Forth Wave of Immigration in the USA (Part 1)

In this post we will talk about everything that happened after the third wave. We will immerse ourselves in the migratory decline that the United States suffered until 1964 and the beginning of the fourth wave until the year 2000.

From 1915 until 1964, the United States will suffer a decline in immigration. The cause of this fact was the outbreak of the First World War in Europe (1914 - 1918). During the war, Congress enacted a law in 1917 that required immigrants over the age of 16 to pass a literacy test in order to enter the country. When immigrants began to arrive again after the war, their entry was restricted by the introduction of numerical limits or "quotas". On April 25, 1921, the Quotas Act was passed. A law that used immigration statistics to determine the maximum number of immigrants who would be allowed to enter the United States from each nation or region.

On April 24, 1924, the Immigration Act was passed. This law created the quota system that restricted the entrance to 2% of the total number of people of each nationality in America from the national census of 1890. This system favored immigrants from Western Europe and prohibited the entry of immigrants from Asia

After the severe economic depression of the 1930s and the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), the population born abroad from the United States decreased from 14.2 to 10.3 million. The United States did not admit a large number of refugees until after the war, an average of 250,000 immigrants entered each year during the 1950s.

Fourth wave immigrants began arriving in the United States in 1965 when the system changed. On April 24, 1965, the Immigration Reform Act was approved, which abolished the quota system based on national origin. The new system gave priority to “people with U.S. relatives and to a small number of people with outstanding accomplishments or special skills”.

As a result of this act, the nation experienced a change in immigration patterns. The majority of American immigrants came from Asia and Latin America instead of Europe. In the 1970s, Europeans constituted less than 20% of immigrants and only about 10% in the 1980s. In the 80s and early 90s, Asians constituted approximately one third of immigrants and Hispanics made up approximately half the number of immigrants.

During the 80s and 90s, illegal immigration became a topic to be addressed. On April 25, 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act was approved. This law penalizes employers for intentionally hiring undocumented immigrants, but granting amnesty to some of them, which allows them an oath to eventually apply for citizenship. This law was successful as most foreigners became legal immigrants but legalization also proved to be an incentive for more illegal immigration.

Concerns about the continuing problem of illegal immigration led Congress to pass another immigration law. On April 25, 1996, the Immigration Reform Act of 1996 was approved. “It increased the border patrol staff and stiffened penalties for creating false citizenship papers or smuggling undocumented workers”.

Legal immigration to the US increased from 250,000 in the 1930s, to 2.5 million in the 1950s, to 4.5 million in the 1970s and to 7.3 million in the 1980s, before resting at around 10 million in the 1990s. Since 2000, legal immigrants in the United States come to approximately 1,000,000 per year.

In the next post we will begin with the 21st century and we will talk about the continuation of this wave we are experiencing. But until then…

This is the prediction made by the U.S. Census Bureau on immigration until the year 2050. 

What do you think? Do you think the percentage of Hispanics will continue to increase as it has until now? We'd be delighted to read your opinions!

Information from:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Online: https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/our-history/agency-history/post-war-years

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Online: https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/our-history/agency-history/late-twentieth-century

History.com Staff, U.S. Immigration Before 1965. History.com (2009). Online: https://www.history.com/topics/u-s-immigration-before-1965
The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (SOLEIF). Online: https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/immigration-timeline

Philip Martin and Elizabeth Midgley, “Immigration: Shaping and Reshaping America,” Population Bulletin 58, no. 2 (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2003). Online: https://www.prb.org/wp-content/uploads/2003/06/58.2ImmigrShapingAmerica.pdf
O'Callaghan, Bryn. (1993). An illustrated History of the USA. Harlow. Reino Unido: Longman Group Ltd. (Chapter 18)

Third Wave of Immigration in the USA

In this new entry of our blog we are going to talk about the Third Wave of Immigration in the USA.

The Second Wave ended in 1880. Third Wave took place between 1880 and 1914. The immigrants of this wave came from the Middle East, Southern and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Canada. 

By 1880, the United States wanted to increase their economy and the population. Railroads companies with the aim of having immigrants workers (working with a low-salaries) sent agents to foreign countries to recruit them.

By this period, transoceanic transportation became cheaper, so all foreigners had more facilities to immigrate to the United States. Due to this, it were more than 23 millions of immigrants who came from all around the world, but more precisely from Europe.

                    

By 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. Although the United Stated was populated only by a 0,002% of Chinese population, Congress passed this law in order to stop the workers' demands and to keep the white "racial purity". Chinese workers were bad-paid, and they were despised. 

In this period, Italians started to arrive to United States and by 1920, approximately 4 millions of Italians lived in the country and represented the 10% of the Immigrant's population. 

But, why this happened? The most of Italians were poor, there were a lot of diseases, and also the natural disasters, as the eruption of the Mount Vesuvius. But the main factor was that their Government couldn't help them. How we said before, the transoceanic transportation was cheaper and this attached to American recruiters, made almost impossible to Italians not to want immigrate. 

Also, Eastern European Jews started to immigrate due to overpopulation and poverty. Then, by 1924, there were 2 million jews who immigrate from Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Romania. Finally, Armenians immigrated to the United States. They settled in the United States in order to scape of American Genocide; the massacres in Turkey.

And... Do you think that born-native Americans were fine about it? 

The response is obviously negative. Again, they felt threatened about the job, racial religious and political differences. They had a anti-immigrant sentiment and in 1917 they passed the Immigration Act. This law required to immigrants knowing read and write. 

Besides, native Americans related all the socio-economic problems (as poverty, delinquency, crime, labor unrest...) with immigrants. But, besides that, immigrants continued coming to the United States to find a better life. 

Finally, in our next post, we well talk about the Fourth Wave of Immigration. But we anticipate you that by the end of 1941 with World War II, the federal government decided to make the Immigration laws less restrictive. Nevertheless, as you know, the third wave of immigration was already over.

QUESTIONS

And now, we want to ask you, if you had to leave your country because of poverty in order to achieve a better life by working, but the countries will not accept you... what would you do? Would you keep working without caring about their opinion or would you move home?

                          

Information from:

History.com Staff, Chinese Exclusion Act. History.com (2009). Online: https://www.history.com/topics/chinese-exclusion-act

Italian - The Great Arrival. Library od Congress. Online: https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/italian3.html

Zollman, J. Jewish Immigration to America: Three Waves. My Jewish Learning. Online: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-immigration-to-america-three-waves/

Second Wave of Immigration in the USA

In this entry we will write about the second immigration wave in the USA.

This wave took place between 1820 and 1860. There were over 15.3 million people who went from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and China to the USA. Irish people fled their own country because of a really serious famine that affected Ireland during the 1840s. They had neither money nor resources to go inland. Due to this critical situation, most of them stayed near the East Coast. On the other hand, Germans went inland and bought several farming sites in the Midwest. People from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark decided to stay farming in the Midwest. Finally, most of the immigrants coming from China started working on the construction of the Transcontinental Railroads, the others worked as miners, cooks or launderers.

They arrived to the USA thanks to the port of New York City. The arrivals were processed at the first immigration center called “Castle Garden”.

In 1832 there was an increase in the number of immigrants arriving in the USA going up to 50 000 immigrants per year. In 1854 immigration reached it is peak with 428 000 immigrants that year.

All these immigrants came to the USA not only because they were suffering many difficult situations, but also because USA had done improvements on transports, creating ships and railroads. The United States were known as a land of opportunities for people coming from Europe. That is what we call the “American Dream”. Europe was devastated by wars, famines, revolutions and industrialization. This critical situation, alongside the great reputation the US had, lead many Europeans to America in search of an easier and better life.

Despite the important role immigrants played in US’ economy, an anti-immigrant backlash arose in the 1850s. A great number of Americans were Protestants and they were against Catholic immigrants. Protestant people saw Catholics as religious terrorists. In addition, these new immigrants brought to America many cultures. For this reason some ethnocentric Americans, who thought their culture was the best, were against them. In the Second Wave of immigration there were a great number of socialist immigrants, but these political tendencies were taboo in the nineteenth century. We can also appreciate a rural resentment. Poor immigrants were considered as aliens and they were not accepted in the big cities. The economic resentment was an important problem, “Real Americans” saw immigrants as job stealers.

To sum up, the Second Wave of immigration had a huge impact in American society. Firstly, it brought some important ethnic groups, such as Irish or Germans. Not only that, but it also meant a improvement of American economy, as more workers were available. But most importantly, it made the US a multi-cultural nation.

Information from:

The Forth Waves of American Immigration. Mr. Cunneen's Web Site. Online: https://sites.google.com/site/paulcunneen/home/us-history-1/immigrationunitoutline/4-waves-of-immigration 

Waves of Immigration in America. Online: https://www.preceden.com/timelines/29989-waves-of-immigration-in-america

First Wave of Immigration in the USA

As an introduction we should know that in the USA there have been different waves of immigration, specifically 4.

THE FIRST WAVE: 1790-1820

Total Immigrants: approximately 1.2 million

THE SECOND WAVE: 1820-1860

Total Immigrants: 15.3 million.

THE THIRD WAVE: 1880-1914

Total Immigrants: 22.3 million

THE FORTH WAVE: 1965-Present

In this entry we will write specifically about the first wave of immigration in the USA.

In this first wave there were a total of 1.2 million immigrants who decided to start a new life in the United States. They were mainly Protestants from northwestern Europe. We can see it in the first census of 1790:

The symbolic Port of Entry for the first wave of immigrants was Plymouth Rock. Through this port, mostly English immigrants arrived in the USA. This port became a symbol for the United States because thanks to it came people from different parts of the world to make the USA a diverse country full of culture.

These immigrants went to the USA for a variety of reasons:

• Economy: Europe did not offer enough job opportunities to the people who lived there, so they opted to look for new opportunities in the United States. Many of these immigrants came with a work contract to pay for their stay in this new country, mainly as servants or as teachers. The first black Africans brought over in the Triangle Trade went to the USA also did so with a work contract as servants, although most of them were deceived and ended up being slaves.

• Political Freedom: In the United States there was much more freedom of expression than in Europe because citizens were still controlled by kings and by aristocats.

• Religious Freedom: Throughout these years the Catholic religion was the official religion of the state, so many persecutions were carried out by the Catholic Church to those who did not share that religious thought. Many people traveled to the USA in search of freedom of worship. Most people in the USA believed in Protestant Christianity.

In general, American citizens accepted immigrants who came from Europe except for enslaved Africans. That was because between them there were few or no differences, they had the same skin color, they same religion thoughts and also because the United States was a British colony the majority of immigrants were British and therefore there were not many cultural conflicts.

However, some Americans saw these immigrants as a threat because they believed that they went to their country to take up their jobs.

This first wave of immigration also caused the Pennsylvania Assembly to criticize the German immigrants who lived there. Pensylvania welcomed a large number of German immigrants but the citizens began to see them as a threat to the security and peace of the United States. They even approved different "anti-immigrant" laws.

In conclusion this first wave of immigration brought to the United States a great variety of cultures, languages, different ways of life and a great variety of thoughts. It is a great privilege for the American citizens that a lot of people from different races were living in the same territory because that makes them able to learn from each other.

Information from:

The Forth Waves of American Immigration. Mr. Cunneen's Web Site. Online: https://sites.google.com/site/paulcunneen/home/us-history-1/immigrationunitoutline/4-waves-of-immigration

A History of Immigration in the USA. Online: https://www.sutori.com/story/a-history-of-immigration-in-the-usa

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG!

Welcome to the blog where you will learn the history of immigration in the United States. This blog is related to the subject Culture and Society II in which we get to know everything regarding the United States as the social, economic and political contexts over the centuries.

The objectives we want to achieve with this blog are:

• Get to have a perspective of the migratory movements to the USA.
• Become aware of the new measures being taken by Donald Trump regarding immigration.
• Get to know the DREAMers and their history.
• How this occurrence has affected the USA.
• The causes of migrations to this country.

The historical roots of the United States can not be explained without immigration. Since its independence at the end of the 18th century, the country has experienced several migratory waves that will be explained along the first entries.

1. First Wave (1790 – 1820)
2. Second Wave (1820 – 1860)
3. Third Wave (1880 – 1914)
4. Fourth Wave (1965 – Present)

To start, here we leave this video that represents an interactive map designed by Max Galka, of Metroscom, in which we can see immigration process to the US since 1820 to 2013. The map illuminates the countries that, at one point, provided more immigrants to the United States. People who left their country of origin to go to the other side of the world are represented in small colored dots (each dot is 10,000 people, approximately).

 Until our first entry!! We hope to see you here!!

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” - Martin Luther King Jr.