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History: The Immigrant Island, 1624-Present
The historical information on this page was compiled by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
1. Overview of Immigration from 1815-1914
2. The European Exodus
3. The Administration of Immigration
4. Congressional Restrictions
5. Johnson-Reed Act of 1924
6. Immigration since 1924
7. Immigration & Nationality Act, or the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952
8. Immigration & Nationality Act amendments - 1965 & on
9. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
10. Immigration Act of 1990
11. Applying for U.S. citizenship
12. Immigration-Current U.S. and New York City
13. Refugees
14. How many immigrants each year?
15. Where do immigrants come from?
16. Class/education of immigrants
1.Overview of Immigration from 1815-1914
Driven by regional turmoil, industrialization and the dawn of the global economy, over thirty million immigrants poured into America between 1815 and 1914.
Until the early 1890s, the bulk of America's new residents came from northern and western Europe, as scores of Irish and German citizens fled, respectively, from the ravages of famine and the failed revolutions that engulfed Central Germany.
Many immigrants were locally-based laborers whose businesses were felled by technology and globalization. Railroads and cargo steamers criss-crossed the world, enabling U.S. and Russian companies to usurp local farmer's toehold over Europe's agricultural markets. Local artisans likewise wilted in the face of competition from manufactured goods produced by industrializing nations.
Hoping to secure jobs in the factories and industrial businesses that now dotted Europe, scores of people left their homes in the country and headed to the city. Along the way, many migrants decided to cross the Atlantic and search for a better way of life or, at the very least some form of work, in America.
Technology made the journey to America all the more appealing. Until the Civil War, slow and often dangerous American ships handled the bulk of cross-Atlantic transit. During the war, however, German and British companies took hold of transportation to and from America. These companies brought steamships to the Atlantic, which dramatically reduced the length and danger of Atlantic passage.
After 1896 immigration patterns shifted; eastern and southern Europeans became the dominant groups making the passage across the Atlantic. However, this wave of the European exodus was cut short by the rise of anti-immigration and nativist forces during and after World War I. Restrictionists sparked the passage of legislation, most notably the Quota Act (1921) and the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, that effectively shut America's "Golden Door". Indeed, fewer than 350,000 Europeans immigrated to America during the 1930s, and a high percentage of these were political refugees, particularly from nazi Germany and, at the end of the decade, occupied Europe.
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2.The European Exodus
These immigrants left their homelands for a variety of reasons. But most were generally the victims of technology, industrialization, and the expanding world market. The railroad and cargo steamer drastically reduced the cost of transporting foodstuffs, allowing farmers in the U.S., Russia, and elsewhere to compete in and eventually dominate the European market. This devastated Europešs own agriculture. Cheap transportation also undermined Europešs small-town artisans who for the first time faced competition from manufactured goods produced in the factories of the industrializing nations. With the collapse of the feudal system across Europe, there was little protection for farmers or artisans without work. The result was a general movement from the countryside to the cities. Such a migration occurred in all the countries that contributed to the great nineteenth and early twentieth century exodus from Europe.
Once on their way, many of the migrants decided to cross the Atlantic in search of a better life, or simply some work. American sailing packets handled most of the trans-Altantic migration until the Civil War, when British and German companies took over. They introduced steamships to the trade (comprising most of the ships by the 1870s), dramatically reducing the length and danger of the Atlantic passage. The shorter length of the trip - about 10 days in 1880 - enabled those who made the journey in search of work to return to their homelands in the winter when unskilled labor was in short demand in the United States.
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3.The Administration of Immigration
The U.S. Constitution placed the right to regulate immigration in the hands of Congress as part of its responsibility to regulate foreign trade, or so the Constitution was interpreted by the Supreme Court. City and state governments frequently attempted to restrict the flood of new arrivals, but the courts repeatedly declared such legislation unconstitutional.
The most important U.S. port of entry was New York City. When immigration was at its peak, New York received nearly three-fourths of the European immigrants to the United States. In 1882, the city finally balked at having to administer, at its own cost, something it could not regulate. It threatened to close Castle Garden (where immigrants were processed before Ellis Island opened in 1892) if the federal government didnšt provide financial support. Congress quickly imposed a 50 cent head tax on all immigrants. Then in 1891 the federal government created the Immigration and Naturalization Service to handle the administration of all immigration to the United States.
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4. Congressional Restrictions
The first congressional legislation restricting immigration - the Chinese Exclusion Act - was passed in 1882. It denied Chinese laborers entrance to the United States and forbade naturalization of those already in America. The Act was renewed a number of times and remained in effect until 1943.
Race or nationality based immigration restrictions affected other Asian groups soon after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, but Europeans remained unaffected for some time. Congress did bar certain classes of "undesirables" from immigrating - such as convicts, lunatics, alcoholics, vagrants, and anarchists, among others - beginning in 1882. But Europeans were basically allowed to immigrate freely to the United States, regardless of national origin, until the 1920s.
The campaign for restricting European immigration by nationality began in the late 1880s. As it became apparent that the sources of immigration were shifting from northern and western to southern and eastern Europe, American nativism reared its ugly head. Fueled by the theories of eugenics - a racist pseudo-science dividing people into "superior" and "inferior" races - and a general fear of the urban working class, the restrictionists (who were mostly of British descent) first lobbied Congress for laws requiring immigrants to pass literacy tests. The newer immigrants, who had lower literacy rates than the old ones, were the clear targets of this legislation. But literacy requirements, first put before Congress in 1896, werenšt enacted until 1917. The restrictionists were opposed by powerful business leaders in need of cheap labor and immigrants, both old and new, who lobbied hard against any immigration restrictions.
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5.Johnson-Reed Act of 1924
Following the First World War and the Red Scare of 1919-20, the restrictionists achieved a long-lasting victory. In 1921, the Quota Act, passed by Congress, placed ceilings on the number of immigrants admitted from each country outside of the Western Hemisphere. Then the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 limited the total European immigration to 150,000 per year, and reduced each nationality's allowance to 2 percent of its U.S. population in 1890. Because significantly fewer Southern and Eastern Europeans were recorded in the 1890 census than in 1920, this effectively reduced immigration from these regions while making more room than was necessary for countries like Great Britain. In 1929, when the quota system was finalized, the ratio of immigrants admittable from northern and western Europe versus southern and eastern Europe was roughly five to one.
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6.Immigration since 1924
In 1924, America had effectively shut its "Golden Door." Fewer than 350,000 Europeans immigrated to America during the 1930s, and a high percentage of these were political refugees, particularly from nazi Germany and, at the end of the decade, occupied Europe. In general, these immigrants came from a much higher socio-economic class than their predecessors. They included no less than twelve Nobel Prize winners.
Not until the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965 was the quota system abolished and relatives of U.S. citizens exempted from most immigration restrictions. After 1965, the character of immigration changed significantly yet again. The number of European immigrants was surpassed by those coming from Asia and Latin America, particularly the Caribbean Basin. This is still true today.
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7.Immigration and Nationality Act, or the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952
The McCarran-Walter Act maintained the highly discriminatory restrictive quotas of the 1920s, still favoring northern and western Europeans, but also marked the beginning of some important shifts in U.S. immigration policy. The national origins quota system applied to Eastern Hemisphere nations and the annual limit of immigrants was about 156,000. Asian immigration was extremely restricted by the limit applied to the "Asia-Pacific triangle" of 2,000 persons annually. Asians were further restricted as visas for them were awarded based on race and ethnicity, not solely nativity. Independent Western Hemisphere nations, on the other hand, were not subject to any quota restrictions continuing the "good neighbor" policy of the 1930s.
While continuing the discriminatory practices of the immigration laws of the previous three decades, there was the beginning of the shift toward an emphasis on family reunification and occupational skills. Spouses and unmarried minor children of U.S. citizens were exempt from all quota restrictions and focus was placed on the skills needed in the U.S. labor force. These trends were expanded in the amendments of 1965.
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8. Immigration and Nationality Act amendments 1965 and onThe Immigration and Nationality Act has been amended a number of times since its conception; the most dramatic amendments were in 1965 when the national origins quota system was abolished. A visa preference system, based on family relations was put into place for Eastern Hemisphere countries with an annual limit of 170,000 including an annual cap of 20,000 per country. A limitation was also placed on Western Hemisphere countries for the first time, with an annual limit of 120,000, though no per-country restrictions were enacted. In 1976, per country limits were applied to the Western Hemisphere, followed in 1978 by the change to an annual worldwide limit of 290,000 visas. Discrimination on the basis of nationality was essentially eliminated. The emphasis on family reunification, however, limited immigration from Western Europe to a certain degree, and benefited the more recent immigrants.
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9.Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986This act gave amnesty to approximately three million undocumented residents. For the first time, the law punishes employers who hire persons who are here illegally. The aim of employer sanctions is to make it difficult for the undocumented to find employment. The law has a side effect: employment discrimination against those who look or sound "foreign."
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10.Immigration Act of 1990
In 1990, legislation was passed approving an annual immigration level of 675,000 per year based on visa preferences including a combination of family reunification (480,000), occupational skill and job creation preferences (140,000), and a "diversity" visa lottery (55,000).
Following is an overview of the breakdown of these visa preferences:
- Family Based Immigrant Visas apply to spouses of lawful permanent U.S. citizens/residents, their immediate relatives (spouses, children, parents, brothers and sisters), or for the fiance of a U.S. citizen or resident (they would receive a nonimmigrant visa and would be able to apply for an immigrant visa upon marriage).
- Employment Based Immigrant Visas include a number of situations. It can be obtained with company sponsorship after demonstration of the inability to find a legal resident or citizen to perform the job or when it has been determined that there are not sufficient United States workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available for certain occupations, and that the wages and working conditions of United States workers similarly employed will not be adversely affected by the employment of aliens. Certain religious workers, business owners and those planning to invest and create employment in the U.S., may be eligible as well.
- Diversity visas are available by lottery to people from countries with low immigration rates. Usually the low rate is a result of the 1965 shift to family-based visa preference. The eligible countries change from year to year.
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act-1996 Enacted to discourage illegal immigration, this act barred anyone who had been living illegally in the US for more than six months from returning for a period of 3-10 years. Border enforcement was increased and it became more difficult for undocumented immigrants to adjust their status. Provisions were passed requiring legal resident family members of immigrants to sponsor them financially, thus imposing barriers to the availability of family unification visas. Residents were required to show that they earned at least 125% of the federal poverty level and to sign a document binding them legally to support the potential immigrant family member. This had the effect of preventing lower-paid workers from reuniting with their families. Congress also passed legislation that citizenship become a condition of eligibility for public benefits for most immigrants. The period of the early 1990s was one of a persistent recession in the US which contributes to the call for stricter immigration restrictions.
In the following years, provisions were modified to mitigate some of the restrictions of 1996. Some public benefits are restored for some elderly and disabled immigrants who had been receiving them prior to the 1996 changes, and eventually the benefits are extended to more groups. In 2000, Congress continues to move incrementally in a pro-immigrant direction, passing the compromise Legal Immigration Family Equity Act, which creates a narrow window for immigrants with family or employer sponsors to adjust to legal status in the U.S. For the second time in three years, Congress significantly raises the ceiling for skilled temporary workers.
11.Applying for U.S. citizenship
An alien can apply for citizenship if he/she has been a lawful permanent resident for five years; has been a lawful permanent resident for three years, while married to a US citizen; is a lawful permanent resident child of U.S. citizen parents; or has qualifying military service. Children under 18 may automatically become citizens when their parents naturalize.
Those applying must complete an application form, take a multiple-choice examination that includes questions about US History, government structure and English proficiency, and interview with an Immigration Officer. The cost to file for naturalization is approximately $225.
For further reading see: Nancy Foner, New Immigrants in New York (New York, 2001); David Reimer, Unwelcome Strangers: American Identity and the Turn Against Immigration (New York, 1998); Maldwyn Allen Jones, American Immigration (Chicago, 1960); John Higham, Strangers in the Land (New York, 1955); David Reimers, Still the Golden Door: the Third World comes to America (New York, 1992).
See also: Chinese; Germans; Italians; Jews; Lower East Side.
12.IMMIGRATION-CURRENT U.S. AND NEW YORK CITY
Today, most immigrants arrive in New York through JFK airport. They are often able to fly from their home city right to JFK; otherwise, modern transportation makes it relatively easy for them to get to the departure airport. They may only spend a few hours on a plane compared to immigrants at the turn of the century, whose trips involved grueling ocean voyages that may have lasted two weeks. Today, immigrants obtain visas from the American embassies in their home countries. All people arriving at JFK as the first point of U.S. entry are required to fill out a landing card which documents their status upon landing. This applies to U.S. citizens returning home as well.
Most immigrants, 75%, come to the US legally. About 75% of all legal immigrants come to join close family members. Of undocumented people living in the US, 40% first entered legally on either tourist, student, business or other temporary visas and became illegal once they overstayed their allotted visit time. An estimated 30,000-35,000 people come illegally to NYC each year (usually overstaying tourist visas).
13.Refugees
Refugees are people not yet in the US who seek protection here because of fear of persecution in their home country. They have to prove a "well-founded fear of persecution" based on at least one of five criteria: race, religion, membership in a social group, political opinion or national origin. An asylee is like a refugee, but asylees apply for protected status after arrival in the US. Following World War II and into the Cold War era, the government responded to the growing number of people displaced by war in Europe or fleeing Communist regimes with special statutes geared toward refugees.
Between 1945-1957, approximately 600,000 European refugees resettled in the United States. Over the next two decades, more than 800,000 Cubans fled to this country, settling primarily in Miami. The Immigration and Refugee Act of 1975 was passed in response to the growing number of people fleeing Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos after the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the fall of these governments to Communism. The approach to refugee populations was related to changes in the overall approach to immigration policies in the U.S. The President and Congress determine the number of refugees accepted each year. A large portion of refugees to New York City today come from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. For the year 2001, the allocation is for 80,000 people.
14.How many immigrants each year?
As of March 2000, 10.4% of the US population was foreign born. In the years 1870-1920, the number was 15%. In the decade of the 1990s, an average of 950,000 immigrants entered the country each year. Today, NYC annually receives approximately 14% of all immigrants to the United States. In the 1990s, nearly 1.2 million immigrants were admitted to the city.
In 1900, there were 750-1000 people per acre in the 10th ward. This block (bound by Orchard, Delancey, Allen, Broome) was at one time the most crowded place on earth. Today, Manhattan still has the highest population density of the five boroughs: 104.6 people per acre. The most densely populated area is in Washington Heights (Upper Manhattan) where one area has 308 people per acre.
Today, NYC has the largest number of foreign-born people in the country-36% of the city's population or 2.8 million of its 8 million residents. A decade earlier, in 1990, foreign-born made up 28% of the city's population. Of the 2.8 million foreign-born in New York City today, 44% entered the U.S. in the 1990s. The city has not had such a large proportion of immigrants since 1910 when 41% were foreign-born. In 1995-1996, the annual average number of immigrants to NYC was 115, 687, more than a 30% increase over the previous decade.
This high influx of immigrants, in part, helped counter the sizeable net outflow of residents to other parts of the country. Other factors that added numbers to the population increase were a high level of births and a low number of deaths (1.266+ million births and 682,000 deaths). Immigrants are considered largely responsible for this high level of natural population increase because, on average, they tend to be younger. Between 1990-96, 45% of all children born in NYC were born to foreign-born mothers and 52% had at least one foreign-born parent.
15. Where do immigrants come from?Of the 28.4 million foreign-born people residing in the US as of March 2000, 51% were born in Latin America (Central America-34.5%, Caribbean 9.9%, South America 6.6%), 25.5% were born in Asia, and 15.3% were born in Europe. These foreign-born make up 10.4% of the total US population.
Over 1/3 of all Manhattan’s foreign-born population is from the Dominican Republic and about 1/5 is from China (Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong). No single group, however, dominates the total immigration to NYC. New York City’s population includes people of more than 185 nationalities. Queens is the most diverse county in the US with more than 150 nationalities (an increase from 120 in 1994).
We estimate that as many as 6,000 people called 97 Orchard Street home between 1864-1935, coming from at least 20 countries. To compare, in the year 1998 alone, there were immigrants to the Lower East Side from 37 different countries. The overwhelming majority, however, come from China.
The top five immigrant groups to NYC in the 1990s are from:
1990-1996 Settlement patterns
Dominican Republic 149,313 31% to Upper Manhattan
Former Soviet Union 106,954 70% to Brooklyn
China* 83,540 31% to Manhattan’s Chinatown
Jamaica 44,819
Guyana 41,904
* includes Mainland, Hong Kong, and TaiwanThe top five immigrant groups to the Lower East Side in the 1990s are from:
1990-1996
China* 16,868
Dominican Republic 2,815
Bangladesh 719
Former Soviet Union 110
Vietnam 73
* includes Mainland, Hong Kong, and TaiwanOver the past 10 years, immigrants to the Lower East Side have come from 37 different countries. The vast majority of immigrants to the LES are from China, accounting for over 20% of the neighborhood’s total immigrant population. Just over 1/5 of all the Chinese who immigrate to NYC live on the Lower East Side.
16.Class/education of immigrants
Today, immigrants to NY come from a wider range of economic and social backgrounds than did immigrants at the turn of the 20th century who mostly were a mix of skilled workers and common laborers. It is not until late in the century that professional, technical, and white-collar workers began to arrive in great numbers. Many immigrants today arrive speaking fluent English as well. Despite this, many immigrants experience downward occupational mobility here. This may be because many do arrive lacking English skills, lack of US job experience, or the lack of connections here.
More than 80% come without a college education. Immigrants are less likely to have a high school diploma (67% v. 87% for native born). The highest percentage of those with high school educations are from Asia and Europe. More than 1/5 of all immigrants have less than a ninth grade education.
For further reading see: Nancy Foner, From Ellis Island to JFK: New York's Two Great Waves of Immigration (New Haven, 2000); Nancy Foner, New Immigrants in New York (New York, 2001); NYC Department of City Planning, The Newest New Yorkers 1990-1994 and 1995-1996 (New York, 1996, 1999); U.S. Census Bureau, The Foreign-Born Population in the United States (March 2000).
