5-3.4

It is essential for students to know:

• Immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries came increasingly from eastern and southern Europe. The ‘new’ immigrants were from Italy, the Slavic states of the Balkan Peninsula, and Russia. Many of the new immigrants were Catholics or Jews.
• Prior to the 1890s most immigrants had come from northern and western Europe. The ‘old’ immigrants were from Anglo Saxon countries such as England, Ireland and Germany. , The old immigrants had been mostly Protestant.
• Immigration from China was significantly limited by the 1890s because of U.S. government restrictions that required that new immigrants prove that they had relatives already living in the United States.
• Immigration from Japan slowed because of an agreement between the United States government and the government of Japan in the early 1900s.
• Immigrants came to the United States because of both push and pull factors. Often they were pushed out of their home countries because of war, poverty or discrimination. They were attracted or pulled to the United States because of promises of economic opportunity, religious freedom and political and social equality.
• Immigrants faced resistance from native-born Americans for a variety of reasons.
• Anti-Catholic prejudice was widespread among American Protestants who believed that since Catholics followed the authority of the Pope in religious matters they would not be good American democrats.
• Americans also feared that city political bosses were manipulating the votes of their immigrant constituents and promoting corruption in city government.
• ‘Native-born’ Americans were prejudiced against the new immigrants because Americans believed that they were morally corrupt and associated them with drinking and radical labor politics.
• The anti-drinking temperance movement was largely directed against immigrants.
• Opposition to labor unions was, in part, the result of fear of foreign radicals.
• Native-born workers feared that new immigrants would take their jobs or drive down wages.
• Ideas such as Social Darwinism and Anglo-Saxon superiority also contributed to anti-immigrant prejudices and a movement to restrict immigration.
• Immigration from China was limited in the 1880s because native-born Americans did not want to compete with the Chinese for jobs.
• When the public schools in San Francisco set up a segregated school system for Japanese immigrant children, the resulting diplomatic confrontation with the Japanese government led to limitations on immigration from Japan imposed by the Japanese government [Gentleman’s Agreement].
• Some reformers wanted to place restrictions on immigration by requiring a literacy test (just like Southerners were limiting the political power of the African Americans).
• In the 1920s, immigration was restricted through a quota system that discriminated against immigrants who arrived after 1890 – the ‘new’ immigrants.
• Despite this resistance, immigrants continued to find political, social and economic opportunities in the United States. Immigrants found jobs in American factories and comfort in the ethnic neighborhoods that developed in the cities.
• Public schools had been established in the early 1800s as a means of assimilating immigrants into American democratic and social values. These schools provided educational opportunities for those immigrant children who did not have to work to help their families survive.
• Immigrants had the opportunity to vote and some even gained political office with the support of their immigrant communities. Others started their own businesses. In turn, immigrants have made many contributions to the growth and development of the United States.
• The majority of workers who built the transcontinental railroads were Irish and Chinese immigrants.
• Some first generation immigrants were entrepreneurs who promoted economic growth such as Andrew Carnegie and Alexander Graham Bell from Scotland.
• Immigrants supplied a great part of the labor force that helped to make the U.S. the world’s largest industrial power by the end of the 19th century.
• Second and third generation immigrants went to school and became doctors, lawyers and businessmen.
• Immigrant groups also contributed to the political and cultural life of the nation. Immigrants turned out to vote in large numbers and exercised political influence through the political bosses and political clubs in ethnic neighborhoods.
• Although at first diversity provoked resistance from native-born Americans, eventually the diversity provided by immigration helped to promote tolerance and a more democratic society. Ethnic neighborhoods provided foods and customs that gradually became part of the American culture, including such diverse contributions as Santa Claus and pizza.

It is not essential for students to know:

• Students do not need to know the names and locations of all of the countries of eastern and southern Europe from which the new immigrants came.
• They do not need to be able to locate all of the port cities (except New York and San Francisco) to which immigrants arrived or the cities that their population helped to build.
• Students do not need to be able to name the many ethnic neighborhoods that developed.
• Students do not need to know the names and dates of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 or the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907 that limited immigration from Asia.
• They do not need to know about the role of the press in promoting the idea of the “Yellow Peril” or that these same prejudices contributed to the internment of Japanese during World War II.
• Students do not need to know anything about the drinking habits of immigrants that contributed to the temperance movement such as the German beer gardens and the Italian vineyards.
• Although students need to know that anti-immigrant prejudices were widespread, they do not need to know the names that native-born Americans derisively called immigrants such as the “fighting Irish” or “shanty Irish” or “lace-curtain Irish.” It would be impossible for students to know all of the contributions that immigrants made to the customs and culture of the United States. However, it is important that students be offered specific examples so that they understand the significance of these contributions. These examples are left to teacher discretion.