Immigration 1865-1914

1
Immigration 1865-1914

• Honors US History

2
Immigration prior to 1865

• The majority of immigration in the US before the
  Civil War was from the British Isles.
  Predominantly British and Irish people.

3
1865-1880s

• Germans
• Huge numbers of Germans moved to the United
  States looking for a better life.
• 1881-1885 One million Germans moved to the US
  primarily in the Midwest.
• Western Europeans
• After 1870, steam powered ships were used to make
  the voyage across the Atlantic.
• A flood of immigrants came to the US.
• Nearly 25 million Europeans made the voyage.
  Italians, Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, and others
  speaking Slavic languages constituted the bulk of
  this migration.

4
1875 The First Immigration Law

• Page Act of 1875 (AKA The Chinese Exclusionary
  Act)
• The law excluded three types of people
• Asian Convicts
• Asian Contract Laborers (Slaves sort of)
• Asian Prostitutes

5
1880 - 1910s

• Scandinavian's
• 1.5 million Norwegian and Swedish immigrants
  escaping religious persecution come to the US.
• Italians
• 1880-1920 over two million Italians move into the
  US. 1/3 return to Italy after about 5 years.

6
Ellis Island 1892-1954
7
Ellis Island

• Today, over 100 million Americans can trace
  their ancestry back to people who first arrived
  at Ellis Island.
• By 1907, Ellis Island was processing nearly a
  million immigrants per year.

8
Ellis Island

• 1904
• Processing New Immigrants to the US.

1904
9
Immigration Act of 1924

• Established to limit immigration.
• Set quota's for certain ethnicities
• Quotas were based on the 1920 census.
• It was racist, excluding specific nationalities.
• Ie British immigration dropped 19, Italian
  immigration dropped more than 90.

10
What about now?

• Arizona Immigration Law?
• Fear of Terrorists
• Drug Smuggling
• Undocumented workers
• Refugees
• Naturalization Process