Immigration To The USA Flashcards
(41 cards)
By 1919 how many immigrants had arrived in the USA?
40 million
As a result, there was a mixture of different …
4
Races, cultures, religions, languages
What was created in the nineteenth century and why?
Open door policy in order to make entering the country as easy as possible
Who were the first European immigrants to arrive in the USA, from where, and what did they have when they arrived?
WASPS - White Angelo Saxon Protestants
North and West Europe - Britain, Germany, Scandinavia
Had the best jobs, most money and political power
List the 6 factors why people wanted to move to the USA + including two relating to Russia - why?
- to escape poverty in their own country
- wishing to escape political and economic persecution (Russia became a communist country in 1917)
- A promise of religious tolerance
- Attraction of plenty of land
- Hope of creating a better life
- Sense of adventure
How did most immigrants arrive? Where did most land and how many (%) arrived there?
Ellis Island, New York
70%
During the busiest times, how many went through the immigration management process and what did this process consist of & how long?
5000persons a day
Medical and legal examinations
3-5 hours
As the number of immigrants rose, what did the Americans start to do?
Doubt the open door policy
Traditionally, where did the immigrants tend to come from?
North and west Europe
Britain Ireland Germany
Between 1900-14, how many immigrants arrived and mainly from where?
13 million south and east Europe Italy Austria Hungary Russia Poland Greece
Where did the immigrants move to and what was happening in result to this?
To cities where they’d live with people from their own country of origin
Ghettos developed
Intolerance began to grow why?
What did the Americans feel?
What were the new immigrants accused of?
The ‘new’ immigrants would take jobs and work for low wages
Responsible for increases in crime, drunkenness and prostitution
When the USA began involved in WW1, what happened? And what did the involvement result in?
German immigrants increased
Many Americans feared future involvement in European affairs
They wanted to restrict immigration
What was the ideal citizen for many Americans on 1920s?
WASP
Why didn’t Americans like Asians and how what were most of the r cent European immigrants?
What did this result in?
Asians weren’t white
Many recent were Catholics, Greek Orthodox or Jewish (aka not WASPS)
Racial tension began to grow
What did Americans fear?
That immigrant would bring with them dangerous political beliefs, especially communism
List four reasons why people began to resent the new incomers
They were often poor
Many couldn’t speak English
Many were catholics or Jews
The trauma of the First World War and a fear of communism during the red scare of 1919 scared Americans
Immigration was restricted by a series of measures. Name the 4
Literacy Test - 1917
Emergency Quota Act 1921
National Origin Act 1924
Immigration Act 1929
What was the Literacy test and when was it introduced? And how did this restrict immigration?
Immigrants had to succeed in a series of reading and writing tests
Those for Eastern Europe were poorer, and weren’t educated and therefore failed the test and refused entry
All immigration was banned from Asia
Immigration fee of $8
What was the Emergency quota act and what did it do?
Fixed a maximum of 357,000 immigrants a year
only 3% of the total population of any foreign group were in the USA
Designed to restrict people coming in from poor countries
National origin act, when was it made and what did it consist of?
The quota was reduced to 2% of the 1890 census
Allows people from the Western Europe to enter the USA but not the Eastern Europe
Immigration act, when was it introduced and what did it do?
Restricted immigration to 150,000 per year
No Asians at all
Northern and Western Europeans were allocated to 85% of places
By 1930, immigration from japan, China and Eastern Europe has basically stopped
What was the act of restricting immigrants called and what changed?
Limitation to entry
Open door policy became the closed door policy
What was the red scare?
When did it occur?
The red scare was an almost hysterical reaction from many us citizens to developments in Europe in 1917-1919, especially the fear of communism
