The 2nd and 3rd lectures for 1st year's students of English are devoted to the history of immigration to the United States from the Pilgrim Fathers to most recent legislation on immigration
3. Successive waves of immigration
More than 60 million newcomers
entered the country since its early
days.
In the past centuries, 80% of new
comers were from Europe.
Today only 15%
4. Why immigrate to America:
Push Factors
1. Population growth.
2. Agricultural changes
3. Crop failures.
4. Industrial Revolution.
5. Religious and political turmoil.
7. Early Immigrants
Spanish explorers established in the south during the 16th century
Christopher Columbus 1492
Motives for exploration: wealth, religion and power
8. Early Immigrants
French fur traders travelled
down from Canada to the
Mississippi establishing trading
posts.
9. The Pilgrim Fathers
British settlers: Most numerous group
Left the country for religious reasons
Puritans : radical Protestants:
- They wanted to purify the Church of
England of its remaining Catholic
practices.
(called the pilgrim fathers), formed their
own churches.
10. Early Immigrants:
The Pilgrim Fathers
They were harassed by the government
-> they had to leave England.
->The Pilgrim fathers, left for the New
World in 1620, on the Mayflower.
13. Puritanism
Puritanism was a way of life (theocracy)
Puritan spiritual life stressed self-
discipline
Puritans saw their lives as a “divine
mission”: God gave them the New World
for they were his chosen people
This idea is the precursor to the concept
of Manifest Destiny
14. Hard Work & Self-Discipline
To the Puritans, a person was sinful by
nature and could achieve good only by
severe discipline.
Hard work was considered a religious
duty.
15. Puritans & Education
Puritans were highly literate people
Education was highly valued as a
way to fight atheism and to instill in
children the value of hard work
16. 1636: The Puritans founded Harvard, the first
college in America
17. 17th & 18th Centuries
Permanent settlement on the East
Coast
A majority of British
Northern Europeans: Germans,
Swedes, Dutch
18. 19th Century’s European
Waves
1st wave: Mid 19th Century
1840 ->1860: 10 million immigrants poured into
America
Northern Europe: British, Dutch, Scandinavians
Common culture, similar languages &
religion
Homogeneous population
Birth of the WASP concept
Starting from the 1870’s Central, Eastern and
Southern Europeans started to be
overrepresented
19. Irish Potato Famine
In 1845,a disease attacked Ireland’s
main food crop, the potato, causing a
severe food shortage called a famine.
The Irish Potato Famine killed 1 million
people and forced many to emigrate.
By 1854, between 1.5 and 2 million Irish
had fled their homeland and came to
America.
20. 19th & early 20th Century
The Second European Wave
2nd Wave: 1870 to the
1920s
20 million Europeans :
4.5 Italians, 4 Austrian
Hungarians, 3.4
Russians and Poles
Central and Eastern
Europe over-
represented
21. The Second European
Wave
Newcomers had different cultures, origins
and were not protestants
Regarded with suspicion
Considered as a potential threat to
social cohesion
+ They were often poor, illiterate and
unskilled and looking desperately for a job
Blamed for lowering wages
Accused of taking jobs from “old stock”
American workers
22. The Second European Wave:
Impact
Impact twofold:
Economic: Boosted US industry which
was to become world leader
Worked in manufacturing & building railroads
Social: the number and difference created
problems
Revival of nativist feelings.
The Ku-Klux-Klan reappeared
25. The New Immigration
Immigration continued
at a high rate.
From 1850s-1870s, more
than 2 million per decade
1880s - Five million.
Until the 1880s most
immigrants integrated
into American society
relatively easily
Journey across the Atlantic
26. New Immigrants
They Integrated
differently. Why?
Were browner, more
Jewish, more Orthodox
Christians
Poorer and not used to
democratic governments
More illiterate
Did not come looking for farming opportunities
Came looking for work, and were comfortable
living in cities working industrial jobs.
27. New Immigrants
Lived together in mini-
cities within cities.
Consequences?
Americans began to fear
that US a dumping ground
for Europe’s refuse.
28. Immigration from Asia
1. Gold Rush and Railroad Work pulled
Chinese to America.
2. Worked for less pay which created
conflicts.
29. Exclusion Act: Shutting the Doors
on the Chinese
Blamed Chinese for 1870s Depression.
Mob Violence
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Prohibited immigration for 10 years
30. Anti-immigration
organizations
Racist attitudes and fear of foreign workers
Creation of Anti-Chinese groups:
• Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL)1905 Cal.
• Immigration Restriction League (IRL) in 1894 (East
Coast businessmen)
Aim is to stop Japanese, Korean, and Chinese
immigration
Preventing them from integrating US society
31. Anti -Japanese
Movement
Movement pushed for laws to prevent
immigrants from becoming legal residents,
owning land, or owning business
racially inferior and products of repressive
governments who would be unable to
participate in a free, democratic society
32. The Literacy Test
IRL petitioned Congress to require
immigrants to show that they could at
least read the Literacy test in 1917
In the 1920s, restrictions on immigration
increased. The Immigration Act of 1924
was the most severe
Nativists feared the newcomers were
likely to be criminals, and even
anarchist or Bolshevik terrorists
33. The Quota Acts 1920’s
Legislation to limit new entries
Imposed quotas according to country of origin
and number of residents already in the US.
Objective: restore an ethnic balance
Restrict immigration from Southern and
Eastern Europe and ban Japanese
“Old Stock” immigrants (Anglo-Saxon origin)
were welcome
43% immigrants from Great Britain
Birth of the idea of preferential immigration
34.
35. New trends in immigration
Since 1960s: radical shift.
Leading immigrant group: Mexicans around
27%
Settlement pattern: Sunbelt states
(California, Texas & Florida)
36. The Family Reunification Act
of the 1960’s
1965 : legislation named ‘brothers and
sisters act’:
Preference to family reunification
Family oriented policy vs. merit oriented
policy:
Skilled workers with no relatives would seek
asylum in Canada or Australia where
qualification is a priority
US lost educated immigrants
37. The Immigration Act of
1990
Designed to balance the previous Act:
Visas are divided between:
Family immigrants (immediate relatives)
Employment-based immigrants (favoring
skilled workers)
Diversity
immigrants
(annual lottery
of 50,000 green
cards)
41. Illegal immigrants
Settlement: Same as legal immigrants :
Sunbelt states + New York
Related issues:
Many Americans consider aliens as parasites
taking advantage of social protection.
However, mostly are underpaid seasonal
workers who don’t rely on social services.
42. Illegal immigrants
The US has a 2000 mile border with Mexico
An increasing influx of illegal aliens.
They cross the Rio Grande (called
Wetbacks)
Many pregnant women cross the border to
deliver their babies in the US
Hundreds of underground birth clinics.
45. The Immigration Debate
Immigration issues
regularly appear in the
media.
The debate centers
around:
The costs and benefits
of immigration
The cultural impact of
immigration
Border security
Knowing who’s within
American borders
46. Immigration Ban on Specific
countries : Lessons from
History
A presidential commission after World War II
found that Japanese exclusion helped motivate
Japan’s attack on the US in 1941.
When quotas were passed in 1924, the press in
Japan declared a “National Humiliation Day”.
In 1941, as the Japanese navy steamed toward
Pearl Harbor, Japanese commander stated that
time has come to:
“teach the US a lesson for the exclusion of
Japanese immigrants…”
47. Trump’s Order
White House argued that the temporary
suspension of entries from Iran, Iraq,
Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and
Yemen are a reasonable measure to
allow time for a new system of vetting to
be introduced.
Denied the idea that the measures are a
ban on Muslims…