THE MAKING OF THE NATION

“America is God’s Crucible, the Great Melting Pot where

all the races of Europe are melting and re-forming…
God is making the American!”
(Israel Zangwill - 1908)
STATUE OF LIBERTY, LIBERTY ISLAND, N YC.
WORDS INSCRIBED ON THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free;
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
(from sonnet The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus- American poet
ELLIS ISLAND –GATEWAY TO A DREAM

More than 12 million immigrants made their

first stop in America at the Ellis Island
Immigration Station between 1892 and 1954.
In fact, more than 40 percent of Americans
can trace their family history back to Ellis
Island.
ELLIS ISLAND- ISLAND OF HOPE, ISLAND OF TEARS
ELLIS ISLAND IMMIGRATION MUSEUM
THE MAKING OF THE NATION

First immigrants
Native Americans
Old immigration
Southeastern European immigration
Recent immigration and Refugees
FIRST IMMIGRANTS

 The British were the first to colonize on large scale in the Northeastern regions
 They came for profit and religious freedom (Protestantism and Puritanism)
 In 1607, the first successful English colony was founded in Jamestown, Virginia.
 Throughout 1600s and 1700s, permanent settlements were rapidly established
along the eastern coast.
 The British were joined by people from Northwest of Europe (Germans, Swedes,
Dutch, French, Swiss…) and Africans.
FIRST IMMIGRANTS
 The British had more overriding influence on other immigrants.
 White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) was predominant in society
(mainstream).
 Other immigrants were reluctant to give up their ethnic identity.
 They learned English and adopted English customs to be assimilated
into American society.
 Assimilation process was different from generation to generation
(p.49).
NATIVE AMERICANS
 Native Americans had been living there for 12,000 years before the Europeans arrived.
 Native Americans had their own cultures and civilization.
 European settlers took their lands through war, threats, and treaties to build big cities.
 By the end of 19th century, a large number of native Americans was wiped out.
 Native Americans are now confined in reservations.
 From native Americans’ perspective, the story of European immigration is a story of
struggle and displacement.
 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 4.5 million Native Americans and
Alaska Natives in the United States today. That’s about 1.5 percent of the population.
OLD IMMIGRATION
 10 m. people came to America between 1840 and 1860.
 There were thousands of Chinese emigrated to California to work on the railroad.
 The overwhelming majority of immigrants came from northern and western Europe.
 They came for political, social, and economic reasons to escape:
- political unrest, eg. French and Germans
- religious intolerance, eg. British
- poor harvests and famine, eg. Irish people came to escape starvation due
to a serious potato blight (disease that killed plants).
 African slaves were brought over for economic reasons, ones that did not serve them,
but instead served the economic interests of the slave owner.
OLD IMMIGRATION

They brought with them the ideas, skills, and culture upon
which the very foundation of America is built .
 The English settlers formed the governments, language and
major cultural traditions that would become America.
Many Irish workers constructed transportation routes
(railroads, etc...) and the Germans and others
brought farming techniques and education traditions.
SOUTHEASTERN EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION

A new wave of immigration in the late 1800s (1 m. a year)

immigrants were from southern and eastern Europe (Latin,
Slavic, and Jewish peoples: Italians, Hungarians, Poles,
Russians, and Greek).
They were crowding into large cities like New York and Chicago
and established ethnic enclaves such
as CHINATOWN,GREEKTOWN, or LITTLE ITALY.
NATIVIST SENTIMENT

 Nativist sentiment means the resistance to immigration.

 The old immigrants claimed their racial superiority of the Nordic peoples over
the new immigrants from the south and the east, and treated them with
prejudice and hostility:
- Religious prejudice against Catholics and Jews.
- Racial prejudice against non-WASP immigrants who may change
America’s established character and identity.
- Prejudice against new immigrant laborers who were willing to work for
lower wages, thus taking away Americans’ jobs
NATIVIST SENTIMENT

 Gradually, these "NATIVISTS" lobbied successfully to restrict the flow

of immigration.
 In 1882, Congress passed the CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT, barring this
ethnic group in its entirety.
 In 1924, the door was shut to millions by Quota Restrictions which
favored immigration from northern and western Europe.
 It completely excluded immigrants from Asia.
RECENT IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEES

 Majority of newest immigrants came from Mexico, Latin America, and Asia
(600000-700000/year).
 Asians and Cubans have shown a drive to succeed as Americans and seemed
most willing to assimilate.
 Mexican Americans are not easily assimilated and have a strong sense of their
own culture.
 Refugees flee from their country because of persecution on the basis of race,
religion, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.
 Refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam fled the destruction of the war.
VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANT POPULATION IN THE
UNITED STATES, 1980-2012
VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES BY
PERIOD OF ARRIVAL
TOP DESTINATION STATES FOR VIETNAMESE
IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 2008-12
IDENTITY CRISIS: THE MELTING POT OR A SALAD BOWL?

In the past, the WASPs considered themselves true

Americans.
Many groups were not regarded as true Americans
(e.g., blacks)
In the 1900s, new comers were expected to assimilate
to fit into the mainstream set by the WASPs.
The term “melting pot” refers to the blending of
different cultures, ethnicities and nationalities into one
that is representative of all.
THE MELTING POT
MULTICULTURALISM- SALAD BOWL

 In the "salad bowl“ metaphor each culture retains its own distinct qualities (the different ingredients
in the salad), but has a sense of common national identity in the country of habitat (the salad).