| Immigrants/Immigration
It is said that the United States is a nation of immigrants--the great
melting pot. Except for Native Americans, everyone in America is an immigrant
or the descendant of an immigrant.
The early colonists came from England, Holland, and France. Then came
Scandinavians, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, and Germans. By the end of the
1800s, Italians, Polish, Armenians, Russians, Greeks, Hungarians, and
Turks began to pour into America. Soon Chinese and Japanese immigrants
arrived in great numbers.
Immigrants came for many reasons. They came in hopes of owning land or
getting a better job. Some came for adventure or to avoid military service
in their former country. Many came to escape persecution. Mostly they
came for the hope of a better life.
People in the United States are descendants of one of the greatest migrations
in human history. And that migration is not over. Even today, immigrants
continue to come to America in large numbers. This mix of cultures and
diverse ethnic ancestries is what helps make the United States an interesting
and dynamic place to live. The Great Seal of the United States has featured
on its face--E. Pluribus Unum--Out of Many, One. This reflects the cultural
diversity and unity of America.
Sample some of the following activities to learn more about immigrants
and immigration.
Places To Go | People To See | Things To Do | Teacher Resources | Bibliography
Places To Go
The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out
about immigrants and immigration.
Ellis Island
Travel to Ellis
Island in New York Harbor. Between 1892 and 1954, more than 16 million
people passed through Ellis
Island, hoping to become Americans.
Angel Island
Virtually visit Angel
Island in San Francisco Bay. From 1910 to 1940, the island was used as a portal
to process immigrants to the United States--most of them from Asia. Angel
Island was called the "Ellis Island of the West".
Lower
Eastside Tenement
Visit an historic tenement building on the lower eastside of New York
City where immigrants to the city lived in overcrowded conditions.
Immigrant
Ships
Virtually travel on an immigrant ship. There were many different kinds
of ships. Generally, only the wealthy traveled comfortably. The vast majority
of immigrants coming to America traveled in steerage which was the area
in the bottom of large ships where people were packed into rows of narrow
bunk beds. There were no portholes to let in light, and the ceiling was
usually only 6 to 8 feet high. Usually, hundreds of people had to share
only a few toilets. If they arrived at Ellis Island, the passengers in
1st and 2nd class were given only brief examinations and were quickly
sent into the city. Passengers from steerage, however, often remained
on Ellis Island for much longer periods, waiting to be examined and found
capable of living in America.
Manhattan
Neighborhoods
Visit ethnic areas of Manhattan. Early immigrants in large cities faced
many problems. They arrived with little money. They mostly spoke no English.
They had no homes. They often lived in crowded apartments with relatives.
They formed their own neighborhoods with such names as Little Italy and
Chinatown. People there spoke a common language and shared common customs.
People To See
Statue of
Liberty
Get to know the "Lady
with the Torch". She has stood in upper New York Bay on a ten acre
island since 1886. She was frequently one of the first sites that immigrants
saw as they arrived on their ships and de boarded at Ellis Island.
Frédéric-Auguste
Bartholdi
Meet Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi. He designed the Statue
of Liberty and presented it to the United States. The base of the statue
is it is inscribed “The New Colossus,” the famous sonnet of
Emma Lazarus, welcoming immigrants to the United States.
Fiorello
La Guardia
Meet Fiorello La Guardia. He was the mayor of New York City in the 1930s
and 1940s. In his earlier years, before he became a lawyer and politician,
he was an interpreter on Ellis Island.
History
Channel: Ellis Island
Meet a few of the 12 million immigrants who passed through Ellis
Island and read about their personal experiences.
Emma
Lazarus
Lazarus was part of the late nineteenth century New York literary elite,
and was celebrated in her day as an important American poet. Her famous
poem, “The
New Colossus”, published in 1883, is on a bronze plaque at the
base of The Statue of Liberty. In her later years, she wrote bold, powerful
poetry and essays protesting the rise of anti-Semitism and arguing for
Russian immigrants' rights.
Things To Do
The
American Immigration Homepage
Learn about the many reasons that families and individuals immigrated
to the United States from countries around the world.
Immigration
in American Memory
Learn about the earliest American immigrants, about the great surge of
immigration which occurred between 1865 and 1920, and about immigration
today.
The
Immigrant Journey
Follow the steps that a family went through to immigrate to America. Often,
one family member would come to America first and then work to earn money
to send for the rest of the family. From 1900 to 1910, almost 95 percent
of the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island were joining either their family
or a friend who had arrived before them.
The
Promise of Gold Mountain : Tucson's Chinese Heritage
Learn how Chinese immigrants helped build Tucson, Arizona. Many immigrants
from China were railroad workers, and in southern Arizona, they worked
on the Southern Pacific Railroad and earned $1.00 a day. Have students
research Chinese railroad workers who helped build the Union Pacific Railroad
through Utah until it met with the Central Pacific Railroad and met at
Promontory Point in 1869.
Immigration
and Naturalization Service
Discover what today's immigrants need to do to become citizens of the United States.
Know
Nothing Party
Learn about the Know Nothing Party. It was a political movement in the
1840s and 1850s. One of the goals of this movement was to restrict immigration
and to encourage the election of only native-born Americans to office.
They also advocated for a 25-year residence qualification for citizenship.
National
Library of Medicine : Disease Control and Prevention
Learn about some of the diseases that could keep an immigrant from entering
the United States. Trachoma was a common reason for immigrants to be sent
back to their former countries. It was a contagious eye disease that was
common in Europe and for which, at the time, there was no cure. Immigrants
were checked for trachoma by doctors who used a small hook to raise an
immigrants upper eyelid. About 2% of all prospective immigrants ended
up not being allowed into America. During the peak immigration years,
this was as many as 1000 people a month who were sent back.
Teacher Resources
Online activities are a listing of internet
sites with fun, interesting, and educational tasks attached to each one.
(You can learn how to use this WWW
Activities tool created by UEN for Utah educators).
Lesson Plans/Webquests
Bibliography
- Andryszewski, Tricia. Immigration : Newcomers and Their Impact on
the U.S. Brookfield, Conn. : Milbrook Press, c1995.
- Bratman, Fred. Becoming a Citizen : Adopting a New Home. Austin, Tex.
: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, c1993.
- Jacobs, William Jay. Ellis Island : New Hope in a New Land. New York
: C. Scribner's, c1990.
- Koral, April. An Album of the Great Wave of Immigration. New York
: F. Watts, c1992.
- Levine, Ellen. If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island. New York
: Scholastic Inc., c1993.
- Maestro, Betsy. Coming to America : The Story of Immigration. New
York : Scholastic, c1996.
- Quiri, Patricia Ryon. Ellis Island. New York : Children's Press, c1998.
- Reef, Catherine. Ellis Island. New York : Dillon Press ; Toronto :
Maxwell Macmillan Canada ; New York : Maxwell Macmillan International,
c1991.
- Reimers, David M. A Land of Immigrants. New York : Chelsea House Publishers,
c1996.
- Sandler, Martin W. Immigrants : A Library of Congress Book. New York,
NY : HarperCollins, c1995.
- Takaki, Ronald T. Spacious Dreams : The First Wave of Asian Immigration.
New York : Chelsea House Publishers, c1993.
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