Immigration, cities

1) Describe the causes of the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Europeans: Many of the Europeans (at first, it was mainly Eastern Europeans, but soon Southern Europeans followed suit) left their home country to get away from religious oppression. This was a particular problem for Jews, and many Jewish immigrants flocked to the US after being kicked out of their villages. Europe was also rising in population; simply by necessity, people were forced to leave in order to find work and enough food for their families. A final reason that many Europeans came to the US was because of new political movements in their homelands - individualism was being pushed, and America was a place where they could start over as individuals.

Chinese: The Chinese immigrants mainly went to the West Coast. Poverty in their old country drove them to look for lucrative jobs, and the California Gold Rush (as well as the railroad business boom) drew in millions of Chinese immigrants looking to make any amount of money they could earn. This was a similar path for other Asian immigrants, such as Koreans to take.

Japanese: The Japanese immigration wave was mainly caused by the Japanese government - they agreed to let Hawaiian planters recruit Japanese citizens to work on their farms. This chance at a "new life" seemed like an incredible opportunity, and the Japanese began to pour into the US.

2) Describe the journey immigrants endured and their experiences at United States immigration stations.

The journey itself was incredibly dangerous - immigrants packed on to steamships, paying for the cheapest passage possible. This meant that hundreds of people were stuffed into limited space below the deck, without fresh air. Disease spread like wildfire, since there was little sanitation. From Europe, immigrants could be stuck on the boat for a week; from Asia, it could take three weeks.

If they even survived the boat ride, immigrants were still not safe once they reached American shores. Each immigrant had to pass through an immigration station, where they would be examined for hours by government officials and doctors. There was a possibility that they could be sent back to their home country if their documents did not match up. Some detention centers were better than others; Angel Island, on the West Coast, for example, had very poor conditions compared to Ellis Island on the East Coast.