Immigration Patterns from 1870 to 1920

Immigration Patterns from 1870 to 1920 By: Holly Phillips and Janell Brum

Many immigrants traveled to America due to famine, persecution, and the promise of a better life.

Immigrants came to America from all over the world to find a better life; many in search of labor contracts offered there. In the late 1800s and early 1900s immigrants made up a large portion of the major cities in the US: New York 80% Chicago and Boston 75% San Francisco 65% Los Angeles 45% Kansas City 35%

European Immigration • Approximately 20 million arrived in the US • Increasing numbers came from southern and eastern Europe in the 1890s • In 1908 about a million people arrived from Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia • Overall most people came from Italy, Ireland, Germany, and Austria-Hungary • Many left to escape religious persecution • Whole villages of Jews persecuted in Russia by Pogroms • 1800-1900 Population of Europe doubled, resulting in land scarcity for farming and too few industrial jobs. • Jobs were supposedly plentiful in the US • Spirit of revolt and reform spread across Europe and people wished for independent lives in the US • Ellis Island- Main immigrant dock located in New York

Medical examination on Ellis Island

Chinese Immigration • Settled on the west coast • Came in much smaller numbers than European • 1851-1883 about 300,000 Chinese immigrants arrive • Many came to seek their fortune in Gold in the 1848 California gold rush • Helped build railroads, including the first transcontinental line • Turned to farming, mining, and domestic service once railroads were completed • Some started businesses • Sharply limited by a congressional act in 1882

Chinese immigration went into rapid decline after 1882 with the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Angel Island Immigration Station

Japanese Immigrants • Boom began in 1884 when the Japanese government allowed Hawaiian planters to recruit Japanese workers • The annexation of Hawaii in 1898 resulted in increased Japanese immigration to the West Coast • Immigration continued to increase as word of comparatively high American wages spread • Wave peaked in 1907 • 30,000 left Japan for the US • By 1920 over 20,000 Japanese lived on the west coast

Mexican Immigrants • Came to US to find work and flee political turmoil • 1902: National Reclamation act • Encouraged irrigation and drew Mexican farmers • After 1910: Political and Social Turmoil drew Mexicans to the United States • 700,000 over next 20 years (7% of Mexico’s population).

Overall Patterns 1900: Germany 26% Ireland 16% Scandinavia 11% England 8% Italy 5% Russia 4% Poland 3.5% Mexico, China, and Japan 1.5% Total Immigration waves: 1840-1880: Germany, Great Britain, Ireland 1860-1880: China, Norway, Sweden 1880-1900: Austria-Hungary, Italy 1890-1920: Japan, Russia Immigration in general shifted from Northern Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe

“. . . Half of Polotzk was at my uncle's gate in the morning, to conduct us to the railway station, and the other half was already there before we arrived. The procession resembled both a funeral and a triumph. The women wept over us, reminding us eloquently of the perils of the sea, of the bewilderment of a foreign land, of the torments of homesickness that awaited us. They bewailed my mother's lot, who had to tear herself away from blood relations to go among strangers; who had to face gendarmes, ticket agents, and sailors, unprotected by a masculine escort; who had to care for four young children in the confusion of travel, and very likely feed them trefah [food that is considered unfit because it is not prepared according to Jewish dietary law] or see them starve on the way. Or they praised her for a brave pilgrim, and expressed confidence in her ability to cope with gendarmes and ticket agents, and blessed her with every other word, and all but carried her in their arms. At the station the procession disbanded and became a mob. My uncle and my tall cousins did their best to protect us, but we wanderers were almost torn to pieces. They did get us into a car at last, but the riot on the station platform continued unquelled. When the warning bell rang out, it was drowned in a confounding babel of voices, - fragments of the oft-repeated messages, admonitions, lamentations, blessings, farewells. 'Don't forget!' - 'Take care of - 'Keep your tickets' - 'Moshele - newspapers I 'Garlick is best!' 'Happy journey!' 'God help you!' 'Good-bye! Good-bye!' 'Remember - . The last I saw of Polotzk was an agitated mass of people, waving colored handkerchiefs and other frantic bits of calico, madly gesticulating, faIling on each other's necks, gone wild altogether. Then the station became invisible, and the shining tracks spun out from sky to sky. I was in the middle of the great, great world, and the longest road was mine.” - Mary Antin, 1915 Mary was a Jew in the “Jewish Pale” of the Russian Empire. She traveled to Boston in 1892

Sources http://americanpeople2.blogspot.com/2008_02_03_archive.html http://library.csueastbay.edu/wp-content/uploads/1882-logo.jpg Harvard.edu http://immigration.procon.org/files/immigration%20images/picturebrides.jpg http://history.berkeley.edu/faculty/Smith/H124A/lectures/immigration.pdf http://library.thinkquest.org/20619/index.html

Immigration Patterns from 1870 to 1920