Immigration 1880-1925
Immigrants with their belongings pictured outside the Main Building at Ellis Island.
Immigration
Ellis Island, New York City
• Old Immigrants
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Before 1880
From Northern & Western Europe
White Anglo Saxon Protestant
Middle Class
•1892-1954
•Primary
Immigration
Processing station
• New Immigrants
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After 1880
From Southern & Eastern Europe
Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish
Poor & Illiterate
Entered the U.S. in large numbers until 1925
Immigrants aboard a ship heading for the Port of New York, circa 1892.
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Most traveled 3rd class or steerage.
Ellis Island was designed to process 5,ooo Immigrants a day
1907-1924 Ellis Island processed 20,000 Immigrants a day
The Great Line Inspection
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Immigration officials
perform medical
examinations on each
arriving passenger.
Urbanization
• By 1900 American cities looked like patches of
ethnic groups.
• Close knit neighborhoods with shared similarities.
Immigrants being given a mental test at Ellis Island.
Benevolent Societies
•Helped Immigrants adjust to
their new homes.
•Helped them find jobs, find
homes, learn English, and a place
to share their culture.
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Language
Religion
Traditions
Holidays
Food
History
Reality of Immigrant Life in America
• Lived in Slums
– Streets filled with raw sewage & garbage
– Near factories that polluted the air.
– Tenements
• Overcrowded, airless, small apartments
• Work
Under the Imperial Russian coat of arms,
traditionally dressed Russian Jews, packs in
hand, line Asia's shore as they gaze across
the ocean. Waiting for them under an
American eagle holding a banner with the
legend "Shelter me in the shadow of your
wings" (Psalms 17:8), are their Americanized
relatives, whose outstretched arms
simultaneously beckon and welcome them to
their new home. Hebrew Publishing
Company, between 1900 and 1920. Offset
color lithograph postcard.
– Labor intensive
– Menial jobs
– Low pay
• Discrimination
– Many native born Americans blamed Immigrants for all of
societies ills.
– Unemployment, overcrowded cities, health problems, illiteracy
rates, & poverty
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Restriction of Immigration
Nativism
• Favoritism toward native-born Americans
• Promoted anti-immigrant groups & immigration
restriction
• Many Nativist blamed immigrations for the
country’s problems
• Problems were caused by Immigrants from the
“Wrong” countries. (Slavs, Italians, Asians)
• They also believed that Catholics & Jews would
undermine democracy
The large number of
fatalities aboard
overcrowded vessels
carrying immigrants away
from famine-devastated
Ireland led them to be
labeled "coffin ships." This
political cartoon from
Harper's Weekly, by W. A.
Rogers, ran with the
caption, "The balance of
trade with Great Britain
seems to be still against us.
630 paupers arrived at
Boston in the steamship
Nestoria, April 15th, from
Galway, Ireland shipped by
the British Government."
The Irish vessel is labeled
"Poor House from Galway."
The smaller vessel to the
left is marked with the
words, "From New York.
The Dynamite." The small
box on which the man in
the plaid coat is seated
also contains the words
"the dynamite."
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
• Banned immigration for all Chinese except
students, teachers, merchants, tourist, and
government officials.
• Denied citizenship to all Chinese born
• Prohibited immigration of Chinese laborers
• Repealed in 1943
“Every Dog Has His Day”
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Immigration Restriction League
• Formed in 1894 by a group of wealthy Bostonians.
• Wanted to restrict immigration by requiring
literacy to enter the U.S.
• The law was finally passed in 1917
Irish family at Ellis Island, anticipating a future in America (circa 1905).
1924 Immigration Restriction Act
• Restricted Immigration based on a quota system
• The quota for each ethnic group was based on
the census population from 1890.
• This discriminated against groups of immigrants
that arrived in large numbers after 1890.
• After 1924 immigrants had to have a VISA to
enter the U.S.
Hungarian mother and daughters specially dressed for their arrival in America.
Approved for entry, these immigrants wait in the Ellis Island Railroad Ticket Office.
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A view of immigrants inside the Ellis Island Dining Room.
View inside the Ellis Island Dining Room, circa 1902.
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