Immigrants and Urbanization

Over 12 million Eastern and Southern European immigrants entered here; medical and legal inspections determined who could stay, shaping the cultural mix of eastern cities

• Bora Bora

• Ellis Island

• Angel Island

• Maui

Immigration station for Asians where interrogations lasted days or weeks, reflecting anti-Asian sentiment and laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act.

• Mass Transit

• tenements

• Angel Island

• Ellis Island

Celebrated by some as unity, but also pressured immigrants to abandon native traditions, raising debates about assimilation vs. multiculturalism

• Melting Pot

• Nativism

• Chinese Exclusion Act

• Ellis Island

Supported restrictions on immigration, claiming immigrants “stole jobs” and threatened American culture, leading to discriminatory laws and violence

• Urbanization

• Robber Barons

• Chinese Exclusion Act

• Nativists

First U.S. law to restrict immigration by nationality; reflected deep prejudice and fear of job competition in the West Coast of the United States

• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

• Homestead Act 1862

• Dawes Severalty Act of 1887

• Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

The growth of cities that led job opportunities opportunities but also overcrowded tenements, poor sanitation, and rising crime

• Tenements

• Mass Transit

• Rural

• Urbanization

Aimed to integrate immigrants into society, but often erased cultural identity and reinforced nativist ideas

• National Organization for Women

• Americanization Movement

• Chinese Exclusion Act

• Nativists

Cheap, unsafe housing in industrial cities that could house many families virtually one on top of the other

• shanties
• tenements
• boarding houses
• apartments

Transportation systems moving large numbers of people (streetcars, electric subways); Connected workers to factories and helped cities expand

• Public transportation systems reduce city population.
• Transcontinental Railroad

• Mass Transit

• Tenements

A person who works to change society and improve conditions for people, especially those who are poor, powerless, or treated unfairly

• social reformer

• social worker
• community organizer
• political leader