Immigration+(1-8)

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1815-1875 was called the “third wave” of immigration to the United States. It started after the Napoleonic Wars. It has been said that over 9 million people immigrated to the United States during this time. Around 2.5 million people from Germany, 3 million from Ireland, and about 1.5 million from Britain immigrated to the United States during this time.

In the early 1900’s immigration really started to speed up. Most new immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island, New York. After the year 1924 immigration greatly slowed at Ellis Island due to the Immigration act of 1924. Because of this act Ellis Island then primarily became a detention and processing station.
 * Ellis Island** is located in New York City. Ellis Island was the first Federal immigration station in the United States. Ellis Island was also named Fort Gibson, after a brave officer who had died there during the war of 1812. From the years 1892 to 1954 over 12 million immigrants entered to Ellis Island to become an American citizen. The federal immigration station opened on Jan 1, 1892 and closed November 1, 1956. The year with the most immigrants processed was 1907, 1,004,756 were processed. The most processed in one-day was 11,747.For most immigrants it only took about an hour to become an American citizen. Not every immigrant was accepted in to the United States either. Around 2% were sent back to their country because of things like chronic contagious diseases, criminal records, or if the person was insane.

In the year 1917 the United States passed the Immigration act of 1917. The act stated that a number of “undesirables” we to be banned from immigrating to the United States. Some of the “undesirables” were “idiots” “feeble-minded persons,” "criminals" “,” “epileptics, insane persons,” alcoholics, “professional beggars,” all persons “mentally or physically defective,” polygamists. Furthermore, it barred all immigrants over the age of sixteen who were illiterate (wikipedia, 1). Also it banned people from the “Asiatic Barred Zone”, it was an area that had parts of eastern Asia and all of china. In 1882 the United States government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. During the 1840’s to the 1860’s most people welcomed the Chinese to help work during the gold rush and the Transcontinental Railroad. Then the gold started to get scare and there was lots more competition. During the 1870’s the civil war had ended and the economy had started to decline. Many people had started to blame the Chinese “coolies” for the declining economy. As stated earlier the United States government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The Act excluded Chinese skilled and unskilled workers in mining from entering the US for 10 years. It also had an effect on Chinese that were already living in the United States. All Chinese that had left the United States had to apply for a certification for re-entry. The act also mad all Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by not allowing them citizenship.
 * Angel Island** was the west coast immigration station. It was the immigration with people coming from Asia. The years 1910 and 1940 saw the most immigration through Angel Island. Over a million Asians went through Angel Island to become United States citizens. In the year 1882 the United States passed the Chinese Exclusion act. In some cases it took a few years for the Chinese to become a citizen. They were detained at the island until they were granted entry to the United States.