AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY MIGRATION PATTERNS Directions: Identify a country or region from which immigrants originated in the given period. Identify two key push factors associated with immigration in the given period. Discuss how the economic structure in the United States promoted immigration in the given period. Country or Region

before 1820

1820– 1860

Push Factors

Economic Structure

1880– 1914

1965– present

Note: You will have to use your textbook, especially pages 88–92, and other material learned in class to fill in 1965–present.

AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION Before 18201 During the 1600s, about 90 percent of the migrants to the English colonies came from England. About half of these immigrants were indentured servants—poor immigrants who paid for passage to the colonies by agreeing to work for four to seven years. Instead of receiving a wage, indentured servants received basic food, clothing, and shelter—generally just enough to keep them alive. At the end of their term, they were supposed to receive clothes, tools, food, and sometimes land. Developments in England caused the percentage of immigrants to drop dramatically. Prior to 1660, many English left their homeland because of religious and political turmoil. High unemployment and low wages in England added to the troubles. After 1660, however, the English economy improved and political and religious conflicts diminished. Increasingly, English people chose to stay in England. The first promoters of English colonies were wealthy gentlemen from southwestern England. They included Sir Walter Raleigh, a special favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. English patriots and devout Protestants, these men wanted to advance their fortunes and increase the power of England. They promised that an American colony would solve England’s problems: a growing population and increased poverty due to a stagnant economy. The promoters proposed shipping poor people across the Atlantic to work in a new colony. By mining for gold and silver and by raising plantation crops, these workers would generate new wealth for England. Most of the New England colonists were religious dissidents who disagreed with the established church. Known as Puritans, they wanted to purify the Church of England, or Anglican Church, the only official and legal church in that kingdom. The Puritans believed that the Anglican Church, although Protestant, retained too many ceremonies from the Catholic Church. And a Catholic-style hierarchy of bishops controlled the local congregations. While some Puritans sought to reform the Anglican Church, others known as Separatists began their own churches. The Puritans followed the teachings of the theologian John Calvin. They believed that they could prepare for God’s saving grace by leading moral lives, praying devoutly, reading the Bible, and heeding their ministers’ sermons. But not even the most devout could claim salvation as a right and a certainty, for they believed God alone determined who was saved. Salvation depended on the will of God rather than good behavior or adherence to church rules. By challenging England’s official church, the Puritans troubled the English monarchs, who led the Anglican Church. During the 1620s, King Charles I began to persecute the Puritans. His bishops dismissed Puritan ministers from their parishes and censored or

1

Excerpted from Emma J. Lapsansky-Werner, et al., United States History (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008), 44, 50–51.

destroyed Puritan books. Some Puritans sought a colonial refuge in North America, where they could escape the supervision of Anglican bishops. In their own colony, the Puritans could worship in their own churches and make their own laws, which they derived from the Bible. By living morally and prospering economically, they hoped to inspire their countrymen in England to adopt Puritan reforms. 1820–18602 The second wave of immigrants, who arrived between 1820 and 1860, fit well with Americans’ eagerness for people to help push back the frontier. Peasants displaced from agriculture and artisans made jobless by the Industrial Revolution were desperate to escape from Europe. New arrivals sent what came to be called “American letters” back to Europe, encouraging friends and relatives to join them. Steamship and railroad companies sent agents around Europe recruiting customers. Between 1820 and 1840, more than 750,000 German, British, and Irish immigrants arrived; another 4.3 million came from those countries during the next 20 years. About 40 percent of these second-wave immigrants were Irish escaping extreme poverty and famine in their home country. Roman Catholics predominated in the second wave, and by 1850 the Roman Catholic Church was the largest denomination in the United States, though Protestants of various denominations outnumbered Catholics. 1880–1914, Part 13 The third wave of immigration started in 1880, when almost 460,000 immigrants arrived, and ended with the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, when 1.2 million immigrants entered. During the third wave, over 20 million southern and eastern Europeans came, mostly to the eastern and midwestern states. Several hundred thousand Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian laborers settled in the western states. The shift in national origins can be seen by comparing the homelands of the immigrants who entered during 1882 and 1907, two peak immigration years. Of those arriving in 1882, 87 percent came from northern and Western Europe, and 13 percent came from southern and eastern Europe. Only 19 percent of immigrants arriving in 1907 were from northern and western Europe, while 81 percent were from southern and eastern Europe. The immigrants who arrived in 1907 also included the first large numbers of people of Jewish and Eastern Orthodox religions. By the early 1900s, the frontier was closed, and most newcomers found factory jobs in eastern and midwestern cities. More than 1 million immigrants arrived annually in six of the first 14 years of the 20th century. By 1910, foreign-born residents accounted for nearly 15 percent of the U.S. population and about 24 percent of the U.S. labor force; immigrants made up more than half of all operatives in mining, steel, and meatpacking. Foreign-born men made up more than half of the work force in New York, Chicago, and Detroit.

2

Excerpted from Philip Martin and Elizabeth Midgley, “Immigration: Shaping and Reshaping America,” Population Bulletin 58, no. 2, (June 2003): 13. 3

Excerpted from Martin and Midgley, 13.

1880–1914, Part 24 In the 1880s, farmers had a difficult time. In Mexico, Poland, and China, land reform and low prices forced many farmers off their land. Some chose to come to America to get a new start. Beginning in the 1840s, China and eastern Europe experienced repeated wars and political revolutions. These events disrupted economies and left political refugees. One of the largest groups to settle in America were Russian and eastern European Jews. Beginning in the 1880s, they fled religious persecution and came to the United States to achieve a better life. [A pogrom is riot against a particular group of people, in this case Jews.] In addition to a vague hope for opportunity, the United States offered special attractions, including plentiful land and employment. The 1862 Homestead Act and aid from railroad companies made western farmland inexpensive. The railroads even offered reduced fares to get there because they needed customers in the west for their own business to succeed. Until 1885, immigrants were recruited from their homelands to build railroads, dig in mines, work in oil fields, harvest produce, or toil in factories. Others hoped to strike it rich by finding gold. Many others were “chain immigrants,” joining family or friends who had already settled in America. The earlier arriving immigrants promised to help the newcomers find work and housing, and sometimes they even sent them tickets for the journey . Immigrants may have lured their families and friends with the promise of religious and political freedom. In America, one could worship and vote as one chose without fear of persecution by the government. 1965–present5 Fourth-wave immigrants began arriving in the United States after 1965, when the preference system changed. Instead of giving priority to immigrants based on their national origins, with preference to those from northern and Western Europe, the new system gave priority to people with U.S. relatives and to a small number of people with outstanding accomplishments or special skills. These changes, coupled with prosperity in Europe, altered the composition of U.S. immigrants. During the 1970s, the first decade the law was in effect, fewer than 20 percent of U.S. immigrants were Europeans. There are many similarities between immigration at the beginning of the 20th century and at the start of the 21st. The number of immigrants arriving annually during the peak years—more than 1 million—is about the same, although the foreign-born accounted for more of the U.S. population in 1900 (15 percent) than in 2000 (11 percent). During both periods, the economy was undergoing fundamental restructuring, from agriculture to industry in the early years of the 20th century and from services to information at start of the 21st century. Both waves brought people from countries that had not previously sent large numbers of immigrants, raising questions about language, religion, and culture.

4

Excerpted from Lapsansky-Werner, et al., 465.

5

Excerpted from Martin and Midgley, 14.