Immigration Timeline

Immigration in the U.S.

SEI/301 - Advanced Structured English Immersion

by: Tony Lovell

The Fourth Wave (1960s-Today)

The Second Wave (1820-1870)

Colonial & Revolutionary Eras

The New Immigrants of the 2000s & Today

• New laws were passed that changed the number of immigrants permitted into the United States each year, but "[n]one of these quotas placed any limits on the numbers of immediate family members of U.S. citizens who could enter the country" (Shirey, 2015).
• The 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, helping solidfy the rulings in the Brown v. Board of Education which declared "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" (Gonzalez, Yawkey, Minaya-Rowe, 2006, p. 62).
• The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 helped legitimiz "the need to provide native-language instruction for ESL learners in order to provide equal educational opportunities for them" (Gonzalez, Yawkey, Minaya-Rowe, 2006, p. 66).

• "Almost 7 million newcomers entered the United States" (Bryant, 1999).
• "The flood of immigrants began to alarm many native born Americans," and, during the Second Wave of Immigration, "the America Party, also called the Know-Nothing Party, demanded laws to reduce immigration and to make it harder for foreigners to become citizens" (Bryant, 1999).
• During this wave, in the 1870s, the U.S. economy experienced a depression "while that of Germany and Britain improved" (Bryant, 1999).

• Immigrants traveled from Europe and Africa in large numbers to what would become the United States
• Colonists were immigrating to new land on religious grounds
• Over 20,000 immigrants moved to what would become the United States

• The Latino population, legal and undocumented immigrants alike, "by 43 percent, far outpacing the growth of non-Hispanic whites, whose population grew by 5.7 percent" between 2000 and 2013 (Ross, 2015).
• Most of these immigrants "are people of color, coming from Central and South America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia," and bring to the U.S. "a greater range in terms of languages spoken" (Varghese, 2004).
• Today, "there are fewer manufacturing jobs and more service and technology-related jobs, which in turn require skilled labor and a college degree" (Varghese, 2004).

As American lawmakers attempted to increase the number of immigrants they allowed into the U.S., they effectively made it clear the immigrants were welcome, but there was no indication that the language situation would be modified. English has been the primary language of America for decades, and success in America was often dictated by the ability to effectively communicate. With the passage of Civil Rights laws and equality laws, non native-born people of America won the ability to receive a fair education and opportunity to be successful. It became clear that ESL people would receive additional educational assistance in the form of structured English immersion, but this progression would still be slow.

As the Latino population increases, along with the Asian population, the need for ELL teaching and focus in schools has become even more apparent. The more languages that pop up in the U.S., the more teachers will need find ways to bridge the gap between the L1 and the L2. As the number of different languages that are becoming more and more prevalent in the U.S., the greater the need for teachers and administrators who speak, read, and understand these languages and cultures. Since so many jobs today require skills and college degrees, the need for a balanced and focused education for all students is necessary, especially for ELLs. English Language Learners deserve the opportunity to obtain higher levels of education, which means that the additional reforms put in place are meant to ensure that these students receive that balanced education that is necessary.

Any influx in immigration will result in problems, and for English Language Learners it all boils down to exposure. Not only are these immigrants exposed to English, but they are also exposed to all of these other foreign languages, and the phonemes and sounds are meshing together. With the demands to reduce immigration, America saw laws requested and/or passed that "prevented convicts and prostitutes from entering the country," and some that would keep out entire races such as the request from Californians in the 1870s where there was a demand to "keep out Chinese immigrants" as many Californians feared a lack of job opportunities due to these immigrants. When there is a financial crisis in the country where many immigrants are flocking to, two things are likely to occur: 1) the more wealthy immigrants may seek refuge somewhere else; 2) the more wealthy immigrants that actually take up residence in the finanically-poorer land may demand their language become more dominant as they have the money. This leads to a change in language use in certain areas which not only impacts ELLs but also native-born Americans as they may now be expected to learn a new language.

Though Separatists were the first immigrants, there were only about 102 immigrants on the Mayflower--of this about 41 were Separatists. The largest immigration group of this time were the Puritans, of which about 20,000 migrated to the New England area. As these immigrants were migrating for religious freedom, much of what they were teaching their youth was based on religious principles and understanding. Africans that were "migrating" at this time were often part of a slave trade, so they were exposed to European English through open religious dialogue and direct command. The main language at this time was European English. Colonists encountered Native Americans, who, like Africans, were exposed to this new language through open dialogue and meetings.

(Bankston, n.d.)

1607-1620

1850s

1970s

1700s

Today

1500s

The Third Wave (1881-1920)

The First Wave (1500s-1775)

The New Immigrants of the 1980s & 1990s

• 1882 - Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, "which prohibited Chinese laborers from coming to the United States," and "began to expand the list of unacceptable immigrants beyond...to include such people as beggars, contract laborers, the insande, and unaccompanied minors" (Bryant, 1999).
• 1917 - Congress passed a law requiring adult immigrants "to show they could read and write" (Bryant, 1999).
• The Great Depression and the first of the World Wars caused the immigration numbers to American to sharply decline.

• Most African immigrants were indentured servants or slaves.
• "By 1700, the colonists in America numbered about 250,000," and "[a]pproximately 450,000 immigrants arrived between 1700 and the start of the Revolutionary War" (Bryant, 1999).
• During this time, English immigrant numbers decreased, and the number of immigrants from Germany, Ireland, and Scotland increased. Overall numbers decreased, however, with the wars in Europe and America during the late 1700s and early 1800s.

• Mexico became the "largest source country of legal admissions" of immigrants into the U.S., but "also accounted for the largest share of illegal immigrants" (Hipsman and Meissner, 2013).
• Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 to address illegal immigration.
• Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1990 to "revamp the legal immigration system and admit a greater share of highly-skilled and educated imigrants" into the U.S. (Hipsman and Meissner, 2013).

Not only did the Chinese Exclusion Act directly impact Chinese immigrants, it caused strife among other immigrants. By Congress passing laws to exclude certain members of an entire nation, many immigrants probably felt pressure to assimilate and learn English. This feeling was probably fueled by declarations by public figures, such as Teddy Roosevelt who, during this wave, declared, "We should provide for every immigrant...the chance to learn English; and if after say five years he has not learned English, he should be sent back to the land from whence he came" (Rodriguez, 2015). With the decree that all adults prove their literacy and ability to write, Congress was basically declaring that all adult immigrants know, read, and write in English before attempting to enter the U.S., but without proper education this would not be likely to occur and many would not even attempt to enter the U.S. for fear of rejection. With the Great Depression and the financial struggles that would come with the first World War, immigration declined and those in the U.S. fought for jobs, which were already limited. In order to be successful anywhere, one would need to educate him or herself and assimilate into the English language.

Reforms are generally enacted when a large group complains enough. As illegal immigration rose, the number of non-English speaking peoples in the U.S. began to trouble native-born Americans. Many believed that if they chose to come into this country that they should speak the language, but they also feared these people would take their jobs due to cheap labor, thus fueling racism. The IRCA of 1986, though, did grant "lawful status to 2.7 million individuals" who "had lived in the United States for at least five years" (Hipsman and Meissner, 2013). As these people were allowed to stay in the country and there was no mention of language changes, multiculturalism grew, and the need for Bilingual Education reform was needed. While the Immigration Act of 1990 "raised legal immigration caps, modified the temporary nonimmigrant visa system, and revised the grounds of inadmissibility and deportation," it "failed to adequately forsee and incorporate measures to provide and manage continued flows of temporary and permanent immigrants to meet the country's labor market needs," and it did nothing to increase Bilingual Education reform further or to increase multiculturalism awareness and appreciation (Hipsman and Meissner, 2013).

As the number of immigrants to America from other countries that surrounded England increased, the number of different languages and cultures coming into the newly found America increased, which, thus, increased the exposure to other languages and the need to harness communication. Any time you have multiple nationalities entering life in a single area, you must find ways to communicate. The African immigrants that were transported to America were indentured servants and slaves, so their exposure to English was limited. Due to this, many of them likely did not learn English, or their English was broken as their exposure was limited. As the number of immigrants in these new colonies rose, especially when considering the number of nationalities, the number of languages spoken in the newly founded America increased, leading the way for a unified language to be determined and taught.

References

Bankston, Carl L. (n.d.) Academia.edu. History of immigration, 1620-1783. P. 470. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/937663/American_Immigration_History

Bryant, Joyce. (1999). Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. "Immigration in the United States". Retrieved from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1999/3/99.03.01.x.html

Gonzalez, Virginia, Yawkey, Thomas, and Minaya-Rowe, Liliana. (2006). English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) Teaching and Learning: Pre-K-12 Classrom Applications for Students' Academic Achievement and Development. Retrieved from University of Phoenix Online Environment.

Hipsman, Faye, and Meissner, Doris. (2013). Migration Policy Institute. "Immigration in the United States: New Economic, Social, Political Landscapes with Legislative Reform on theon the Horizon". Retrieved from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/immigration-united-states-new-economic-social-political-landscapes-legislative-reform

Rodriguez, Rudy. (2015). Immigration to the United States. "English as a second language". Retrieved from http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/480-english-as-a-second-language.html

Shirey, Wayne. (2015). Immigration to the United States. "Immigration waves". Retrieved from http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/603-immigration-waves.html

Varghese, Manka M. (2013). Johns Hopkins School of Education. "An Introduction to Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners". Retrieved from http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/English%20Language%20Learners/Articles/An%20Introduction%20to%20Meeting%20the%20Needs%20of%20English%20Language%20Learners/