Mass immigration to the United States transformed American life in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Between 1880 and 1920, around 18 million immigrants came to America from southern and eastern Europe to take advantage of new job opportunities. They settled primarily in cities and many took low-wage jobs, living in crowded tenement housing. While they faced discrimination, immigration ultimately benefited America by filling demands for labor and contributing new cultural influences.

1. 2nd Industrial
Revolution: 1860-1920

2. Write:
Immigration transformed American life.

3. A new wave of
immigrants came to
America in the late
1800s and settled in
rapidly changing
cities.

4. Write:
City=Urban
Country=Rural

5. Write:
Mass immigration at the turn
of the 20th century made the
country more diverse and
transformed American life by
filling a demand for workers,
diffusing new traits into the
American culture and
impacting the growth of cities

6. Italian immigrants pose for a photograph on New York City’s
Mulberry Street in 1900.

7. Write:
They came from southern
and eastern Europe
Write: 18 million came
between 1880 and 1920

8. Write:
Angel Island was an
immigrant process
center in San Francisco
Bay, mostly Asian
immigrants ;
Ellis Island was an
immigrant process
center in New York
Harbor, European
immigrants

9. Write:
 Most were from southern
and eastern Europe;
 a few from East Asia;
 faced discrimination;
 many took low-wage jobs
 and lived in crowded
tenements

10. Write: They enabled
immigrants to retain some of
their culture and to adjust to
life in America.
What were the benefits of ethnic neighborhoods?
Little Italy, showing life in lower
Manhattan around the turn of the
20th century

11.  He emigrated from
Russia to the United
States.
He immigrated to the
United States from Russia.
 In Russia, he's an
emigrant.
In the United States, he's
an immigrant.

12. Push—reasons Europeans
wanted to leave Europe,
especially Southern and Eastern
Europe
Pull—reasons Europeans wanted
to come to the United States:
crop failures available land to farm
extreme poverty available jobs
oppressive governments allowed to have a voice in
government
persecution of religious beliefs a government that gave them
more personal freedoms such as:
religious freedom, speech, press,
etc
Write:

13. Write:
Factory
owners
needed
workers.

14. Write: native born
Americans who resented
immigrants

15. (a) What do the shadow figures look like? (b) Was the artist a
nativist? (c) What point is the cartoonist trying to make?
Write: (a) immigrants; (b) no; (c) the cartoonist is trying to
show that the nativists were once immigrants themselves.

16. Write:
Nativists felt
threatened. They
thought immigrants
contributed to
rising crime rates
and took jobs from
native-born
Americans.

17. Some native born Americans wanted to help immigrants
assimilate into the American culture. What did they do to help
immigrants?
Recent immigrants often attended
Americanization classes held in
the factory after their work shifts
were completed. [YMCA Industrial
Service.]
Write:
Schools and volunteer
organizations taught
immigrants English
literacy skills and subjects
needed for citizenship,
such as American history
and government.
This process is called
Americanization.

18. Write:
federal law banning
Chinese immigration for
ten years and preventing
Chinese from becoming
citizens
A cartoon shows Uncle Sam trying to keep
Chinese immigrants out using the Chinese
Exclusion Act of 1888. (Image courtesy
Library of Congress)
What was the Chinese Exclusion Act?