. PRELISTENING
A.Vocabulary and Key Concepts
1.Throughout history, people have moved, or immigrated, to new countries to live.
2.Natural disasters can take many forms：those that are characterized by a shortage of rain or food are called droughts and famines respectively.
3.Sometimes people immigrate to a new country to escape political or religious persecution.
4.Rather than immigrants, the early settlers from Great Britain considered themselves colonists; they had left home to settle new land for the mother country.
5.The So-called Great Immigration, which can be divided into three stages, or time periods, began about l830 and lasted till about 1930.
6.The Industrial Revolution, which began in the eighteenth century, caused widespread unemployment as machines replaced workers.
7.The scarcity of farmland in Europe caused many people to immigrate to the United States, where farmland was more abundant.
8.Land in the United States was plentiful and available when the country was expanding westward. In fact, the U.S. government offered free public land to citizens in 1862.
9.The failure of the Irish potato crop in the middle of the nineteenth century caused widespread starvation.
10.The Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II contributed to the noticeable decrease in immigration after 1930.
11.The first law that limited the number of immigrants coming from a certain part of the world was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
12.It is important to note that in 1965 strict quotas based on nationality were eliminated.
13.At the end of the 1940s immigration began to increase again and has, in general, risen steadily since then.
14.Will the trend continue for non-Europeans to immigrate to the United States?
15.The U.S. immigration laws of today in general require that new immigrants have the skills necessary to succeed in the United States because industry no longer requires large numbers of unskilled workers.
D. Notetaking Preparation
1. Dates：Teens and Tens
a.1850 b.1915 c.the 1840s d.from 10 to 1930
e.between 1750 and 1850 f.1776 g.1882 h.1929 i.1860 j.from approximately 1830 to 1930
. LISTENING
LECTURE：Immigration：Past and Present
The act of immigrating, or coming to a new country to live, is certainly nothing new. Throughout history, people have immigrated, or moved to new countries, for many different reasons. Sometimes these reasons were economic or political. Other people moved because of natural disasters such as droughts or famines. And some people moved to escape religious or political persecution. No matter what the reason, most people do not want to leave their native land and do so only under great pressure of some sort, but a few people seem quite adventuresome and restless by nature and like to move a lot. It seems both kinds of people came to America to live. The subject of immigration is quite fascinating to most Americans, as they view themselves as a nation of immigrants. However, the early Britons who came to what is today the United States considered themselves “settlers’’ or “colonists”, rather than immigrants. These people did not exactly think they were moving to a new country but were merely settling new land for the “mother country.” There were also large numbers of Dutch, French, German, and Scotch-Irish settlers, as well as large numbers of blacks brought from Africa as slaves. At the time of independence from Britain in 1776, about 40 percent of people living in what is now the United States were non-British. The majority of people, however, spoke English, and the traditions that formed the basis of life were mainly British traditions. This period we have just been discussing is usually referred to as the Colonial Period. Today, we’re a little more interested in actual immigration after this period. Let’s first 1ook at what is often called the Great Immigration, which began about l830 and ended in 1930. Then let’s consider the reasons for this so-called Great Immigration and the reasons it ended. Finally, let’s talk about the immigration situation in the United States today.
As I said, we’ll begin our discussion today with the period of history called the Great Immigration, which lasted from approximately 1830 to 1930. It will be easier if we look at the Great Immigration in terms of three major stages, or time periods. The first stage was from approximately 1830 to 1860. Now, before this time, the number of immigrants coming to the United States was comparatively small, only about 10, 000 a year. However, the rate began to climb in the 1830s when about 600,000 immigrants arrived. The rate continued to climb during the 1840s with a total of 1,700,000 people arriving in that decade. The rate continued to climb, and during the 1850s 2,600,000 immigrants arrived. During this first stage of the Great Immigration, that is, between the years 1830 and 1860, the majority of immigrants came from Germany, Great Britain, and Ireland. Now let's consider the second stage of the Great Immigration. The second stage was from 1860 to 10, during which time another 10,000,000 people arrived. Between 1860 and 10 the majority of immigrants continued to be from Germany, Ireland, and Great Britain. However, during the second stage, a smaller, but significant, number of immigrants came from the Scandinavian nations of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The third stage of the Great Immigration, which lasted from 10 to 1930, was the era of heaviest immigration. Between the years 10 and 1930, almost 22 million immigrants arrived in the United States. Most of these new arrivals came from the Southern European countries of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain and the Eastern European countries of Poland and Russia.
Now that we know something about the numbers and origins of immigrants who came to the States during the Great Immigration, 1et’s consider the reasons why most of these people immigrated to the United States. Why did such large numbers of Europeans leave their homes for life in an unknown country? It would be impossible to discuss all the complex political and economic reasons in any depth today, but we can touch on a few interesting facts that might help to clarify the situation for you. First of all, one of the most important reasons was that the population of Europe doubled between the years 1750 and 1850. At the same time that the population was growing so rapidly, the Industrial Revolution in Europe was causing widespread unemployment. The combination of increased population and the demand for land by industry also meant that farmland was becoming increasingly scarce in Europe. The scarcity of farmland in Europe meant that the abundance of available land in the growing country of the United States was a great attraction. During these years, the United States was all expanding country, and it seemed that there was no end to land. In fact, in 1862 the government offered public land free to citizens and to immigrants who were planning to become citizens. In addition to available farmland, there were also plentiful jobs during these years of great economic growth. Other attractions were freedom from religious or political persecution. Some other groups also came to the United States as the direct results of natural disasters that left them in desperate situations. For example, the frequent failure of the potato crop in Ireland between the years 1845 and 1849 led to widespread starvation in that country, and people were driven to immigrate. Another factor that affected the number of immigrants coming to the United States was improved ocean transport beginning in the 1840s. At that time, ships large enough to carry large numbers of people began to make regular trips across the ocean. Now let’s summarize the reasons for the high rate of immigration to the United States during the years we discussed: first, the doubling of the population in Europe between l750 and 1850; second, the unemployment caused by the Industrial Revolution; and third, the land scarcity in Europe, followed by religious and political persecution and natural disaster. These reasons combined with improved transportation probably account for the largest number of immigrants.
I would now like to talk briefly about the period of time following the Great Immigration and the reasons for the decline in the rate of immigration. Although immigration continues today, immigration numbers have never again reached the levels that we discussed previously. There are several reasons for this decline. This decline was in part due to various laws whose aim was to limit the number of immigrants coming from (different parts of the world to the United States. The first such law that limited the number of immigrants coming from a certain part of the world was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This law was followed by many other lows that also tried to limit the numbers of people immigrating from various countries or parts of the world. In addition to such laws, certainly economic and geopolitical events as important as the Great Depression starting in 1929 and World War II also contributed to the decline in immigration.
Let’s conclude our talk by discussing the current situation with respect to immigration, which is quite different from that in the past. To understand some of the changes, it’s important to note that in 1965 strict quotas based on nationality were eliminated. Let's see how different things are today from the past. As I noted, the greatest number of immigrants to the United States have historically been European. According to U.S. Census figures, in l860, the percentage of immigrants that were European was 92 percent. But by 1960, the percentage of European immigrants had dropped to 74.5 percent, and by the year 2002, it had dropped to 14 percent! In 2002, 52.2 percent of immigrants came from Latin America, that is, from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Mexico is ordinarily considered part of North America, but the U. S. Census Bureau considers Mexico as a Central American country in terms of immigration statistics and estimates that more than one-third of the total of all immigrants to the United States in 2002 came from Mexico or another Central American country. The next largest percentage, 25.5 percent, of immigrants came from Asia, mainly from the Philippines, China, and India.
Although immigration dropped sharply when the United States entered World War I and remained low throughout the Depression and World War II years, at the end of the 1940s, immigration began to increase again and has, in general, risen steadily since then. It might surprise you to know that the actual number of immigrants coming yearly to the States in recent years is about the same as the numbers coming yearly between 1900 and 1910. Keep in mind, though, that the population of the United States is much larger now than at the turn of the century, so that while the yearly numbers may be similar, the percentage of the population that is foreign-born is considerably smaller today than it was a century ago.
It might be interesting to speculate on immigration in the future. Will the trend continue for non-Europeans to immigrate to the United States? The answer is probably yes for the foreseeable future. Do these non-European people come to the United States for the same reasons that Europeans came? Well, land is no longer plentiful and cheap. Industry no longer requires large numbers of unskilled workers. In fact, the government usually tries to restrict immigration to those people who already have the skills to be successful in U.S. society. Still, people come for political and economic reasons and probably will continue to do So.
POSTLISTENING
A.Accuracy Check
1.What did the earliest Britons who came to what is now the United States consider themselves to be?
2.Which five non-English groups came to the United States during the Colonial Period?
3.Of the three stages of the Great Immigration, in which did the heaviest immigration occur?
4.From which two areas did most immigrants arrive between the years 10 and 1930?
5.What three conditions in Europe caused a lot of immigration to the United States during the Great Immigration?
6.What conditions in the United States attracted early immigrants?
7.Give an example of a natural disaster that caused immigration to the United States.
8.What three reasons are given for a decline in immigration after the period of the Great Immigration?
9.How is the origin of people who immigrate to the United States today different from those who immigrated during the Great Immigration?
10.Today, why does the U.S. government try to restrict immigration to people who already have the skills to be successful?下载本文
