Note Cards

1.       In  five years (1919-1924) a quarter of a million East Europeans came to the USA of which Jews constituted over a half and Poles about a quarter. Post-war immigration (1919-1924) was largely a family reunification movement. More than 4 million East Europeans journeyed between 1880 and 1914, and again between 1919 and 1924 about a quarter of a million East Europeans came to the USA.(2)

2.       Their stay in America was intended to be temporary. The majority of East European peasant migrants remained in the USA, extending their stay from one year to the next. Workers, farmers and miners were sought throughout central and eastern Europe from the late 1870s on, and then brought to North America to see if they meet the expanding needs of industry for unskilled and semi-skilled laborers. (2)

3.       The outbreak of the war in Europe in 1914 put an end to the surging migration to America. Up until the First World War, the US government practiced an open door immigration policy, at least as far as people with white skin color were concerned. Among the East European Jews the proportion of females was close (44%) to that of men.(2)

4.       Coming to the United States was a difficult task.  Usually only men would come.  People would come in steerage because of lack of money.   Push-Pull factors are said to be the cause of Immigrants in the U.S.  Push factors are circumstances that generally push people out of their native country. "Pull factors" are reasons or actions that that attracted emigrants to the United States.  Some pull factors are stated below.(3)

5.       Plentiful Land, Economic Opportunity, and Freedom. Coming to America was a dangerous journey where many got sick, and some even died.  But still, people from all over to come to America. (3)

6.       Chicago has long been known as an ethnic city. From the 1840s to 1870s business and professional people arrived from New England and elsewhere in the Northeast and constituted most of the early civic elite. It was a part of a migration phenomenon known as the second great wave of migration to the USA. The major pull factor for migrants was free land close to markets, but also employment perspectives in pine forests, lead and copper mines, which resulted in great ethnic diversity of the region.(5)

7.       Chicago’s industries always needed cheap labor and from 1890 to 1920, half of the 400,000 workers were occupied in iron and steel, meatpacking, the clothing industry, railroading, or electrical machinery. The city was already half foreign-born in 1860, and by 1890, 79 per cent of people living in Chicago were foreign born or were children of immigrants.(5)

8.       The United States is the prototype of a country built by immigration and assimilation. Freedom and tolerance have permitted religious and cultural minorities who were marginalized or persecuted in their homelands to maintain a distinctive way of life free from fear.(8)

9.       The outset that caused the emigration from any particular country or from all countries isn’t always the cause of immigration to the United States. Emigration depends mainly on three conditions; the most important being the attraction of the destination, next being facility or means of escape from the emigrants home country. Only when the first two are satisfactory can the third one be focused on, dissatisfaction of the emigrants home country becomes important.(9)

10.   The rate of migration actually decreased around in 1880, reason being because United Stateswasn’t favorable. The attraction of the United States had declined, so that decreased the ratio of emigration by twenty-three percent.  One of the reasons that the United States was favorable was because there where higher demands for labor and the wages paid much higher in the United States than from the country’s the immigrants came from. (9)

11.   As they arrived to their new country they were thrown into a “melting pot” of different cultures.Freedom and tolerance had permitted religious and cultural differences that were frowned upon and persecuted in their homelands to keep them free from fear. (8)

12.   Immigrants have been producers, consumers, and entrepreneurs, and their economic energy has increased the gross national product and made for greater general prosperity.(8)

13.   There were some attempts to make an actually law to regulate the immigrants that where coming in but there never seemed to get it right. Some immigration laws did existin different countries but none of them actually became nationally laws, s they never stuck.Around 1880 the source of immigrants shifted from Northwestern to Southeastern Europe.(11)

14.   People have all been migrating to the us for many different things like, to find land, to get an education or better job, to earn money to send back home to practice their religion however they want, or just to escape the war and bad things that is going on in their own countries. More than 3.5 million people migrated to the united states looking for a better future, a new life.(6)

15.   At the time of the Revolutionary War, soldiers were offered free land as payment for their services. Then in the mid-19th century, the government offered free land to homesteaders who would live and make improvements on a piece of prairie land. Natural and economic disasters also encouraged people to move west and find a place to start over. Others just wanted to see the frontier. (6)

16.   Historian Jones, Maldwyns observation was that “the story of immigration to this country is one of shaping and reshaping the face of a nation.”  Has more people come into the united states they are shaping and reshaping, meaning they are effecting it and changing the way things are like the migration in to west town , changed the neighborhood.(12)

17.   Russian immigrates included two different groups: Ethnic Russians and Russian Jews. Chicago became the largest center of Russian Jews and Ethnic Jews in the Midwest. More Russians migrated to escape the intensifying persecution that had been plaguing their homeland. The word Russian was wrongly used by the U.S to categorize Belarusians,Ukrainians, Polis, and even Germans.(13)

18.   Russian Jews have worked to preserve their own cultures while simultaneously adapting to life in the United States. Throughout the 1920s, many ethnic Russians and Russian Jews worked on Chicago's West Side for McCormick Reaper (International Harvester), Western Electric, or Sears, Roebuck & Co.(13)

19.   Ethnic Russians migrating during the twentieth century and settled mostly in west town, eventually earning the area around west division, wood and Leavitt Streets nicknamed “Little Russia.”  Both the Ethnic and the Jewish Russians both tried to preserve their cultures while adapting to the American ways.(13)

20.   There were four waves of migrations that brought Ukrainians to the united states,: the first stared in 1880 and lasted until World war I, then the second one began after the Austrian empire collapsed, the a third one beganafter world war II, and the fourth one began in the late eighties.(14)

21.   Since World war II Westtown began a neighborhood change from a working class European neighborhood to a low-income Latino neighborhood. Between 1960 and 1980 the percent of the white population had decreased from 98% to 55%. Latinos and African Americans moved out of neighbor hoods like Lincoln park and old town during its phase of urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s.(14)

22.   The number of Chicago area migrants ranked 7th in the nation with 1.4 million which consist of 18 percent of overall population. The largest concentration of immigrant migrate to the west of Chicago than any other place.(16)

23.   The foreign-born socioeconomic status improved during the 1990s in the Chicago area, the percentage of immigrants with a high-school degree rose from 57.3 percent to 61.7 percent. Immigrant household income grew from about $42,000 to $46,000 (adjusted for inflation), and their poverty rate fell from 13 to 12.1 percent.(16)

24.   Polish people have resided I Chicago for over 100 years. They have contributed greatly to both Chicago and the suburban areas surrounding Chicago. Illinois is the fourth most polish state, with 7.0 percent reporting polish ancestry.(17)

25.   The Polish community has been a part of the fabric of life in Chicago for over a century. Homeownership represents the American Dream, and attaining a home is a priority for many Polish Americans. They feel they must rely on themselves and their family at all costs
(17)

26.   The earliest polish settlers, romantics, adventures and men seeking a better economic life. There was also matter of over population and hunger for more land that drove people to migrate even more.(18)

27.   Many young men also fled from military conscription, especially in the years of military build-up right after and during the beginning of World War I. Polish Americans have tended to marry within the community of Poles. The Poles maintain traditions most closely in those ceremonies for which the community held closely: weddings, christenings and funerals. (18)

28.   Between 1980 and 1989, around 1.1 and 1.3 million polish citizens were considered long term emigrants. Even though the number of of immigrants from Poland had increased, the migration balance still stayed negative.(20)

29.   Poland citizens have recently come to become one of the top migrating groups. Going to different country not just the U.S to find better futures and to get away from the troubles at home.(20)

30.   Poles numbered among the earliest colonists in America.They represent the largest of the Slavic groups in America. Poles also opened the flood gates of immigration. Some Poles have intended to save money and return to their native country in higher numbers.(25)

31.   Polish immigrants have had an easier time racially than many other non-European groups in getting use to or blending into the American ways.Most poles have held tightly to their folk and national roots. “Poles have competed well and succeeded in their new homeland; they have thrived and built homes and raised families, and in that respect have participated in and added to the American dream.”(25)

32.   Landlords, pushing peasants off of their lands, the fast growing population increased land shortages and heavy taxes led poles to seek relieve in America. As they got to America they quickly went to work in the steel mills, coalmines, meatpacking plants, and oil refineries in Chicago. Some poles that thought they wouldn't stay here too long isolated themselves and didn’t assimilate to their environment.(24)

33.   A quota system, the maximum number of persons admitted into a nation, was first introduced.  The terms prohibited no more than 3 percent of the number of foreign-born residents of that nationality living in the U.S. Poland’s religious and economic conditions prompt immigration of approximately two million Poles by 1914.(24)

34.   Between 1880 and 1914, at least 7.5 million people from Eastern Europe migrated to the U.S. The immigrants that where parts of this migration are part of what is now known has the “second great wave" of American immigration. About 27 million immigrants landed on U.S. soil. (26)

35.   Places of worship were often the center of social functions and served, through services in the native language and through informal measures like meals and holiday traditions, to preserve and transmit the immigrant group's culture. The family was central to the social and economic organization of Eastern European agricultural laborers(26)