Immigration

1. The Age of the City Immigration

2. The Life of the City • Urban population increased 7 times in 50 years after Civil War • By 1920 majority of people lived in urban areas • Reasons: • partly because of natural growth • mostly because immigrants and rural people flocked to better paying jobs • cultural experiences available • transportation to cities easier than ever

3. Migrations • Late 19th century saw geographic mobility • Americans left declining Eastern agricultural regions for new farmlands in West and for cities of East • Women moved from farms where mechanization decreased their value • Southern blacks moved to cities to escape rural poverty, oppression, violence • The largest source of urban growth was immigrants • until 1880s mainly educated Northern Europeans who were sometimes skilled laborers, businessmen or moved West to start farms. • After 1880s largely Southern and Eastern Europeans, lacked capital (like poor Irish immigrants before Civil War) so took mainly unskilled jobs

4. The Ethnic City • Not only was the amount of immigrants tremendous, but so was diversity of immigrant population (no single national group dominated) • Most immigrants were rural people who formed close-knit ethnic communities to ease the transition • offered native newspapers, food, links to national past • Assimilation of ethnic groups into capitalist economy depended on values of community, but also prejudices among employers, individual skills and capital

5. Assimilation • Most immigrants had desire to become true “Americans” and break with old national ways. • Particular strain with women who, in America, shared more freedoms and had to adjust to life of American city • Assimilation encouraged by “Natives” through • public schools • employer requirements to learn English • religious leaders

6. Exclusion • Immigrant arrival provoked many fears and resentments of some “native-born” people. • Reacted out of • Prejudice • foreign willingness to accept lower wages • Political response to these resentments • American Protective Association founded by Henry Bowers 1887 • Immigration Restriction League sought to screen/reduce immigrants. • 1882 Congress passed Chinese Exclusion Act, also denied entry to all “undesirables” and placed small tax on immigrants • New laws kept only a small amount of immigrants out. • Literacy requirement vetoed by president Grover Cleveland • Anti-immigrant measures failed mainly because many “natives” welcomed it • provided growing economy w/ cheap and plentiful labor