America and its People

1. America and its People

2. 20,000 years ago, northeast Asian, Bering Land Bridge 1000 AD, Vikings 1500s, Spanish “Pre”-history of the Americas

3. Melting Pot or Salad Bowl • Melting Pot (Assimilation) • Discard old identity • Adopt American culture, tastes and habits • No longer feel ethnic or close to immigrant identity • Salad Bowl (Pluralism) • Maintain “old” culture and identities • Share common goals of the nation

5. Why do people immigrate to the United States? • Involuntary Immigration • Many African Americans in the U.S. are descendants of forced immigrants • Slavery • Voluntary Immigration • Push Factors • Political or Religious persecution • Refugees • War • Economic • Environmental • Pull Factors • Work • Family • Education • Quality of Life

6. Ellis Island • Most Europeans came through Ellis Island • An immigration timeline: The Peopling of America • My relatives coming to America: Laudo Lalli

7. Asian Immigration History: the Korean Experience • By 1888 a small number of Koreans were in America (ginseng merchants, political exiles, and migrant laborers) • But before 1900 there were fewer than 50 Koreans in the U.S. • Unlike Chinese and Japanese, Koreans came from all different social classes including farmers, common laborers, government clerks, students, policemen, miners, domestic servants and even Buddhist monks (most were from urban areas).

9. Asian Immigration History: the Korean Experience • Pull factors: • Like the Japanese and Chinese, Koreans were drawn by the possibility for economic gain. • Plantation owners wanted to pit Koreans against an increasingly organizing Japanese labor force (strike breakers). • Push factors: • Economic poverty in Korea • Political motivations • Japan colonizes Korea in 1910. • Many Koreans came to the U.S. to flee Japanese persecution. • Many Korean immigrants in early 1900s were patriots trying to find a way to fight for Korean independence from Japanese colonial rule.

10. 2000 U.S. Census Information

11. Modern-day immigration • In the 2000 Census, Americans were able to state their ancestry. The most frequently stated European ancestries were German (19.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (7.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). • This majority, 69.1% in 2000, tends to decrease every year, and whites are expected to become a plurality by 2050. • Latinos or Hispanics are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population in 2000. • About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are Black, mainly African American, most of whom are descendants of the enslaved Africans brought to the U.S. between the 1620s and 1860s and emancipated during the American Civil War. • About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are Black, mainly African American, most of whom are descendants of the enslaved Africans brought to the U.S. between the 1620s and 1860s and emancipated during the American Civil War. • The 2000 census also found Native Americans at their highest population ever, 4.5 million, since the U.S was founded in 1776.

12. Immigrants in Columbus • Voluntary immigrants: Italians • Came to work in the quarries • Opened many Italian restaurants and pizzerias • Refugees: Somalian • Columbus has the second-highest number of Somalians in America • Civil War in their country since 1991