MELTING POT OR SALAD BOWLAmerican Immigration

America as a Nation of Immigrants

• “Give me you tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore sent these the homeless, the tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Emma Lazarus

France gave this as a gift to America in 1886 – It welcomes people to Ellis Island

Why America?

• Freedom from political oppression

• Melting pot (all welcomed)

• Opportunity• Stratification escape

Who are we?

24 million from 1860-1920Old immigrants•pre-1880, 85% from Western and Northern EuropeNew Immigrants•Post 1880 80% from Eastern and Southern EuropeMore New Immigrants•Approximately 1 million from Asia 1850-1934•Approximately 1 million from Latin American, mostly after 1910

Push Factors

Economic motivesGlobal expansion of capitalism•“The capitalist form of production under which goods are produced for sale in order to make the largest profit possible and workers receive wages for selling their labor.” •Scuheng Chan

Agricultural economies disappearing•“After the 1850’s the spread of industrialization and commercialized agriculture led to further declines in the number of landholding that could support families.” John Bodnar – The Transplanted

Push - Political UpheavalPogroms - Anti-Jewish sentiment1.4 million in New York’s Lower East Side by 1915 The assassination of Tsar Alexander II inspired "retaliatory" attacks by Christians on Jewish communities in present day Ukraine and Poland. 1881-1884

Jewish bodies lined up for burial.

Mexican Revolution 1910-1911•1900-1930 Mexican American population in Southwest grew from 375,000 to 1,160,000

Families DecideMales come first to establish work and living conditions… Next the balance of the family comes…sometimes it took years for families to be reunited…Housing found in urban areas around the country…The Tenement House Commission described tenement houses as “centres of disease, poverty, vice, and crime, where it is a marvel, not that some children grow up to be thieves, drunkards, and prostitutes, but that so many should ever grow up to be decent and self-respecting”[

Pull Factors – Gold MountainThe name "Gold Mountain" was initially applied to California. Ships full of immigrants docked in San Francisco to disembark passengers, initially bound for the gold fields, but later they remained in the growing Chinese settlement in San Francisco (working serving the gold miners with food and laundry services). The labor was needed and at first the Chinese were welcomed. They also worked for the railroads in the most dangerous of jobs because they were considered disposable! Discrimination began early on when other settlers did not accept the cultural differences of the Chinese. 1892 Chinese Exclusion ActImmigration through Angel Island .

American Economic Opportunities

The labor market segmented – immigrants were given the lowest paying jobs, in the worst conditions possible.Cheap labor – same work for less payNativists resent immigrant workers – claim they were taking away jobs. Jobs should be for Americans!Jobs are also intended for men NOT women.Different nationalities had different stereotypes---Irish and Germans like to drink…