Immigration

Introduction
Immigrant: a person migrating to an area
Emigrant: a person migrating from an area
Ellis Island (New York City): processing mainly European immigrants
Angel Island (San Francisco): processing mainly Asian immigrants

BACKGROUND
*Creation of an Ethnic Economy*:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Ethnic business (grocery stores, boarding houses, restaurants, etc . )

Ethnic activities (saloons, poll halls, coffee houses. opera houses .)
Ethnic lending (community loans)
Ethnic tourism ( + and - )
Isolated from American society, their communities in cities became places of
curiosity for white tourists

ASSIMILATION
*Definition*: process where ethnic groups adopt customs and attitudes as the
prevailing culture
Melting Pot idea of America
Social processes can be seen in Geographic processes
Geographic Patterns:
1 . Ethnic enclave begins
2 . Movement into the suburbs
3 . Ethnic enclave disappears

ACCULTURATION
*Definition*: process of adopting the surrounding culture; yet still maintaining your
own culture

Salad Bowl idea of America (pluralism)

Social processes can be seen in Geographic processes
Geographic Patterns:
1. Ethnic enclave begins
2. Less movement into suburbs
3. Ethnic enclave remains
*HETEROLOCALISM* maintaining ethnic ties without living in ethnicallyconcentrated neighborhoods
Increase in telecommunication and internet usage (no need to live next to similar
ethnic group members less geography?)
Geographic Patterns:
1. No ethnic enclave
2. Immigrants move directly to the suburbs (dispersed)
3. Meet at holidays/ social institutions (at mosque/temple/church)
Describe recent immigrants well

History of Italians in Kenosha

Kenosha was a secondary destination
Many Italians moved north from Chicago (1900 onward)
Pull of manufacturing jobs
Chain migration mainly from Calabria, Italy (toe)
*Finding*
Kenosha has a faded Italian-American enclave
Italian-American food businesses have done well (decline in other services)
There are several family-owned pizzerias

*Example of Ethnic Enclaves*

Omaha, NE: Anti-Greek Sentiment (coffee shop, grocery, shoeshine parlors)
Lincoln, NE: Germans from Russia (know for Summer Kitchen)

Ethnic Distribution

*Europeans*

Tied to 3 waves of immigration

Connect when immigrant arrived and where new land opened up
Similar weather/climate/environment patterns
Many Scandinavian immigrant went to Wisconsin and Minnesota

North and West Europeans (1st and 2nd waves)

Germans Midwest
Swedes and Norwegians and Fins in the upper Midwest (near Canada border)
Icelandic in North Dakota
Danes in Midwest and Utah

South and East Europeans (3rd waves)

Construction of railroad opened up the Great Plains
Italian in the Cities (Northeast) and Mining towns
Czechs in Great Plains
Russian in Dakotas

*AFRICAN AMERICANS *
Mainly located in the South/ South East U.S and Urban North
Tied to the Triangular Slave Trade
Tied to the Great Migration: movement of Southern African Americans to cities in the
North, Midwest and West
(Urban North, West : LA, Northeast)

*NATIVE AMERICANS*
Mainly located in the Great Plains and Southwest
Mainly due to creation of Reservations

Forced migration of Native Americans to unwanted lands

Indian Territory later become Oklahoma
*HISPANICS*
Mainly located in the Southwest
Cuban in Florida
Mainly due to distance decay (States that border Mexico)
Several rural areas with new industries (e.g meat packing)
Angel Island
ASIAN
Mainly located in the West and cities (Hawaii and Westcoast)
Distance decay (West coast cities to Asia)

Urban Ethnic Distribution

Chicago aka Chi-Town