Immigtration

[|The Huddled Masses], the statue of liberty is the tallest metal statue ever constructed. The statue of liberty represented freedom in the new world for the immigrants. The statue was originally built in France and given to America as a gift. [|The New Immigrants], most immigrants came from eastern and southern Europe. European immigration greatly increased after the civil war. In 1900 14 percent of the population was born in a different country. [|The Chinese Exclusion Act], from 1882 until 1943 most Chinese immigrants were barred from entering America. The Chinese exclusion act was the first law to ban a nationality from entering the United States. The only exceptions were travelers, merchants, teachers, students and those who were born in the United States. [|Contract Agreement], in the 19th century the demand for manual labor grew. The laborers worked under contracts for a period of time. In exchange for working nine hours a day six days a week they received a small salary along with clothing, shelter, food, and medical care. [|Immigration Restriction], during the early 20th century the united states imposed additional restrictions on immigration. Under the Gentlemen’s agreement of 1907-1908, the government agreed to limit passports issued to Japanese in order to permit wives to enter the United States.  and in 1917, the United States barred all Asian immigrants except for Filipinos, who were U.S. nationals. [|United States's Changing Face], 10 million legal and undocumented immigrants entered the country during the 1980s. an unpredicted wave of immigrants from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, the face of the United states changed the space of 20 years. In 1996 nearly one in ten of the residents in the U.S. were born in another country, that’s twice as many as in 1970. Dear Liesl, America is so wonderful! It is completely different from Germeny, its amazing. New york is so big and full of people. You can’t walk an inch without bumping into someon. I love seeing all the buildings at night time because all the lights make the sky look like there are more stars. My family has to live in a one bedroom apartment which is hard since I have 5 brothers and sister. Its been especially hard because a week after we got here mama got sick. Shes been so sick none of us know what to do she can barely get out of bed and her fever is 105. She hasn’t been able to get a job so I work as a garment worker at the sewing factory to help Pa with the finances. Being a garment worker is so boring the only thing I do is sit there and sew. The good thing about it is that there are tons of other girls my age, so I’ve made lots of new friends. One girl who works with me is only 5 years old! That’s 5 years younger than I am. Sometimes I watch her while she’s working to make sure she doesn’t get caught on the machine. Pa said that if he can save enough money then we’ll be able to buy a farm. I hope that will happen because its very cramped living in one room with 7 other people, and would be nice to have some room to breathe. I hope things in Germany are getting better. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye, Mama and Pa said that we had to leave as soon as possible of the Nazis would come and take us away. They never told me where the Nazis would take us but it mustn’t be a good place to go if we had to leave on such short notice. I hope you and your family come to live here. Maybe you can work in the sewing factory with me and we can walk to work together everyday. If you do come here you’ll have to come over on a steam ship and I know that you get sea sick sometimes. But it would be worth it, and I will wait for you when the ship docks and your family can live in our apartment building. I hope to hear from you Liesl, and I also hope to see you soon. Sincerely, Helene