US Immigration (1890-1920)

Question 1

Growth in Mass Immigration

Answer 1

• 1860-1890: At least 14 million immigrants arrived in the US
• Numbers reached an all time high, 1901-1910
• Europeans disembarked in New York for cheap labour or headed west to farm in new territories
• 1900: NYC had more Italians than Naples
• Chinese/Japanese headed for San Francisco
• 1890: 1/10 of San Francisco’s population was Chinese

Question 2

Positive Immigrant Experiences

Answer 2

• Industrialisation: immigrants came as workers and consumers
• Agencies matched immigrants to jobs so efficiently, many had employment within a few hours of arrival
• Immigrants assimilated well into society, formed the unskilled workforce

Question 3

Negative Immigrant Experiences

Answer 3

• 1900: Estimated, over 213 of those who arrived in the US in the previous 20 years existed below subsistence level
• Settling was difficult for those from a peasant outdoor life
• Low wages meant wives and children had to work

Question 4

Reactions to Mass Immigration

Answer 4

• Welcomed by employers as cheap labour
• Often used as ‘strike breakers’, brought as black legs to replace strikers
• Contributed to overcrowding, increased racial tensions/conflict
• Fear of dangerous political ideas being brought in, e.g. socialism, anarchism
• McKinley’s assassination, Haymarket Bomb Outrage, relevant acts of violence

Question 5

The American Protective Association

Answer 5

• Late 1880s/1890s: Largest anti-Catholic organisation
• Founded 1887, by Henry Francis Bowers
• Concerned about Roman Catholic threat, particularly infiltrating public schools