Excerpt from: kveneziano The industrial revolution

1. Liberal Immigration Laws
Provided cheap labor for industrial growth
Increasing population means an increase in demand for
product, increasing production, and increasing job positions.
Irish and Chinese immigrant built the railroads for low pay and
extremely dangerous conditions.

2. The Old Immigrants-1600-1850
Where they came from:
• Northern and Western
Europe—Britain, Ireland,
Germany and Scandinavia
Why they Came:
• Escape religious persecution
• Political conflict in home
country such as revolutions
• Jobs and new economic
opportunities
• Irish came as a result of
massive potato famine in
Ireland

3. The New Immigrants
Where they Came From:
Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia—Italy,
Russia, Poland, Japan and China
Why they came:
• Better economic opportunities
• Political freedom
• Jews from Russia sought religious
freedom
Where they came in:
• Ellis Island: Most European immigrants
entered through the immigration center
at Ellis Island in New York City
• Angel Island: Most Asian immigrants
came in on the West Coast through Angel
Island in California.

4. Americans Reaction Against
Immigration
• AMERICAN REACTION AGAINST IMMIGRATION
• Know-Nothing Party: the party’s members worked during the 1850s to limit voting strength of
immigrants, keep Catholics from public office, and require a lengthy residence before citizenship.
Also known as the American Party
• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882: Some native-born Americans labeled immigration from Asia a
“yellow peril.” Under pressure from California, Congress passed this act sharply limiting Chinese
immigration.
• “Gentlemen’s Agreement”: In 1907 President Roosevelt reached an informal agreement with
Japan under which that nation nearly halted the emigration of its people to the US. The Japanese
who were allowed to emigrate had to meet very specific standards.
• Literacy Tests: 1917 Congress enacted a law barring any immigrant who could not read or write.
• Emergency Quota Act of 1921: This law sharply limited the number of immigrants to the US each
year to 350,000.
• National Origins Act of 1924: This law further reduced immigration from the countries of the “New
Immigrants” and in favor of those from northern and western Europe.
Copied from Regents review book: Briggs,Bonnie-Anne. United States History and Government. 2008 ed.
Catherine Fish Peterson. Boston: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008.