Immigration+(2-5)

Immigration- Late 1800s patterns In the early years of the U.S., immigration was only about 6,000 people a year on average, including French refuges from the slave revolt in Haiti. The war of 1812 with Britain again prevented any significant immigration. After 1820, immigration gradually increased. As time kept going on, immigration increased dramatically and then dropped down great amounts by 1850. In 1849, the California Gold Rush spurred significant immigration from China, Mexico, Australia, Europe, and South America. Later in the 1860s immigration in the United States kept rising until 1885. Today the population of America is growing rapidly and in the future population will be overwhelming.

Immigration- Early 1900s patterns After the depression of the 1890’s the number of immigrants jumped from 3.5 million to 9 million in the 1900’s. Immigrants from the northern and western parts of Europe continued as they had for the past 30 years but had started to decrease in numbers. Majority of immigrants started coming from the eastern and southern parts of Europe, Latin America, and Canada. They made up 70% of the number of immigrants by 1910. By around 1914 the number of immigrants decreased because of the war. Then finally by 1920 the government started making restrictions on the immigration policies.

Angel Island- Angel Island is located in the San Francisco Bay. Construction of an immigration station began in 1905 in an area known as China Cove. In 1910 Angel Island opened. Greater than 70% of the immigrants detained were Chinese. It was designed to handle European immigrants, but because of the outbreak of World War I after 1914, that cancelled the rush. Immigrants were processed slowly from weeks to months, unlike Ellis Island. The Chinese were lured into America thinking they would be able to find gold, instead they were forced into low paying jobs. Immigration continues to occur in the United States. People still debate whether is good or bad for the United States.

Ellis Island- Ellis island was originally used as a munitions depot storing 260,000 pounds of powder. But eventually some New Jersey residents started to complain about it so it was removed in 1890. Later that same year the House Committee of Immigration chose Ellis Island for their new immigrant screening station. The station that they were originally using was Castle Garden but it could not handle the excess flow of new immigrants. On January 1st, 1892 they opened up Ellis Island as immigration center two stories high. The building consisted of many rooms where they had to get medical exams and approved for citizenship. But it would some times unfortunately take any where from six hours to six months By 1895 the buildings roof was threatening to fall in due to rain or water so they had to close the station until construction was over. In 1898 a second island was built using the dirt and rock from the sub ways. Again in 1906 they decided to add a third island to the system at a cost of $500,000. But unfortunately due to strict legislation they were forced to shut down the islands in 1954.

2 Group 5