Temat: Immigration The immigrants coming from northern and...

1860-1880 (total over 5 million)
1865-1875- mostly English and Scandinavians but also the Irish, and Germans. The poverty and famines were the chief spur to movement but there was also religious intolerance, demeaning social gradations, political upheavals and of course letters from America describing the Garden of Eden in America.
Most of the 19th cent. Newcomers from Germany and Scandinavia wanted their own farms; the Homestead Act, the invitations from the states and the railroads, and the letters from relatives drew them to the north central plains.
Most Irish remained in the port cities where they landed or in the environs. Some accepted the offers of canal or railroad builders.
The main cause of this immigration waves was industrialization which sent people to the cities and towns. But there were simply not enough jobs for them.
Two other groups were the French Canadians (causes: overpopulation at home and the diminishing size of agricultural plots) and the Chinese (causes: the discovery of gold in California).
The tremendous physical and economic growth of the US in the 19th century made it mandatory for Americans to turn to the new settlers and laborers to plow fields, build canals or railways, dig mines, and run machinery in factories. A lot of effort and inducements were made to lure Europeans, French Canadians, Chinese, and, later, Latin Americans, to the US. More people meant more schools and post offices, larger federal appropriations for internal improvements, larger markets for goods, faster economic development, and possibility of building the railroad. After the Civil War the competition among states for Europeans intensified. At least 33 states eventually set up immigration bureaus, advertised in European and American foreign-language newspapers, sent agents to northern and western Europe, and published their brochures, guidebooks, and maps in Welsh, German, Dutch, French, Norwegian , and Swedish. The railroads worked as hard as the states to attract immigrants especially in the 1870s and 1880s. Numerous steamship lines also vigorously promoted their own interests by seeking out immigrants.
In the 19th cent the poor immigrants who decided to cross the ocean often traveled in overcrowding, filth, stench, and poor ventilation. With the advent of steamships, however, conditions and amenities improved. The average crossing lasted 14 days in 1867 and only 5.5 days in 1897.
As immigrant traffic followed commercial routes New York, the nation’s major commercial center, also served as its chief immigration depot. In 1855 Castle Garden, a model reception center was set up, through which everyone disembarking in NY had to pass. In 1882 Ellis Island replaced the Castle Garden as the gateway to America for millions of Europeans.
Whenever they went and whoever they were the immigrants lived and worked under very hard conditions. Work that was easy to find was only in unskilled jobs. Workers were always needed until the completion of the canals and railroads. Some immigrants were excluded from unions; others, like Chinese, unfamiliar with American laboring practices and the advantages of unions, worked as scabs and strikebreakers.

The Great Wave of Immigration 1880-1930 (total 27.5 million)
As the 19th cent. progressed, industrialization moved southward and eastward in Europe. Between 1880, when southern and eastern Europeans began coming numerously to America, and 1930, when the combination of immigration restriction laws and a major depression put barriers in their way, the US received a total of 27 million immigrants. They were trying to escape from economic strangulation and despair just as the Germans, Irish, and Scandinavians had before them.

The most numerous immigrant groups from that period:
Italians- from 1881 to 1910 more than 3 million came because of economic reasons. The majority remained in NY because of the jobs available, their location as major transportation depots, and because they were inhabited by compatriots. At first they entered almost every occupation, then they dominated, esp. in NY, the fruit business in all its phases, but also opened other businesses like shoe-repair shops, restaurants, groceries, bakeries, and barbers’. For Italians little importance on individual success, immigrant parents praised education only for its utilitarian value. Moreover, the back-and-forth migration was characteristic for the Italians. That is why this group’s social mobility was not as rapid as Jews for example.

Jews- ranked second to the Italians among the new arrivals. They were aliens in the land of their birth. Russian laws restricted them to life in enclosed settlements. Their were the victims of pogroms that started in 1881 and lasted 30 years. As a consequence of these East European migrations, the Jewish population in the US soared from about 250,000 (mostly of German decent) in 1877 to more than 4 million in 1927. Similarly to Italians they remained in the cities of the Northeastern coast, esp. in NY because of the jobs available and because they were inhabited by compatriots. Dissimilarly to Italians they came to stay so they came with their all families therefore the percentage of women was very high. On the eve of WW I Jews constituted 70 % of all workers of NY clothing industry, also in cigar factories, distilleries, printers, bookbinders, industry connected with their kosher diet, music and theater (in the early years of the 20th century they made up half the actors, popular songwriters, and song publishers in NY. Jews were on of the most organized immigrant groups, they set up American Jewish Committee, their religion made charity a social obligation, by 1909 there were 2,000 Jewish charities, between 1885-1915 over 150 Jewish newspapers, journals and yearbooks. More than anything else they sought knowledge. These were the factors which made the Jews the most successful immigrant group.

Irish among who females made up a majority, and worked as maids, serving in the houses.
The Slavic groups which included Russians, Ukrainians, Slovaks, Slovenes, Poles, Croatians, Serbs, and Bulgarians. As the occupation they did mostly mining, worked in slaughterhouses, steel mils and industrial regions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and NY.
The Poles were the largest from this group, and were counted separately after 1899 and constituted the third largest element , after the Italians and the Jews, among early twentieth-cent. immigrants. Well over a million Poles arrived before World War I (causes: poverty and suppression of Polish culture and nationalism). Apart from working in factories a significant number took up farming. Just like Hungarians’, their social and religious life revolved around the church, but additionally they did not put much attention to their children’s education.

Hungarians, Greeks, Portuguese, Armenians, Syrians, Japanese.
Greek-small businesses (restaurants, sweets shops), industry. Just like Japanese or Armenians they valued learning. They were overwhelmingly male.

Most of immigrants from that period hoped to make their fame and fortune and return. 80 % of the immigrants from this period settled in the northeastern section of the US. The major cities especially NY and Chicago proved particularly attractive because of the jobs available, their location as major transportation depots, and because they were inhabited by compatriots. The immigrants came with high hopes, unprepared for the coolness with which so many Americans received them. Like others before them, these immigrants were also stereotyped. Italians were taken as criminals by nature, hostility toward Jews knew no geographical bounds. The paradox of American immigration: on the one hand the immigrants are welcomed to live and work in America, on the other hand they are scorned and abused as the ones who deviate from the dominant culture. This paradox already began in colonial America. Wherever the newcomers labored, employers sapped them of their energies before replacing them with fresh recruits. Industrial accidents were common. Construction and railroad workers frequently met with fatal injuries, and when they were fortunate to escape them, working conditions often ensured irreparable damage to health. All these resulted in strikes.
Whatever was the immigrants’ affection to the Old World languages or customs, however, generally the process of Americanization once begun could not be stopped. For most groups each succeeding generation possessed fewer ties to the old country and was more directly involved with American society. They forgot the language of their grandparents, moved away from the urban ghettos, and gained a strong foothold in the mainstream of American life.

Only the WW I temporarily interrupted the major flow of immigrants during that period. The influx of immigrants resulted that, between 1875 and 1924, pressure groups succeeded in getting Congress to reduce the number of immigrants allowed to enter the US:

1875-banned prostitutes and alien convicts; 1882-lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become public charges; 1903-polygamist, anarchists, other radicals; 1907-persons with physical or mental defects, tuberculosis, and children unaccompanied by their parents, the raising of the head tax

1882- the Chinese Exclusion Act, although it had some loopholes, reversed the welcome they had received during the gold rush in the late 1840s; in response to the intense pressure from people on the West Coast; 1892 additional congressional legislation virtually ended Chinese immigration and restricted the civil rights of those still in this country (no intermarriage or citizenship until after 1943)

1907-the US and Japan agree to the Gentlemen’s Agreement restricting immigration from Japan.

1917- a literacy bill was passed (required immigrants over 16 to be literate in some language) despite W. Wilson’s veto; plus creation of an Asian “barred zone” which excluded most Asians and added to the list of banned immigrants.

1921- restricting immigration acts based on nationality limited the entrants of each nationality to 3% based on 1910 census, this law was extended twice in next 3 years

1924- the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act continued the past laws and also tightened the quotas: it cut the number of immigrants to 2% based on the 1890 census which mostly discriminated southern and eastern nations. The passage of this act marked the end of an era in American history. The act ended this virtually free immigration policy. Although the US modified its restrictions after WW II , it never again opened its gates to unlimited numbers.

1924- the Oriental Exclusion Act banned immigration from Asia
The quotas did not relate to Canada and Mexico because large southwestern agricultural growers put great pressure on Congress to exempt Mexicans from the quota area.
Depression times resulted in significant decrease of immigration. Local government officials encouraged or even forced many Mexicans (who so far came legally and illegally as agricultural workers) and their American-born children to return to Mexico, which was not seriously affected by the depression.

1930s (total 0.5 million)
As economic conditions improved in the late 1930s, increased numbers of European immigrants though the reasons for the movement changed. Hundreds of thousands fled from the Nazi terror. Nevertheless, US immigration laws remained intact and few allowances were made. These arrivals included a number of eminent intellectuals and scientists like Einstein, Thomas Mann. Totally 120,000 people came during the WW II.

1934- a congressional act promising the Philippine Islands its independence also established an annual Filipino quota of 50 immigrants, it cut their numbers in West Coast agriculture they started working as bellboys, houseboys, cooks, kitchen helpers, and waiters.
1940s (total 1 million)

The number of immigrants was still rising. After numerous restrictions America opened the doors first for the soldiers’ families (the War Brides Act 1946) and then for the refugees (Displaced Persons Act of 1948).
In 1942 the US and Mexico agreed to the bracero program permitting temporary foreign laborers to work in the US


1950s (total 2.5 million)
The process of liberalization of immigration laws began. Although the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Naturalization Act (1952) maintained the national origins system, favored skilled workers and relatives, and strengthened security procedures, it also eliminated race as a bar to immigration and naturalization, gave every nation a quota. Chinese were granted the quotas already during the war, because of political reasons, the Philippines and India after the war.
In 1953 US expanded refuges admittance by the Refuge Relief Act authorizing the admission of special non-quota refugees.

1960s (total 3.3 million)
1960 was declared World Refuge Year. Among WW II refugees were Europeans, Dutch-Indonesians, Chinese, Cubans (the first wave of Cuban immigration-political refugees, elite, 70% were professional skilled, 405 were college education).
These additions to the basic immigration laws made it possible for many to come who did not qualify under the quota system. In the early 1960s most immigrants were of this sort. Among Europeans, Asians, and Latin Americans who arrived as refugees or to join relatives were a striking number of highly skilled and educated people: scientists, engineers, physicians, and other health professionals. This increase in the number of professionals from the developing nations was a part of a general shift in immigration patterns largely prompted by the Immigration Act of 1965. a new era in immigration had begun, a period marked by large scale emigration from the Third World and away from the traditional European influx.

In 1965 Congress passed the Immigration Act which abolished the national origins system. Although the overall limitations remained but in place of national origins, Congress substituted a preference system admitting immigrants on a first-come, first-qualified basis. A limit for the countries outside the Western Hemisphere was 170,000 but with every country limit of 20,000. For the Western Hemisphere the limit was 120,000. The major preferences were for the unification of the families (74%), next the occupation needed in US (20%), and at the end 6 % for the refugees.

1970s (total 4.5 million)
American communities of Italians, Greeks, Portuguese, Koreans, and Filipinos, among others, used the Immigration Act of 1965 to bring in their relatives.

Italians-between 1965 and 1975 over 20,000 came every year and settled in NY and New Jersey where their families and compatriots had already settled. In the late 1970s the number of Italian immigrants began to decline as the backlog in Italy eased.

Greeks- in 1970s about 100,000 Greeks arrived mostly to Greek communities of Chicago and NY

Asians – from 1951 to 1960 only 25,201 persons, mostly Chinese, entered the US from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. In 1975 the number passed 200,000. Chinese immigrants were mostly concentrated in Chinatowns of a few American cities San Francisco (1952-1972 population doubled), NY (1960-1980 population tripled and became the nation’s largest), Honolulu. Like earlier immigrants without language and labor skills they could be exploited.

Filipinos- to the mainland and Honolulu, many of them have been professional workers, many of the better-educated (doctors and nurses) came to NY, SF, LA, Chicago.

Koreans- came after the Korean war, first doctors and nurses and soldiers’ wives. They were particularly successful in running small businesses, esp. grocery and vegetable stores. They have replaced Italians and Jews in the fruit and vegetable stores. Many of them are Christians.

Vietnamese- they came suddenly and dramatically after the fall of the American-backed government in Vietnam in the spring of 1975. in spite of the governmental efforts to spread them all over the country they tended to congregate in several states, esp. California (1/3 in 80s), Texas, Minnesota, Oregon, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

West Indians- caused by desperate poverty, they took whatever jobs they could get, which often paid poorly.

In spite of the liberalization of American immigration laws and the gradual increase in the numbers admitted after 1945, the policy remained selective and many more wanted to come to the US than the law allowed. Mexicans simply crossed the border, students overstayed their visas and found jobs, sailors jumped ship, many simply came in as tourists and stayed on.
1970s- first limitations for the Western Hemisphere, Canada and Mexico. In 1976 Congress shaped a preference system-20,000 for all the nations of this region. In 1978 Congress completed the reforms begun in 1965 when it created a world wide ceiling of 290,000 quota places for both hemispheres and a uniform preference system for all nations.
The major change in the immigration model was that LA has replaced NY as the leading port of entry. NY is the center for much immigration from the Caribbean; but because LA is closer to Mexico and Asia, that city has now become the first stop for the newcomers.
Spanish has replaced Italian as the nation’s most frequently spoken foreign language.
Mexicans- largest in all the Hispanic groups, live mostly in Southwest in urban areas

1980s (total 7.3 million)
In 1980 the Refuge Act increased the normal annual flow of refugees to 50,000 and the total immigration to 320,000, defined refugee to include people from any part of the world and not just the Middle East or communist countries.
The second wave of Cuban immigration- different from the first one of the 60s. exodus of primarily young adult males in their prime working years, mostly in Miami where Spanish in many places became a language of communication
1986- illegal aliens residing in the US before 1982 were granted amnesty and eligibility for permanent resident status. G.B. Bush granted the similar policy last year if I remember correctly. (?)

1990s
1990- setting immigrant ceiling of 70,000 for 1992 through 1994, dropping to 675,000 thereafter
As the century ends, there is a new resurgence of mass immigration, a Second Great Migration.
Change in the national origin:
1950s: over 60 % from Europe or Canada 25 % Latin America 6% Asia
1990s: 16 % Europe 49%Latin America 32%Asia
The most numerous groups of immigrants: Filipinos, Vietnamese, Chinese, Dominicans, Indians, Koreans, Salvadorians, Jamaicans.
There is uncanny similarity in the key issues that fueled the immigration debates at the beginning and end of the twentieth century: a rapid increase in the number of immigrants, a huge change in their ethnic mix, and the perception that the new immigrants do not do as well the earlier ones.