even 7 days a week

• Dangerous working conditions• Despite all these hardships, most

immigrants were better off in the USA than they were in their home country

American-born citizens’ attitudes towards Immigrants

Society’s Reaction to Immigrants-Settlement Houses

(Positive)• Jane Addams-Hull House (1889)• Chicago• Provided classes in academic,

vocational and art, English and US History

• Est. welfare clinics and free medicine

• Inspired other settlement houses in other cities

Society’s Reaction to Immigrants (Negative)

• Groups like the American Protective Organization worked to limit or end migration

• Used offensive words like “kike” or “hebe” for Jews, “wop” or “dago” for Italians, etc.

• Anti-Catholicism and Anti-Semitism abounded• The Immigration Restriction League (1894)-

demanded literacy tests for new immigrants…vetoed by president Cleveland

Nativism

• Nativists believed that new immigrants were a threat to native-born American citizens and their way of life

• Many Northern and Western European Americans (Nativists) considered the Southern and Eastern Europeans a different and inferior race

• Nativists accused the new immigrants of taking the jobs away from the “real” Americans

“The Great Fear”

Nativist Flag

Nativism Successful• The Emergency Quota

Acts (1921 and 1924) passed by the US Congress-put a quota (limit) on the amount of immigrants coming to America from Eastern and Southern Europe and Asia

• End of the Great migration