Immigration Quiz

Base your answer to question 1 on the poem below and on your knowledge of social studies.

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed, to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

— Emma Lazarus

1. The main message of this poem was to...

• (1) encourage a back-to-Africa movement among freed slaves

• (2) call for the imprisonment of illegal immigrants

• (3) welcome new immigrants to the United States

• 4) support the quota system placed on immigrants

2. During the mid-1800s, Irish immigrants faced discrimination mainly because of their...

• (1) religious beliefs

• (2) upper-class backgrounds

• (3) conservative political views

• (4) reluctance to learn the English language

3. In the period from 1890 to 1910, most immigrants from eastern and southern Europe settled in large cities of the eastern United States primarily because...

• (1) farmland had become very scarce

• (2) factory jobs were available for unskilled workers

• (3) there was much less discrimination in those cities

• (4) they came mainly from large cities in their home countries

4. In 1892, the United States government opened Ellis Island primarily to...

• (1) process immigrants arriving from overseas

• (2) defend New York City from attack

• (3) check the safety of imported products

• (4) serve as the first federal prison in New York State

5. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, prejudice against “new” immigrants increased mainly because these immigrants

• (1) came from cultural backgrounds very different from that of the majority of Americans

• (2) tried to replace American democracy with their own forms of government

• (3) formed their own labor unions in order to receive higher wages

• (4) had job skills superior to those of most American workers

6. In the late 1800’s, the increase in the number of tenement buildings and urbanization resulted directly from the...

• (1) rapid growth of urban populations

• (2) need for health care facilities

• (3) increased federal aid for housing

• (4) hanging role of women in the home

Base your answer to question 7 on the graph below and on your knowledge of social studies.

7. In 1910 from where did most immigrants originate?

• (1) Northern & Western Europe

• (2) Southern & Eastern Europe

• (3) South America

• (4) Asia

8. What were the origins of people who were a part of the new wave of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s?

• (1) Chinese

• (2) Germans and Irish

• (3) Italians, Russians and Polish

• (4) Japanese

Base your answer to question 9 on the image below and on your knowledge of social studies.

9. According to the document, why did the most recent immigrants live in the Lower East Side of New York City?

• (1) they couldn’t afford to live anywhere else

• (2) they enjoyed living in the city

• (3) their ethnic group was located there

• (4) they found many opportunities there

Base your answer to question 10 on the graph below and on your knowledge of social studies.

10. In approximately what year did Italian and Russian-Jewish immigration drastically increase?

• (1) 1895

• (2) 1905

• (3) 1915

• (4) 1923