Immigration in 1877-1890

Question 1

Reasons for immigration

• Economic dislocation

Answer 1

Agricultural and industrial depression pushed immigrants from Britain, Norway and Sweden

• Shortages of land

Question 2

Reasons for immigration

• Anti-semitism

Answer 2

Russian Jews fleeting new persecution after the assassination of Alexander II in 1881

Question 3

Reasons for immigration
• Name a pull factor
(Positive)

Answer 3

Economic opportunity of good inexpensive farmland or jobs in factories, particularly the rapid growth of American industry and the need for cheap labour.

Question 4

Reasons for immigration

• Anti-semitism (Facts)

Answer 4

The number of Jewish immigrants to America rose from 5,000 in 1880 to 90,000 in 1900.

Question 5

Reasons for immigration

• Steamship

Answer 5

It was the main form of travel across the Atlantic and steamship companies advertise and promote the benefits of immigration

Question 6

Reasons for immigration

• Advertisements in guidebook

Answer 6

It described the advantages of life in America, such as the economic opportunity, political equality and religious tolerance.

Question 7

Reasons for immigration

• Railroads as promotional agencies

Answer 7

They had vast tracts of land to dispose of and were able to offer transport to reach it.

Question 8

Economic impact of immigration

Answer 8

In 1890, 56% of the labour force in manufacturing and mechanical industries was of foreign birth or foreign parentage

Question 9

The Chinese Exclusion Act 1882

Answer 9

It prohibited Chinese labourers from entering the US.

Question 10

Chinese labourers in the 1860s

Answer 10

The Chinese comprised an overwhelming majority of the labourers who laid the track of the Central Pacific through Sierra Nevada in the 1860s

Question 11

How did the Chinese Exclusion Act come about?

Answer 11

Economic fear bred ethnic intolerance, Labour unions strongly opposed the presence of Chinese labour due to competition for jobs.

Question 12

Prejudice against newcomers

Answer 12

The Scots were depicted as mean and the Irish as ugly. All Italians, it was assumed, were involved in organised crime.

Question 13

Example of anti-semitism

Answer 13

Jews had been barred from voting until the mid-nineteenth century.

Question 14

Example of anti-semitism

Answer 14

Jews had been barred from voting until the mid-nineteenth century.

Question 15

How did social ostracism continue?

Answer 15

The exclusion of Jewish banker.

Hotels, clubs and colleges began to turn Jews away.

Question 16

Example of nativism

Answer 16

1) Unions regarded unskilled immigrants as a threat to organised labour
2) Social reformers believed the influx of immigrants exacerbated the problems of the cities.
3) Protestant conservative dreaded the supposed threat to Nordic supremacy

Question 17

Congress on nativism 1885

Answer 17

In 1885, a bill was passed by Congress which put a ban on foreign contract labour despite not extended to skilled workers needed for new industries.