Immigration

1. Describe the causes of the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Some of the immigrants wanted to escape conditions in their countries such as famine, land shortages or prosecution. Other immigrants wanted to come and earn money and then return to their own countries. The Europeans left their country to escape religious prosecution and also the population double between 1800 and 1900 so there was a scarcity of land for farmers. The Chinese and Japanese came to seek fortune after the gold rush. Many people came from the West Indies because jobs there were scarce, and the industrial boom in the United States made it seem like there would be jobs for everyone


2. Describe the journey immigrants endured and their experiences at United States immigration stations.
The journey the immigrants endured was very harsh, because almost all of them traveled by steamship. They traveled in the cheapest accommodations in a ship's cargo holds for trips that lasted from 1 to 3 weeks. They were crowded together in the cargo hold and were not let out for exercise or fresh air. Most of the time they had to share bathrooms with many other people and were crowded into bunks. Due to the conditions disease easily spread throughout the people, and some of them died. Their experiences in the United States were not much better. Before they even got into the United States they had to pass inspection at the immigration stations. In the immigration station on Ellis Island, about 1/5 of the immigrants were detained there for a day, but only about 2 percent were denied. They had to pass a physical examination and had to report to a government inspector. On Another station on Angel Island, where primarily the Chinese came through, the immigrants endured harsh interrogations and long detentions in buildings under horrible conditions while they waited to see if they would be admitted into the United States.