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Huddled Masses Yearning To Breathe Free [1880 to 1920] The story of mass migration to the United States is the intersection of other narratives - farming in the West and Industry in East. Weakness of labor (structural factor) is largely due to a diversity of immigrants.
Historical Context: As it was for earlier immigrants, those who immigrate in the post Civil War era generally are not welcomed by those whose family had already established roots in America. Asians, Eastern and Southern Europeans, and Jews often faced hostility from those who considered themselves culturally superior.
The impulse to blend in is constantly competing with urge to hold on to the old world traditions and cultural patterns.
Three basic questions to consider when examining immigration patters:
Why did they come?
Who were they?
What were their lives like?
Most immigrants reside in cities and become much more visible as America begins to transform itself. In 1860 the United States is largely a rural country. By 1900 ½ population lives in cities.
BY THE NUMBERS
1870-1890 8 million New immigrants
1891 Federal law mandates health inspections 15 minutes to 4 hours
1890-1920 18.2 million (12 million are permanent)
1900 15% of the population are immigrants
Why did Immigrants come to the US during the Gilded Age?
PULL FACTORS
PUSH FACTORS
Technology (steam power) = cheaper travel
Industrialization is major cause. Immigrants were recruited by companies to work in American factories
In 1869 there were 2 million factory workers; by 1899that number doubled to 4.7 million
Re-migration: 25%-60% return to their home country
Mandated Military service
Population boom in Europe – too many farmers competing for limited land leads to internal and external migration
Development of machinery = less need for laborers on the farm
Political liberation “subjects; were not allowed to leave country; Political upheaval and unrest
Immigrants transform what it means to be American!!!
Mostly Northern Europe (Ireland, Germany and England)
1890's most from Eastern Europe. They practice different religion (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Jewish) leads to tension with native Protestants. They LOOK, ACT, and SMELL different.Immigrant Cultural Ties
NEW IMMIGRANTS 1890 to 1920 Settled mainly in cities near factories, not on the frontier; had difficulty assimilating.
SLAVS (fled taxation and military service)
4 million “Slavs” - Term created to ID groups Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Bulgaria MAP SLAVS Satellite countries with no Independent political history – part of a larger Empire
Eastern Orthodox and Cyrillic Alphabet
Unskilled and manual laborers – 47% illiteracy rate!!!
ITALIANS (fled poverty)
Settle in the Northeast, Sometimes come over as whole villages - 45% rate of re-migration. Prior to coming to the US they ID themselves from a village or a region
In the US they are now Italian and competing with other Ethnic groups; Italians look different, talk different, and worship different
JEWISH (fled persecution)
Very poor, but skilled 25% are tailors – remember Levi Strauss
6 % are carpenters or merchants 2% are farmers
NO INTENTION of GOING BACK!!! Why? Over 600 laws regulating Russian Jews. Czar Alex II initiates Pogroms (race riots/lynching)
Arrival in US (Angel Island and Ellis Island) Traumatic experience – off the boat, long journey, treated by livestock, even their names
become Anglicized (Godfather Part II clip)
BY THE NUMBERS
1870-1890 8 million New immigrants
1891 Federal law mandates health inspections 15 minutes to 4 hours
1890-1920 18.2 million (12 million are permanent)
1900 15% of the population are immigrants
THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE Viewpoints on Cultural Ties
Many people held opinions on how immigrants could best adjust to their new lives in America. Some thought they should give up their own language and customs as quickly as possible; other thought they should hold onto to their heritage. Do you think that immigrant children or their parents had an easier time adjusting to life in America? WHY
On Breaking Cultural Ties:
“We wanted to be Americans so quickly that we were embarrassed if our parents couldn’t speak English. My father was reading a Polish paper and some of my friends were supposed to come to my house. I remember sticking the paper under something. We were ashamed of being foreign”
Louise Nagy, Polish immigrant, 1913
On Preserving Cultural Ties:
“ We ate the same dishes, spoke the same language, told the same stories, indulged in the same pleasures [as in Syria]…To me the colony [neighborhood] was a habitat so much like the one I left in Syria, that its home atmosphere enabled me to maintain a firm hold on life in the face of those many difficulties which I confronted.”
Is America a haven for the poor and oppressed or guided by fluctuating feelings about race and ethnicity, and fear of foreign political and labor agitation?
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