IMMIGRANTS & URBANIZATION Chapter 15 What were the economic, social and political effects of immigration?

IMMIGRANTS & URBANIZATIONChapter 15

What were the economic, social and political effects of immigration?

THE NEW IMMIGRANTS

The Lure of America

• Old Immigrants• 1800-1880 - 10

million• Protestants from

western and northern Europe

The Lure of America

• New Immigrants• 1891-1910 12 million• 60% of urban (12 largest cities) were foreign born• Southern and Eastern Europe

• Czech, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovak• escape poverty, persecution, economic opportunities

• Chinese• arrived on the west coast• seeking fortune• railroads, then farmed, mining and domestic service

The Lure of America

• New Immigrants• Japanese

• worked on plants in Hawaii• http://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/files/2010/01/Faces-of-America-Lesson-Pl

an-Upper-Elem-E.mov

• after annexation to the west coast• West Indies and Mexico

• Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico• jobs were scarce• eastern and southeastern U.S.

• Mexico• political turmoil• National Reclamation Act• farm workers

The Lure of America

• The Journey• Railroad & Steamship

Promoters• Tempting/False picture

(steamships charged a fare)

• Poorest accommodations – Steerage

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bC07e7PReM

Arriving in America

• Ellis Island, New York Harbor • 1892 to 1924 17 million

immigrants passed • physical exams

• who cannot stay?• document check and

interview• no felonies• ability to work• some money

• $25 after 1909

• 2% sent back

Arriving in America

• Angel Island – San Francisco Bay• between 1910 and 1940

about 50,000 Chinese immigrants

• Endure harsh questioning and long detention in filthy buildings

A New Life• Endure Hardships

• crowded cities• low paying, unskilled work• poor houses and slums

• Immigrant Communities• New York City…pockets of

countries/cultures• Benevolent Societies

• religious institutes set up to help those in need

• Cultural Practices• Old vs. Young

The Immigrant Worker• Worked in areas such

as…• mines, steel mills, textiles,

garments, laundries, etc.

• “Dirty Work”• Children in sweatshops• When layoffs occur…

Americans get the boot!• why?

The Nativist Response• Americans see them as a threat

• “wild motley throng” (wild mixed crowd)• blamed for poverty, crime, violence

• Chinese Exclusion Act - 1882• taken care of on the west coast• “the Chinese must go” (violence)• denies citizenship to those born in China• prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers

• Immigration Restriction League• impose literacy test• President Cleveland vetoes

Without Immigrants• Rapid industrialization would

have never been possible• America would lack the cultural

dimensions that it has today

THE CHALLENGES OF URBANIZATION

Snapshot of 1900 to 1909• 76,000,000 Americans in 46 states  

• by the end of the decade• Policeman arrests woman for smoking in public  • $46,000,000+ in the U.S. treasury  • 8,000 cars - 10 miles of paved roads  • 1900

• 96 auto deaths • 115 lynching

• San Francisco Earthquake• 700 dead and • over $4,000,000 in damage 

• Average worker made $12.98/week for 59 hours  • Life expectancy

• 47.3 female • 46.3 male

• 33 African American 

Urban Growth

Upper Class Life• “noveau riche” – newly rich

• made fortunes very quickly and made those of wealth look more like middle class

• Conspicuous consumption• Spent wealth freely so that everyone would know how successful they were

• Philanthropy• Giving wealth to art galleries, libraries, universities, museums, opera companies,

symphonies, theatres• Some saw as a way to do good, others used it to flaunt their wealth

Upper Class Life

Upper Class Life

Middle Class Life• Includes accountants,

clerks, engineers, managers, and salespeople

• Professionalism• Huge demand for educated

and trained specialized workers

• Professional schools ad organizations founded• Set standards, issue

licenses, review practices

Middle Class Life• Middle-Class Women

• New jobs for women…salesclerks, secretaries, stenographers

• Business owners hire young, single women to fill open positions• Pay lower wages than men

• Most married women worked in the home• ready made clothing, running hot and

cold water• More time to focus on children and

take part in cultural events• Reading and social clubs

How the Poor Lived• Huge population of laborers

keeps the wages low• Housing shortages and rising rent• Tenements

• 1.6 million New Yorkers – more than half the population

• As many as 12 families to a floor• Poorly ventilated, dark• Outside…raw sewage, piles of

garbage• “The stink is enough to knock you

down”• Sickness and death were

common

The New York Slums

A picture taken in 1903 of a group of New York City tenement houses. Close quarters, inadequate conditions, and other factors defined the living conditions of such a time.

The New York Slums

A picture, taken in 1908, of a New York tenement housing a family of seven.

The New York Slums

A picture, taken in 1908, of a New York tenement housing a family of seven.

The New York Slums

A picture, taken in 1900, of investigators examining an overcrowded tenement house fit for nine. When burden by the prices of food, clothing, and even rent, most immigrants in New York wereforced to live under unfit conditions in order to make ends meet.

African Americans• Greatest difficulties of all the poor• Discrimination• Super low paying jobs• Outrageous rents for appalling

apartments• Police harassment• …but preferred life in the North to the

South• “They sleep in peace at night; what they

earn is paid to them, if not they can appeal to the courts. They vote without fear of the shot-gun, and their children go to school”

The Drive for Reform

• Settlement Houses• Jane Addams - Hull House• Provided educational and cultural

opportunities to the poor and improved living conditions in the neighborhoods

• Social Gospel• Protestant ministers called for

people to apply Christian principles to address social problems

• Churches provided classes, counseling, job training, libraries and other social services

POLITICS IN THE GUILDED AGEPolitics in the Gilded Age

Political Bosses & Political Machines

Political Machines

Benefits

• Provides public services to growing cities

• Helps immigrants upon the arrival to the country

• Provides jobs for local voters

Failings

• Often uses corruption, such as voting fraud, to achieve their goals

• Corruption interfered with important functions of city government

• Encouraged graft