1. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION
IN USA

2. THE POPULATION OF THE U.S
Give me your
tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe
free,
The wretched refuse of
your teeming shore.
Send these, the
homeless, tempest-tost
to me,
I lift my lamp beside
the golden door!

3. QUESTIONS
 Where did the immigrants come from?
 When did they arrive?
 Why did they leave their home countries?
 Where did they settle?
 Where did they work?
 What aspects of their culture did they bring with
them?
 What impact did immigrant cultural traditions have on
the United States?

4. FACTS
 Due to potato rot which began in 1845, the potato
crop in Ireland began to fail.
 From 1845 to 1850 there were famine conditions in
Ireland.
 More than one million people died of starvation.
 One-fourth of the Irish population moved to the
United States.

5. FACTS
 Because of improved farming methods such as
crop rotation-and therefore greater abundance of
food-the population of Europe doubled between
1750 and 1850.
 These improvements reduced the need for farm
workers → many peasants were forced off land that
they had lived on for generations.

6. FACTS
 The passage to the United States in sailing vessels
took three months, on the average, at the beginning
of the 1800s.
 The passage in steamships (which began to be
used in the mid-nineteenth century) took ten days.
 The Russian government began to carry out
pogroms (organized attacks) against the Jews of
eastern Europe.

7. FACTS
 A Norwegian worker could earn up to 4-5 dollars a day in the United
States.
 This was more than triple the wage that the same person could have
earned in Norway at that time.

8. FACTS
 The U.S. Congress passed the Contract Labour
Law in 1864.
 Employers could make contracts with workers in
other countries and many employers lent money to
foreign workers to pay for their transportation to the
United States.
 After the workers arrived, they were required to pay
the money back out of their wages.

9. THREE GREAT WAVES OF
IMMIGRATION
 1815-1860:
 5 million immigrants
- mainly
English, Irish, Germanic,
Scandinavian, and
others from
northwestern Europe.
 1865-1890:
 10 million immigrants
- again mainly from
northwestern Europe.
 1890-1914:
 15 million immigrants –
mainly from Eastern
Europe.

10. REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION
 There are two types of motivation for
immigration:
- Push factors (reasons to leave home country),
- Pull factors (reasons for settling in USA).

11. REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION –
1607-1830
 Political Freedom.
 Religious Tolerance.
 Economic Opportunity -
People want a better life -
better job - more money.
 Political Refugees fear for
their lives.
 Some want free atmosphere.
 Forced Immigration (slavery).
 Family Reunification.

12. REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION
1830- 1890
 Land plentiful, and fairly
cheap.
 Jobs were abundant, wages
high.
 Birthrate → decline.
 Industry and urbanization →
increase.
 Notion that in America, the
streets were, "paved with
gold”.
 Religious and political
freedom.

13. REASONS FOR IMMIGRATION
1890-1914
 Jews came for religious
freedom.
 Italians and Asians came
for work.
 Russians came to
escape persecution.
 America had jobs.
 America had religious
freedom.
 America was hyped up in
many countries as "Land
of Opportunity„.

14. WHO WERE THE IMMIGRANTS?
1830-1890
 Nationality → Mainly Irish, English and
Scandinavians.
 Circumstances
 The Irish → potato famine.
 They resented the British rule of their country.
 British landlords.
 The British Protestantism.
 British taxes.
 The average life expectancy was 19.
 The British → look for better opportunities of
work.

15.  Age:
 Irish: Teenager to Young Adult.
 British: Most immigrants from Britain were fairly
young, although not quite as young as their Irish
counterparts.
 Social Classes:
 Most Irish → tennant farmers before they came to
the United States.
 They had little taste for farm work and little money to
buy land in America anyway.
 The British → professionals, independent
farmers, and skilled workers.

16. THE IRISH
 Settled in New York (too poor to
travel).
 Discriminated against.
 Poor living conditions (80% of Irish
infants died in New York).
 Took the jobs no one wanted.
 "Let Negroes be servants, and if not
Negroes, let Irishmen fill their.
place..."
 With the arrival of Eastern
Europeans the Irish no longer lowest
class.
 Became policemen & firemen.

17. WHO WERE THE IMMIGRANTS?
1890 - 1914
 Italians
 Voluntary
 White
 Catholics and Roman
Catholics
 Eastern Europeans
 Voluntary
 White
 Jewish & Christian
 Greeks
 Voluntary
 White
 Eastern Orthodox
 Russians:
• Voluntary
• White
• Jewish

18. EASTERN/SOUTHERN EUROPE
IMMIGRANTS
 Immigrants from
Southeastern Europe
blamed for increasing
problems
 1880 – 1920 →New York
grew by 300%, Chicago →
400%, L.A→1000%
 These newcomers were
often described by what
they were not:
 Not Protestant
 Not English-speaking
 Not skilled
 Not educated
 Not liked.
 Anglo-Saxon Myth created
 Restrictions on immigration
gradually imposed
 Anti-Catholic feelings
 Anti-eastern European
feelings
 Polish immigrant
assassinated the American
president (McKinley

19. NORWEGIAN SETTLERS
 Nearly 1 million between 1820-
1920
 Why?
 Land
 Social and political reasons
 Higher wages
 Increase in poulation
 Cleng Peerson
 ”Sloopers”
 Where?
 Most settled in the Mid West
 1851 - Treaty of Traverse
des Sioux
 1862 – Homestead Act

20. VIEWS ON IMMIGRANTS
” The ones who come here are usually the most stupid of their
nation. Few understand our language, so we cannot
communicate with them.. It has been reported that young men
do not believe they are true men until they have shown their
manhood by beating their mothers. They do not believe they
are truly free unless they also abuse and insult their teachers.
And now they are coming to our country in great numbers.
Few of their children know English. They bring in much of their
own reading from their homeland and print newspapers in
their own language. In some parts of our state, ads, street
signs, and even some legal documents are in their own
language and allowed in courts.
Unless the stream of these people can be turned away, they
will soon outnumber us so that we will not be able to save our
language or our government. However, I am not in favour of
keeping them out entirely. All that seems necessary is to
distribute them more evenly among us and set up more
schools that teach English. In this way, we will preserve the
true heritage of our country.”
Benjamin Franklin about German immigrants in 1751

21. IMMIGRATION LAWS
 1790 → Naturalization rule establishes →a two-year residency requirement for
immigrants wanting to become U.S. citizens.
 1875 → No convicts or prostitutes.
 1882 → Immigration from China is stopped; ex-convicts, lunatics, idiots, and those
unable to take care of themselves are excluded. A tax (50 cents) must be paid by
immigrants.
 1892→ Ellis Island opens.
 1903 → No political radicals, epileptics, professional beggars.
 1907 → No feeble-minded, tuberculars, persons with physical or mental defects, and
persons under age 16 without parents. Tax on new immigrants is increased ($8).
 1910 → No criminals, paupers, diseased.
 1917 → Immigrants over 16 years old must pass literacy exam.
 1921 → Annual immigration limited to 350 000. Quotas for each nationality are
introduced.
 1924 → immigration limited to 165 000 annually.
 The nationality quota is revised to 2% of each nationality's representation

22. MELTING POT VS SALAD BOWL
 Melting Pot → All
immigrants mixed
together form the
”American”.
 Salad Bowl → All
immigrants are
American, yet keep
their cultural heritage
from their ”home”.

23. POPULATION IN US.

24. THE END ;)