Historical Implications of Immigration

1. Historical Implications of Immigration Part One Mike Teefy

2. Patterns and Trends in Immigration • Early Unlimited Immigration • Discrimination during hard economic times • 1837: A financial panic fuels anti-immigration attitudes • Restrictions during War • June 18, 1812: Congress declares war, temporarily ending immigration to the United States. • Discrimination against certain groups • May 6, 1882 The first restrictive immigration law in American history, the Chinese Exclusion Act, prevents the immigration of all Chinese laborers for 10 years.

3. Immigration’s Influence on Education Controversy Ensues Over Language • December 28, 1832: St. Louis Academy, founded in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1818 as a French-language institution, receives a state charter as St. Louis College and subsequently adopts English as its language of instruction. • 1968: Congress passes the Bilingual Education Act, Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, to counteract the high dropout rate among Hispanics. In 1984, the act is renewed through 1988 and places a focus on students maintaining their native languages after learning English. • Growing opposition to bilingual education results in the introduction of six bills in Congress to make English the official language of the United States. On October 5 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules in Yniguez v. Mofford that Arizona's Official English law violates the right to free speech guaranteed in the First Amendment of the Constitution

4. Reasons People Have Immigrated to the United States • War and Political Upheaval • November 28, 1978 : The U.S. attorney general announces that 21,875 Indo-Chinese refugees from Cambodia will be admitted to the U.S. as immigrants in addition to the existing quota of 25,000. • November 11, 1980 : Cuban Premier Fidel Castro offers freedom to 3,600 political prisoners if the United States accepts them as immigrants.

5. Reasons People Have Immigrated to the United States • Poverty • February 28, 1849 : The first shipload of prospectors marks the beginning of the Gold Rush in California. Chinese laborers flee the depression in China due to stories of high wages in the mining camps. • Employment • 1868 : The number of Chinese immigrants in the United States is estimated at about 75,000, most of them employed in the construction of the transcontinental railroad. By the end of the year, ninety percent of the laborers building the Central Pacific Railroad are Chinese.

6. Reasons People Have Immigrated to the United States • Opportunity for Land • May 20,1862 : Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, which provides a grant of 160 acres to citizens or prospective citizens in exchange for an agreement to occupy and improve the land for five years. Land could be purchased after six months' residence at $1.25 an acre. This act bolsters European immigration. From 1862 to 1904, 147,351,370 acres are distributed.

7. Reasons People have Immigrated to the United States • Religion • June 12 ,1630 : The Massachusetts Bay Company begins the settlement of some 2,000 English immigrants under Puritan leadership in New England, initiating the "Great Migration" to the New World. In the next 10 years, Protestant reformers seeking freedom of religion lead some 21,000 immigrants to New England. • Famine • 1845 - An Irish potato famine begins, causing extensive immigration to the United States • 1846 - Crop failures in Germany and Holland lead to extensive emigration to the United States from those countries. By the end of the year, the German population of Texas reaches 5,247.

8. Struggles United States Immigrants Faced • Discrimination • 1866 The Ku Klux Klan is formed in Pulaski, Tennessee. Originally a social group of Confederate war veterans, the secret organization seeks to establish and maintain white supremacy. It opposes African-American suffrage, Roman Catholic influence, and the rapid naturalization of foreign immigrants.

9. Struggles United States Immigrants Faced • Language Barrier • January 29, 1917 : A bill requiring immigrants over the age of 16 years to prove ability to read "not less than 30 nor more than 80 words in ordinary use" in any language passes over President Wilson's veto. The act also designates Asia a "barred zone" and orders the deportation of any immigrant who preaches revolution or sabotage. • Violence • March 14, 1891 : A mob storms a New Orleans jail and lynches 11 Sicilian immigrants. Seven of the victims had just been acquitted of the murder of the New Orleans police chief investigating Italian secret societies suspected of engaging in organized crime.

10. Struggles United States Immigrants Faced • Finding employment • May 7, 1879 : California passes a state law which forbade corporations to employ Chinese workers, denied Chinese the right to vote, and outlawed their employment in public work. • Education • January 29, 1917: A bill requiring immigrants over the age of 16 years to prove ability to read "not less than 30 nor more than 80 words in ordinary use" in any language passes over President Wilson's veto. The act also designates Asia a "barred zone" and orders the deportation of any immigrant who preaches revolution or sabotage

11. My Ethnic Heritage • 7/8 Irish and 1/8 Romanian • Religion - Roman Catholic • Language - English

12. What conclusions can you derive about culture and ethnicity in American society by analyzing immigration data? • American culture is constantly changing and adapting • America does not always embrace new immigrants • American society may accept diversity, but sometimes fails to see new immigrants as pieces of the puzzle

13. References In Wepman, Dennis (2007). Immigration Timeline. Immigration, American Experience. New York: Facts On File, Inc. Retrieved April 10, 2014 from American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/ NuHistory/default.asp?ItemID=WE52