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The Immigrant Experience

The Immigrant Experience. EQ: Should the United States be a “melting pot” or a “salad bowl”?. Basics. Immigration Process by which millions of people left their home countries and moved to the United States. Process also includes the reaction to the immigrants by the U.S.

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The Immigrant Experience

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  1. The Immigrant Experience EQ: Should the United States be a “melting pot” or a “salad bowl”?

  2. Basics • Immigration • Process by which millions of people left their home countries and moved to the United States. Process also includes the reaction to the immigrants by the U.S. • Push/Pull: Reasons why immigrants come to the United States • “Push”: People forced to leave their home country • “Pull”: People drawn to the United States for certain reasons

  3. Pushes and Pulls RECREATE THIS PUSH-PULL MAP! Pushes Pulls Poverty, religious persecution, shortage of land, lack of jobs Freedom, job opportunities, more opportunities in general Disease, Drought, Famine More space, abundance of natural resources Unstable government, shunned criminal Stable economy, justice, fresh start continued . . .

  4. Where are they Coming From? • c. 1815-1860----5 million: mainly English, Irish, Germanic, Scandinavian, others from northwestern Europe • c. 1865-1890----10 million: mainly from northwestern Europe • c. 1890-1914----15 million: Austro-Hungarian, Turkish, Lithuanian, Russian, Jewish, Greek, Italian, Romanian

  5. The Early Immigrants: Western Europe

  6. The Later Immigrants: Eastern Europe

  7. How many are coming?

  8. The Journey • Most immigrants traveled to America via steerage (ship’s lower level where steering mechanism is located) • Trip = long, uncomfortable, unsanitary!

  9. Not Lookin’ So Comfortable!

  10. Ellis Island – The Gateway to America

  11. Immigrants Unloading @ Ellis Island

  12. Ellis Island • Ellis Island welcomed new immigrants beginning in 1892 • Immigrants experienced a battery of tests upon arrival • Mental illness, trachoma, physical disabilities, cholera, TB

  13. Families Awaiting Their Fate on Ellis Island

  14. Where are People Going? • Individuals tended to follow their group and settled close to their extended families

  15. What happened once they got here? • Culture Shock • Problem faced by all immigrants; trying to get used to the new culture • Assimilation • Abandoning the old culture and completely adopting the American culture* ( to conform) • Accommodation • Refusing to abandon the old culture, language, etc. and instead incorporate the old with the new • “Melting Pot” • U.S. ideal: everyone brings a little bit and it melts into one new U.S. culture

  16. Immigrant Life • Immigrants settled in clusters of familiarity • Tenements = poorly built, overcrowded apartments

  17. Immigrant Work • Long hours / low pay • 10 hrs a day, 6 days a week • Harsh conditions • Many = unskilled in manufacturing • Construction, garment, steel • “Wherever the heat is most…scorching, the smock and soot most choking” - Hungarian Immigrant

  18. Benevolent Societies • Aid organizations, aka, settlement houses - founded to provide help in cases of sickness, unemployment, and death

  19. How did the United States React? • Nativism • Favoritism towards native-born Americans; socially acceptable discrimination against non-natives

  20. Immigrant Restrictions • Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) - prohibited Chinese people from immigrating to the U.S. for 10 years • Immigration Restriction League (1884) - All immigrants prove they could read and write before allowing entry • Hoped to limit immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe and preserve immigration from Western and Northern Europe.

  21. Your In-Class Assignment! • Put yourselves in the shoes of an immigrant (if they had shoes) and, in your notebook, write four journal entries from his or her perspective. • 1st Journal Entry = Conditions in home-country • 2nd Journal Entry = Journey to America • 3rd Journal Entry = Ellis Island Experience • 4th Journal Entry = New life in America • Each entry should be AT LEAST a half-page of quality, relevant thoughts of what an immigrant might have been thinking and feeling during this time! • Don’t forget to label each entry • 15 pts per entry!

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