Mass Immigration to the USA and its impact

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  • Mass Immigration and its impacts
    • CAUSES
      • Quality of life
        • Starvation, homelessness in home country
          • Potato famine Ireland
      • Job Opportunities
        • Better Wages
        • American companies set up agencies to recruit immigrint workers
          • 'Contract Labour'- workers agreed to work for fixed price, they had their travel paid for in advance so they could be taken on as workers
      • Space
        • USA had space that needed to be 'colonised', room for people in Western states
      • Relatives
        • Many immigrants had relatives to help them on arrival
      • To escape persecution
        • Jews in Tsarist Russia
      • To escape poverty
        • Many people came from southern Italy
      • No restrictions on immigration
      • Equality and political freedom
        • American Declaration on independence 'All men are equal'
          • most europeans denied vote/little political freedom
      • Europe's growing population
        • urbanisation of Europe, immigrants moved to america to continue their farming lifestyle
      • Sail to steam and Railways
        • steam ships made journey to US easier and railways opened up the continent
      • EFFECTS
        • Discrimination and tension
          • Local laws were passed that restricted catholics from doing certain jobs e.g. teaching and they were denied other rights
            • to counter immigrant threat and to protest against the large numbers of catholics it had over 2mil members by 1890s
          • WASPs did not like catholics as they were ruled by the pope in Italy and they saw this as an outside country having influence over america
            • Local laws were passed that restricted catholics from doing certain jobs e.g. teaching and they were denied other rights
              • to counter immigrant threat and to protest against the large numbers of catholics it had over 2mil members by 1890s
          • Irish catholics and Russian/ Polish jews
        • Huge population growth despite declining birth rate
        • Competition for jobs
          • White people blamed immigrants for unemployment as they provided cheap labour which also pushed wages down
        • Influence of prohibition
          • Immigrants came from backgrounds where social drinking was part of the their culture
        • Nativism grew stronger
          • The American Protective Association- founded by Henry F Bowers
            • WASPs - White angelo saxon protestants
              • The American Protective Association- founded by Henry F Bowers
        • EFFECTS
          • Discrimination and tension
            • WASPs did not like catholics as they were ruled by the pope in Italy and they saw this as an outside country having influence over america
              • Irish catholics and Russian/ Polish jews
            • Huge population growth despite declining birth rate
            • Competition for jobs
              • White people blamed immigrants for unemployment as they provided cheap labour which also pushed wages down
            • Influence of prohibition
              • Immigrants came from backgrounds where social drinking was part of the their culture
            • Nativism grew stronger
              • WASPs - White angelo saxon protestants
            • Melting Pot
              • popular optimistic view of US, formed from many different countries, races, cultured and religions
                • in reality the groups did not live together amongst each other instead they lived in localised communities that reflected their heritage
                  • Eg. almost every city had an area known as little 'italy'
                  • boston and chicago--> large numbers of catholic irish and polish
                  • new york--> many Jews escaping Tsarist Russia
              • between 1900-13 13 million immigrants arrived
                • Mass Immigration and its impacts
                  • CAUSES
                    • Quality of life
                      • Starvation, homelessness in home country
                        • Potato famine Ireland
                    • Job Opportunities
                      • Better Wages
                      • American companies set up agencies to recruit immigrint workers
                        • 'Contract Labour'- workers agreed to work for fixed price, they had their travel paid for in advance so they could be taken on as workers
                    • Space
                      • USA had space that needed to be 'colonised', room for people in Western states
                    • Relatives
                      • Many immigrants had relatives to help them on arrival
                    • To escape persecution
                      • Jews in Tsarist Russia
                    • To escape poverty
                      • Many people came from southern Italy
                    • No restrictions on immigration
                    • Equality and political freedom
                      • American Declaration on independence 'All men are equal'
                        • most europeans denied vote/little political freedom
                    • Europe's growing population
                      • urbanisation of Europe, immigrants moved to america to continue their farming lifestyle
                    • Sail to steam and Railways
                      • steam ships made journey to US easier and railways opened up the continent
                  • Melting Pot
                    • popular optimistic view of US, formed from many different countries, races, cultured and religions
                      • in reality the groups did not live together amongst each other instead they lived in localised communities that reflected their heritage
                        • Eg. almost every city had an area known as little 'italy'
                        • boston and chicago--> large numbers of catholic irish and polish
                        • new york--> many Jews escaping Tsarist Russia
                    • between 1900-13 13 million immigrants arrived
                      • Most of which were processed at Ellis Island (New York) which at peak was receiving 5000 new arrivals a day
                  • Restrictions imposed
                    • Many of the new immigrants in 20th century were cfrom southern and eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, rusiia) they were Catholics and Jews, no longer were they all WASPs
                    • Many of the 'newer' immigrants were poor, illiterate and non-English speakers.
                    • The event of WW1 and the Red Scare created a 'fear' or foreigners therefore US Gov introduced 3 acts to limit immigration
                      • !. The Literacy Test 1917. - Immigrants had to pass a series of tests to prove they could read and write (tended to count against poorer immigrants from S. and E. Europe)
                      • The Emergency Quota Act 1921.- Set a limit of 357,000 immigrants per year. Also introduced the idea of 'national' quotas. only 3% of the total population of any foreign group already in the USA in 1910 were admitted after 1921 (designed to favour older groups such as the British and count against the newer wave of immigrants
                        • Untitled
                      • 3. The National Origins Act 1924- This furher reduced the number of immigrants to 150000 and cut the quota to 2% (based on the population of 1890). The act also banned Asian Immigration.
                • Most of which were processed at Ellis Island (New York) which at peak was receiving 5000 new arrivals a day
            • Restrictions imposed
              • Many of the new immigrants in 20th century were cfrom southern and eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, rusiia) they were Catholics and Jews, no longer were they all WASPs
              • Many of the 'newer' immigrants were poor, illiterate and non-English speakers.
              • The event of WW1 and the Red Scare created a 'fear' or foreigners therefore US Gov introduced 3 acts to limit immigration
                • !. The Literacy Test 1917. - Immigrants had to pass a series of tests to prove they could read and write (tended to count against poorer immigrants from S. and E. Europe)
                • The Emergency Quota Act 1921.- Set a limit of 357,000 immigrants per year. Also introduced the idea of 'national' quotas. only 3% of the total population of any foreign group already in the USA in 1910 were admitted after 1921 (designed to favour older groups such as the British and count against the newer wave of immigrants
                  • Untitled
                • 3. The National Origins Act 1924- This furher reduced the number of immigrants to 150000 and cut the quota to 2% (based on the population of 1890). The act also banned Asian Immigration.

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