Immigration+(1-2)

Late 1800s Shifting

Immigration grew the most during the late 1800s. During that time the United States saw its biggest increase of immigrants that there were about 10 million immigrants. The number of immigrants in that time did not include African Americans being brought over for slavery. There were many things that pushed the immigrants over the Atlantic. The potato famine in Ireland that meant that not a lot of people had food so they came to a place that had a lot of food. And the political arrest in Germany pushed many more people over here. Disease spread on the ships coming across the Atlantic because of the over crowdedness and unsanitary ways of the immigrants. A few of the people on the ships would later die on the ships to never see America. The Chinese were a big part of immigration to America in the late 1800. Many of the Chinese would go to the west because it was the closest to china. Many of them would lay railroad tracks that would cross the west. The Chinese were looked down upon by the native born Americans for violence and legalized discrimination. Chinatowns were created when the U.S. decided to segregate the Chinese into their own town.

Early 1900s Shifting In the early 1900 public attention turned to the Immigrant ghettos where there was a lot of poverty, crime rates, and disease. There was a big separation from the immigrants and the natives to America. The countries that were coming over shifted to countries such as Italy, Greece, Poland and Russia. The new immigrants were very uneducated slower to learn English. By the end of WWI there was a labor conflict. It caused a backlash that ended in the Palmer Raids. The FBI had to depot many immigrants without trial.

Angel Island

In the early 1900s around 1910 and 1940 at Angel Island, there was at least 175, 000 Chinese immigrants detained and processed. Angel Island is located in San Francisco, California and unlike Ellis Island, which is located in New York’s harbor; it is a visible reminder of a terrible period in United States immigration history. The Chinese immigrants traveled to the United States for pretty much the same reasons as the European immigrants did. China was in years of famine and poverty and the United States offered to let them work and send money home to their families. The Chinese were welcomed to come and work in California when they were in the boom years. But when the economic conditions changed for the worse, there was a lot more discrimination against the Chinese.

Ellis Island

Ellis Island lies at the mouth of the Hudson River. The Hudson River starts at the New York Harbor. The location of Ellis Island was a prime location for welcoming incoming immigrants. In fact it was once a main entry facility for immigrant coming to the United States. The immigration station open on January 1, 1892 and closed on November 12, 1954. 1907 was the year for immigration, 1,004,756 immigrants were processed that year. The first stop for many immigrants from Europe was the Ellis Island. Many of the immigrants got sick on the ships coming over to the United States many were sent home but the others that stayed were held in the island’s hospital. All of them were asked questions such as how much money were they carrying what their name was and what was their occupation. The unskilled immigrants were rejected because they could be a public charge. The island was sometimes called the “The island of Tears” or “Heartbreak Island”. After World War II Ellis Island was a main training base for the coast guard.

Naturalization Act of 1795

The naturalization act replaced and repealed the naturalization act of 1790. The reason why the naturalization act of 1975 replaced the act of 1790 because it was increasing the period of required residence increased from two to five years in the United States. It also introduced the Declaration of Intention requirement, which is also known as the first paper and these first papers created a two-step naturalization process. Finally the act specified that naturalized citizenship was reserved only for free white people and it required all naturalized people have to be attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States and they have to be well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same.

Immigration Act of 1917

The United States Congress passed the Immigration act also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act on February 4, 1917 with the majority-overriding president Woodrow Wilson’s veto in December 14, 1916. This act added to the number of undesirables banned from entering the country, including but not limited to idiots, feeble-minded people, insane people, criminals, professional beggars, epileptics, alcoholics, polygamists and anarchists. It also barred no all immigrants who couldn’t read or write and were over the age of sixteen.

Group 2