Immigration and Urbanization: Changing Patterns, Challenges, and Reforms

1. Chapter 7Immigrants & Urbanization

2. Reasons for immigration • Push Factors- Negative factors from which people are fleeing • Poverty, scarce land • Political and religious persecution

3. Pull Factors- conditions that attract immigrants to a new area • Promise of freedom and better life (streets paved with gold) • Family or friends already in the U.S. • Factory jobs available "No Cats in America"

4. Changing patterns of Immigration • Before 1885- most immigrants from Northwest Europe: England, Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia (“Old Immigrants”)

5. After 1885- many immigrants from Southeast Europe: Italy, Poland, Greece, Russia, Hungary, and China (“New Immigrants”)

6. New Immigrants • 1880s from southern and eastern Europe • Some Americans feared that the new immigrants would not assimilate • Anti-foreignism or nativism arose in the 1880s • 1882- Congress passes the first restrictive law against immigrants – forced paupers, criminals, and convicts back to their homelands • 1882- Chinese Exclusion Act

7. The Long Voyage • Steerage- airless rooms below decks of ships where 2000 people were stuffed-diseases spread

8. Europeans arrived in New York City- saw the Statue of Liberty, stopped at Ellis Island- where they had to pass a medical inspection

11. On the West Coast, immigrants from China and Japan traveled to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay

14. In 1882, Congress passed the ChineseExclusion Act, which made it unlawful for Chinese laborers to enter the country and declared Chinese already living in the United States ineligible for U.S. citizenship. (10 yrs) • Renewed in 1892 (10 yrs) • Made permanent in 1902 • Remained in effect until 1943

15. Urbanization

16. Urban Opportunities • Most immigrants stayed in cities and lived in ethnic neighborhoods • Americanization movement designed to assimilate immigrants into American culture • Assimilation- the process of becoming part of another culture

17. Urban Problems • Housing • Row houses • Tenements • Laws passed to set minimum standard for plumbing & ventilation • Transportation • Mass transit – street cars, NYC subway built in 1910s • Water • Cities faced problem of supplying safe drinking water • Filtration introduced in 1870s • Sanitation • Sewer lines built & sanitation departments created • Crime • Law enforcement departments established • Fire • Fire departments • Sprinkler systems introduced

19. Reform Movements

20. Reform • Settlement houses – community centers in slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to people in the area, especially immigrants (Jane Addams founded Chicago’s Hull House in 1889) • Taught English • Provided child care • Helped immigrants find jobs • Social Gospel Movement • The importance of applying Christian principles to social problems

21. Politics of the Gilded Age

22. The Gilded Age • Writer Mark Twain described the excesses of the 19th century by dubbing it The Gilded Age

23. The Emergence of Political Machines • Organized group that controlled the activities of a political party in a city

24. Political Machine Organization

25. Municipal Graft & Scandal • Graft = the illegal use of political influence for personal gain • Political machines took kickbacks, accepted bribes, & granted favors to business men

26. The Tweed Ring Scandal • Boss Tweed • Head of Tammany Hall in NYC • Led a group of corrupt politicians • Defrauded NYC of $10million • Thomas Nast • Political cartoonist • Helped to break the Tweed Ring

27. Gilded Age Presidents • Rutherford B. Hayes • James A. Garfield • Chester A. Arthur • Grover Cleveland • Benjamin Harrison • Grover Cleveland (again!) • Many presidents approved of party patronage – giving govt. jobs to political supporters • After Garfield’s assassination, the Pendleton Civil Service Act required competitive exams for government jobs.