Immigration

1. Describe the causes of the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese to America in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Millions of immigrants entered the US seeking a better life. They were hoping to escape conditions such as famine, land shortages, or religious or political persecution. Southern and Eastern Europeans emigrated from Europe to the US for many reasons. These reasons include an escape from religious persecution, and escape from the rising population which interfered with the amount of available jobs, and escape from reform and revolt in Europe, and they also immigrated because jobs in US were said to be plentiful and Europeans sought independent lives. The main reason Chinese came to America in the mid-1800s was due to the discovery of gold. Many Chinese turned to farming, mining, and domestic services. Last but not least, Japanese had also come to America in the late 1800s-early 1900s because of the United States's annexation of Hawaii in 1898.

2. Describe the journey immigrants endured and their experiences at United States immigration stations.

Immigrants were forced to endure a difficult journey to make it to America and to be admitted into the states. First of all, many immigrants hoping to settle in America were crammed onto steamships for 1-3 weeks with close to no room or fresh air. Because of this, disease spread quickly. Then, once making it to America, they were to be inspected at immigration stations before being allowed into the states. These inspections were long and some people didn't pass. The test in a summary included a physical examination by a doctor to be checked for disease, and, if passed, they would be reported to a government inspector who checked documents and asked questions to determine whether they met the legal requirements for entering the US. An estimated 17 million immigrants passed through these stations and into the US.