Immigration 1880-1917 Flashcards
What was social change in America shaped by?
The great Atlantic Migration - more than 18 million European immigrants came to the US in these years.
Describe the effect of immigration on the economy.
It was both a symptom and a cause of the dynamic expansion of the American economy. Many immigrants were economic migrants drawn to the US by promise of work and a better life. But they also provided the vast pool of labour and huge numbers of domestic consumers to fuel boom.
What did most of the migrants become?
Urban dwellers, part of the population explosion in American cities.
How were immigrants passive ‘victims’ of urbanisation?
They were pushed along by huge social forces they could not control.
What positive effect did immigration have on the cities?
The new cities were often shaped by the cultural identities of the migrants, as cities took on the special character of their inhabitants - the sights, sounds and cooking smells of areas such as ‘Little Italy’ in NYC, or the ‘Polish Triangle’ in Chicago.
What negative effect did immigration have on the cities?
It led to tensions and divisions between ethnic communities, between the new arrivals and those who had settled a generation earlier.
Where else were there widening divisions?
Between city and countryside, Between North and South, and between Wets and Drys - growth of power and prosperity in modern America was accompanied by recurrent social upheavals.
How many immigrants came to the USA between 1890 and WW1?
18.4 million, boosted by the movement of ‘new’ migrants from southern and eastern Europe.
Where did the new wave of immigrants mostly come from?
Austria-Hungary, southern Italy, and the Russian Empire. Many were Jews: it is estimated that 1/3 of all Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe emigrated to the US.
What were the ‘push’ factors of migration?
Examples include:
- The poverty and hunger that drove people to leave southern Italy.
- Or persecution, such as the policy of ‘Russification’ in Tsarist Russia after 1881.
What were the ‘pull’ factors of migration?
Examples include:
- The idealised belief in America as a land of riches and freedom.
- The attraction of joining previously established communities.
Describe the strength of the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors between 1890 to 1941.
They were especially strong, with a rising surplus population in Europe and a huge demand for migrant workers in the US.
What else was migration boosted by?
Improvements in transportation and communications. Ships were bigger and faster.
What happened with the departure ports?
E.g Bremen, Hamburg, and Liverpool. They developed sophisticated systems for handling the flow of people from their places of origin to the emigrant ships across the Atlantic.
What happened to the immigration centre in 1890 at Castle Garden in NYC?
It had to be closed because it could not cope adequately with the volume of arrivals. A huge new immigration centre was subsequently opened on Ellis Island in 1892.
