Immigration
caused the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 – which helped bring
immigrant families together and attracted skilled labors in the U.S.
When immigrants came through Ellis Island – which is an immigration station where immigrants were to pass an inspection before being let into the U.S. – they were treated fairly. They had to go through a five hour ordeal of inspection which included a physical examination by a doctor that they had to pass and if they didn’t pass because they either had a serious health problem, or a contagious disease, such as tuberculosis were sent home immediately. Those who passed the medical exam then went to a government inspector. The inspector checked documents and questioned immigrants to see if they meet the legal requirements for gaining entrance into the United States.
When immigrants, mostly from Asia, came through Angel Island – which is another immigration station – they were treated unfairly by nativism and racism which had immigrants endued harsh questioning and a long detention in filthy, rickety buildings while they waited to found out if they had been admitted or rejected into the United States. This detention took days, months, sometimes even years to see if they could finally start their new lives in the United States.
Immigrants left their country because it had a lack of jobs or the economy was bad or was sometimes persecuted or pressed back – put down, not able to express themselves.
The increasing population of immigrants into the United States caused some strong anti-immigrant feelings. This lead to a response of overt favoritism toward native-born Americans.
In the west native-born workers feared that jobs would go to the Chinese immigrants because Chinese immigrants would accept lower wages then they did and this would cause there to be no jobs left for native-born Americans.
Congress passed a law banning immigration of “undesirables,” meaning criminals or people diagnosed as being mentally incompetent and in 1885 Congress passed a law banning contract laborers (imported workers who sign a contract to work at a low wage) to protect American workers.
When immigrants had been admitted into the United States they had to live somewhere, but they couldn't live where Whites were because of racism and nativism.
The tenements for immigrants soon created neighborhoods called Ethnic Neighborhoods. This is a distinct neighborhood where immigrant groups maintained the culture of their native countries, religions, or both. These neighborhoods included Jewish, Polish, Italian, Chinese, and other ethnic groups developed in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and other large cities.
New immigrants coming to the United States supplied the country’s growing industries with workers that were needed for economic growth. Also their children helped shape American life like giving the nation its major religious groups, and educated society with their customs, cultures, languages, and literature of their homelands.
Effects
Greatly changed the demographic makeup of the American population because most immigrants came from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as opposed to Europe.
Since they were treated fairly they assimilated to our culture. They were excited to start a new life in the United States.
Restrictions on Chinese in the country which meant less Chinese workers and less Chinese immigrants coming into the country. The long detention sometimes lead immigrants to suicide who thought that was better than waiting or going back to their own country.
Immigrants would get new, and better lives by coming to the United States. The U.S. had to provide food and shelter only for a short time period and in this time period they looked for jobs and or a house to settle in until they got jobs.
The increasing population of immigrants and nativism gave rise to anti-immigrant groups and a demand for immigration restrictions.
In 1882 Congress had passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which lasted for 10 years. This act banned entry to all Chinese immigrants except for tourists, merchants, teachers, students, and government officials. In 1892, Congress extended this act for another 10 years, and in 1902, Chinese immigrants were restricted indefinitely; then finally in 1943 the law was repealed.
The effect of both laws gave American workers more jobs and banned criminals and people with a mental illness from entering the United States.
When the working-class families moved out of central city immigrants often took over their old houses, sometimes with two or three families living in a one-family residence. These multifamily urban dwellings were called tenements which is a multifamily urban dwelling, usually overcrowd, and unsanitary.
The effect of ethnic neighborhoods is when immigrants were trying to re-create what they had left behind they established churches or temples, newspapers in their native language, stores, theaters, schools, and even organized social clubs. But also these ethnic neighborhoods had poverty, overcrowding (Tenements could cram over 4,000 people into one city block), and waste disposal problems in tenement housing promoted the spread of diseases like cholera, typhoid, and tuberculosis.
The effects of immigration on the United States were mostly visible in cities, with their fast-growing ethnic neighborhoods. The flow of immigrants was just one of the factors that transformed American cities in the late 1800's and the early 1900's.