Migration To California During The Great Depression

Similarly the residents of the dust bowl along with victims of the dust storms leave their home towns and head to California but are faced with miss treatment and abuse from the native residents of California. Migrant camps began to form as a result of no work and no where else to

Many groups immigrated to the United States, mostly in California, for land, jobs, wealth and freedom. One of the main ethnic groups of immigrants that came to California to work were the Chinese. Many companies used the Chinese men to work on railroads that connected America through transportation that later helped develop modern day America.

(Nelson). Thousands of people were moving out from this tragedy from all around the states, weakened, willing to do any type of work for just a meal. An amount of people had put up for sale there belongings that they weren’t able to take with them, most of the migrant workers wished “...to become hired hands on California farms, learning how to grow fruits and vegetables while living on the farms where they worked” (“Dust Bowl Migration”). “The attempts of these displaced agricultural workers to find other work were met with frustration due to a 30 percent unemployment rate” (Fanslow). Several people were heading west, millions of people were leaving from the Midwest in hopes of finding a job in California.

While many remember the Great Depression as a time of terrible trials for Americans, few understand the hardships faced by Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the U.S. This paper examines the experiences of Mexicans in America during the Great Depression and explores the devastating impact of repatriation efforts. America has an extensive history of accepting Mexican workers when they are needed for cheap labor, and demanding that they be deported when the economic situation is more precarious in an attempt to open jobs for Americans. In the 1930s, “Americans, reeling from the economic disorientation of the depression, sought a convenient scapegoat. They found it in the Mexican community.” Mexicans were blamed for economic hardships

The 1840s and 50s experienced a massive escalation in the number of immigrants from Europe especially from Ireland, and Germany, arriving on U.S shores in densely populated urban areas (Arenson, 2011). Most of them afterward became vigorous in domestic politics, much to the aggravation of old-stock, authentic Americans. The consequence was a renaissance in the formation of “nativistic” societies (small, indistinct, anti-foreign and anti-catholic organizations), some which banded together in the early 1850s to form the American Party (Arenson, 2011). Commonly referred to as the “Know-Nothing,” the party rode a wave of racial intolerance as well as racism into the mid-1850s.

Many people from all over the world saw America as a place to create a better life for them and their family. America was a place full of many job opportunities, ones that were not available anywhere else in the world. It was in America that people from different nations saw the chance to escape the place they originally lived because of unfair government or as a chance to have money to send back to their family in their homeland. The period after the civil war was an era of tremendous migration from southern and eastern Europe as well as from China, because of all the opportunities that were available here that were not available anywhere else. Migration was also prominent within America when African Americans

Ever since the creation of the human race, human beings have been prone to moving place to place for new opportunities and beginnings. People who move from one country to another are called immigrants. As nations started to form, their were rules and laws set on who could and could not live in a specific country. Most of these laws included immigrants to go through a lengthy process to get approved to go into the country they desired. However, even after the lengthy process is completed, the country still has the right to deny their entrance. In fear of being rejected, many immigrants decided to illegally cross the borders of other countries causing many problems with the country's society, specially the United States of America. Historians saw a great example of this in the 1920s. The 1920s in America unfolded the greatest wave of immigration in American history; more than 25 million foreigners, also known as immigrants, arrived on American shores (Shmoop). Before the 1920s, immigration in the United States had never been systematically restricted by federal law, however that changed with the 1921 Emergency Quota Act and the 1924 Immigration Act. For the first time in American history, these acts imposed a limit on the number of immigrants allowed to enter the United States which eventually caused many to enter illegally. Today America is faced with some similar issues with immigration as they did in the 1920s, for example, the number of illegal immigrants in

Agriculture in California was the reason many migrants viewed the state as one with many economical opportunities. There were fewer jobs available than those advertised. Even the jobs that were available provided terrible pay. One had to think of the idea that low pay was greater than no pay. Corporate farms provided poor living conditions, but it had to be ignored by those who were seeking jobs (“The Dust Bowl”). White folks from Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas increased in quantity. They were in search of harvesting jobs (“Mass Exodus from the Plains”). The WPA, Workers Progress Administration, was one to provide migrants with many jobs. This was part of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. A total of 8.5 million people were employed, and they earned

After the gold rush, transportation improvements were being made, immigration was going up and so was mining. The 49’s were the first people to reach the mines, although this was not good news, the 49’rs did increase the immigration to California which led to Diversity also had an impact since people from all over the East were beginning to move West. The rising of mining began the idea of creating a bank system which became very successful. Today California's transportation, traveling, and banking industries continue to be successful. Agriculture has dominated California's territory since 1848 and is now the largest. Although immigrants have not lived in California their whole life, they have expanded their views and skills by being surrounded with multiple cultures. Spanish speaking individuals brought the language and religion in California. After California became an official state in the 1850s was when the immigration of Hispanics began to move

To demonstrate, the Spanish migration to California was not beneficial to its native Indians inhabitants of the region. Prior to Spanish contact, native Indians lived and settled in vast regions across California. California Indians themselves are also considered migrants to the Americas. A scientific theory suggested that all native people began in Africa, then spread widely across to the Far East of Asia and came across the Bering Strait during the Ice Age. As the Ice Age cleared, they began to move southward (Erik Lecture, 1/11). The Native Californian Indians themselves were migrants. However, according to the Tonguv, a native Los Angeles tribe, they do not agree with this idea. They suggest that they have been in California since the beginning

From this picture taken during the great depression, of the family walking on the road, I claim that a family is moving with everything they have left. The father is sad because he just lost his job and he cannot provide for his family. So he is traveling to look for work. This statement could be true because each part of the statement can be reasoned and has evidence that can support it.

“As a ‘double whammy’ of drought and depression deepened on the Great Plains, more and more farmers gave up or were forced off of their land” (Winter). According to Bart Robinson, an eyewitness, “Many people thought it was a plague” (Robinson). The migrant workers started moving away. “When pioneers headed west in the late 19th century, many couldn’t resist the lure of the tall grassy land in the semiarid Midwestern and Southern plains of the United States” (“Black Sunday”). Many people did travel to other states. Though “the exact scale of migrants is unknown but it’s estimated that up to 400,000 Southwesterns moved west during the 1930s and to 300,000 moved into California a decade earlier” (Sander). Dust Bowl refugees found roots in California (Winter). “Sometimes they found work, but mostly they found heartbreak and anger” (Robinson). They had once “owned profitable farms. Then they had nothin’ but hunger and dirt and two cents a barrel” (Robinson). Some migrant workers had trouble finding houses within their price range. “Many of the migrant workers lived in labor camps”

In the 1940's the Second Great Migration brought tens of thousands of migrants from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to California in search

With all these travelers from the east and different country made California a “melting pot” of different people and culture. When news that California that had gold began to spread outside of the United State it first hit Mexico and Hawaii lead to the first wave of immigrants with the purpose of mining. Then, news the quickly across the world from South America to Europe and from Australian to Asian, the impact was so big that the text said, “Irish immigration to the United States, already at 100,000 a year in 1847, more than double to 220,000 by 1851” (Gillon, 297). With all these people mining towns would quickly pop up across California, and these towns with every race you could think such as Black, French, Irish, Chinese, Mexican, and etc. The towns were constantly busy with people moving to and from mine and rivers. With a day or a week of work could make you a nice amount of profit, you could entertain yourself for a while before you had to go back to mining with bars, gambling parlors, and whore house. Prostitutes made good money because in text said that, “ One prostitute in California Boasted of making more than $50000in a year.” (Gillon, 297). I could imagine myself being there if I made it there.

During the Great Depression that struck in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, the economy of the United States collapses with farmers and producers likewise losing money due to overproduction and underconsumption of goods due to an extravagant increase of price on goods. As a result, the Great Depression caused immigration and migration rates to increase. This is a negative impact on the economy because gaining employment becomes competitive and consequently, people earn a lower wage. Though immigration and migration creates conflict between native inhabitants of the land and the immigrants with employment competition, migration and immigration is vital to rebuild the economy of the United States through increased taxes and a wide array of new labor sources. Also, it enhances the vibrant, diverse, and syncretic cultures in the United States as well. Lastly, immigration and migration both promotes unity within family and their own social-ethnic groups.