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MODERN IMMIGRANTS

European explorers arrived on the North American continent in the 15th century and continued to explore its lands throughout the 16th century.
When the ships from Philadelphia came to unload their cargoes, the Scotch-Irish would sell themselves, for the cost for their passage, to a captain. Once they reached the New World, the captain would auction off their services. The Scotch-Irish would work a term of years to redeem themselves from their purchases.

The African slaves came over on ships where they were wedged into holds so tightly they could barely move at all. Vessels of one to two hundred tons often carried four to five hundred Africans, as well as the crew and the provisions. They were cooped up weeks, lived in meager ration, and were deprived of fresh air. This caused many deaths among the unhappy captives.

By the 17th century, England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands had all established American colonies.  The Europeans pushed the Native North Americans westward as they expanded their territories, eventually confining the original North American inhabitants to small reservations on undesirable land.

The rate of immigration rose sharply after the invention of the steamboat in 1819, which cut the length of an ocean crossing from two or more months to one or two weeks. Those who had resisted the notion of traveling for months in miserable conditions over dangerous seas on a sailing ship were much more inclined to take a one- or two-week trip on a heavy steamship. Most ship captains also required that passengers supply their own food, and more people could afford to buy one or two weeks'worth of meals than two or more months'worth. Conditions on the new steamships were still overcrowded and unsanitary, and many immigrants continued to become seriously ill or even die en route. But overall, the risks were fewer and the costs much less, and the number of immigrants increased rapidly.

A population boom throughout Europe in the late 18th and 19th centuries, caused by better living conditions and medical care, had also created pressure to emigrate. Most European countries did not have enough land to support all the new people, nor were there enough jobs in the pre-industrial cities to support landless peasants. Therefore, people were forced to look elsewhere for means of support. The US was expanding rapidly and needed workers and homesteaders. Those immigrants who wished to continue farming took advantage of all the free or cheap land available in the US, especially when the Homestead Act went into effect in 1862 (giving parcels of land at little or no cost to anyone who agreed to work it for at least five years). Others who wanted to get off the farm took one of the plentiful jobs available in mining, railroad and canal construction, lumbering, smithing, and other skilled and unskilled labor necessary for expansion.

Immigrants who came to the US before 1880 are considered to be in the "first wave" of immigration. First-wave immigrants are also called "old immigrants." Up until the 1880s, the US had an open-door policy allowing almost anyone to enter the US. Certain restrictions were applied in the mid-1800s to those with communicable diseases and to indigents with no resources, and no skills to acquire those resources. However, few were turned away, and the US population grew in its multinational character.

"Old immigrants" were primarily Irish, German, Scandinavian, Canadian, and Chinese. Many were single young men who hoped to save up enough money to return home in better circumstances. Some did in fact return to their homelands, but the majority ended up settling permanently in the US. These young men then encouraged their relatives and friends to join them in America, setting off a chain migration. The friends and relatives settled near the original immigrants, creating ethnic neighborhoods or farming communities. "Chinatowns," "Germantowns," and Irish parishes sprang up across the US. Some of them still exist today.

About two-thirds of all US immigrants by the mid-1800s came through New York City. In 1855, the city opened Castle Garden, a reception center for immigrants where they could stay while being processed. Castle Garden was replaced in by Ellis Island, which opened January 2, 1892. The largest and busiest station for decades, Ellis Island housed inspection facilities, hearing and detention rooms, hospitals, cafeterias, administrative offices, railroad ticket offices, and representatives of many immigrant aid societies.

Often, aliens were excluded because they lacked funds or had no friends or relatives nearby. In these cases the Board of Special Inquiry usually admitted the person if someone could post bond or one of the immigrant aid societies would take responsibility for the alien. Those denied admission by the Board were deported at the expense of the transportation company that brought the alien to the port.

Millions of immigrants to America passed through Ellis Island in its 51 years of functional existence. Recently, Ellis Island was renovated and reopened as a museum of US immigration history.

The period of 1880 -1920, the second wave of US immigration, is referred to as the "Great Migration" because so many immigrants entered the US during those four decades. In contrast to the first-wave, or "old immigrants," these second-wave "new immigrants" came mostly from southern and eastern Europe, and Japan. Southern and eastern Europeans looked quite different from the old immigrants. While the old immigrants were generally fair-skinned Anglo-Saxons, the new immigrants were darker-skinned Slavic and Mediterranean peoples. Most old immigrants had spoken English or another Germanic language upon arrival in the US, but the new immigrants spoke languages that sounded completely foreign to the old immigrant population. Many more Jews came during the Great Migration, along with Eastern Orthodox and Italian Catholics.

Asians on overcrowded boats arrived at Angel Island in San Francisco or Seattle.
The influx of Japanese to the West added to the anti-Asian sentiments already developing in response to the Chinese presence there. Filipinos "imported" to work on the sugar plantations of Hawaii and in the agricultural industry of the West Coast further increased the perceived Asian threat to European Americans. In 1882, the US government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first serious restriction on immigration and the only one to target a single ethnic group in US history. The act was extended in 1892 for another 10 years and was then extended indefinitely in 1902. The Chinese Exclusion Acts were not repealed until 1943 when China became a US ally in the war against the Japanese in World War II (1939 -45).

Between 1820 and 1920 around 27 million European immigrants entered Ellis Island, mostly coming from:
5,500,000 Germany
4,400,000 Ireland
4,190,000 Italy
3,145,000 Britain
3,700,000 Austria-Hungary
3,250,000 Russia
1,000,000 Sweden
 730,000 Norway
 530,000 France
 350,000 Greekland
 320,000 Turkey
 300,000 Danmark
 258,000 Switzerland
 210,000 Portugal
 200,000 Holland
 140,000 Belgium
 130,000 Spain
  80,000 Romania
  60,000 Bulgaria
...

In 1907, Congress passed legislation barring immigrants with physical or mental disabilities that would prevent them from working, immigrants with tuberculosis, and unaccompanied minors (children without adult supervision). Only about 1% of all immigrants were rejected. Once the US reached its western border and the rate of expansion began to slow down, US residents began to feel pressured by all the new arrivals. In 1921, therefore, the US Congress passed the first generally applied immigration act, limiting new immigrants to 3% of the total population from each ethnicity or nationality already living in the US. This was an attempt to keep the ethnic makeup of the US predominantly Anglo-Saxon.

The Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 limited immigration even further, setting stricter quotas for all nationalities. The Oriental Exclusion Act of the same year prohibited any Asians from immigrating. In 1929, the stock market crashed, and the US economy descended into the Great Depression. Jobs were scarce, and there was no longer much to offer new immigrants. In response, Congress enacted the first complete national origins quota system, establishing a total limit of 150,000 immigrants from the Eastern Hemisphere, divided up according to percentages of the current US population. Great Britain was allowed nearly half the total allowance. Great Britain, Ireland, and Germany combined comprised two-thirds of the total. Italy, which had been sending the largest number of immigrants of any country just prior to enactment of the quota system, was now allowed only 6,000 immigrants per year.

Because the restrictions pertained only to nations of the Eastern Hemisphere, there was no limit on the number of Mexicans who could immigrate to the US. Mexican workers leapt at the chance to fill the gaps left by European and Asian laborers who could no longer immigrate. However, there were not many jobs available during the Depression years of the 1930s. The US even began a "repatriation program" to remove Mexican Americans back to Mexico. With the onset of World War II in 1939, however, American men left their jobs to fight in the war, and the US suddenly suffered a labor shortage. Those same Mexicans who had been repatriated a few years before were now hired as braceros, contract workers with temporary visas.

World War II also brought other immigrants to the shores of America. In 1946, Congress passed the War Brides Act, allowing the immigration of foreign women (and men) who had married or become engaged to US military personnel while they were stationed overseas. Many British women in particular became US residents through this act. The Displaced Persons Act of 1948 opened the doors to US immigration a little bit wider, allowing refugees from wartorn Europe to move to America. Many Jews who had been excluded by earlier immigration acts were now able to escape Nazi terrorism through the Displaced Persons Act. The Chinese Exclusion Acts were also repealed, as mentioned above.

A new quota system was introduced in 1952 by the McCarran-Walter Act. The new system still favored northern and western Europeans, however. Not until 1965 did Congress loosen the restrictions on southern and eastern European immigration, as well as immigration from other continents. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 removed the quota system and instead allowed immigration on a first-come, first- served basis, with preferences given to those who had close family members already in the US, and those with "desirable" job skills. Total annual limits were placed on immigration from the Western Hemisphere (120,000) and elsewhere (170,000), with a maximum of 20,000 allowed from any one country. In 1978, the act was revised to a single global limit of 290,000, with no distinctions between hemispheres.

Post-World War II immigrants are considered to be the "third wave." The third wave of US immigration is characterized by an easing of restrictions and a rise in the numbers of immigrants from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The countries with the highest rates of immigration today are Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Nigeria, India, Iran, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Greece, and Italy. The fastest-growing segment of the US population is now Hispanic Americans from Latin America.

Between 1975 and 1988, some 900,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos also entered the US. Because of the need to assist refugees from Indochina and other parts of the world, the US passed the Refugee Act of 1980, setting a special quota of 50,000 for refugees and allowing the US president to accept more as well, if necessary. The general limit for total immigration to the US was also raised from 290,000 to 320,000.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the movement in America has been away from assimilation to the Anglo-Saxon norm and toward multiculturalism. Cities with large Hispanic populations have become de facto bilingual, and many schools now offer bilingual education. Ethnic groceries make it possible for newcomers to continue to eat the traditional foods of their former homelands. Multicultural education and ethnic and racial pride are gaining force across America. Racism and prejudice are still widespread realities, however. A nation made up of individuals from many different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds was a unique experiment when it began in the 18th century. Whether or not Americans can continue to create themselves out of such disparate elements in healthy and harmonious ways remains to be seen.

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