teachers scholastic immigration tour

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Alerts in effect, virtual field trip will take students to ellis island.

NEW YORK, NY - More than a million students from across the U.S. will travel to Ellis Island in New York Harbor on March 29 to learn the history of immigration on a virtual field trip via a free live webcast on Scholastic.com. "Coming to America: Ellis Island" is an experiential supplement to free teaching resources and digital activities available to teachers in grades 3 to 8 at Scholastic.com/immigration . The site also includes an interactive archive of Ellis Island history, photographs, videos and audio; an interactive timeline on U.S. immigration; lesson plans, downloadable classroom activities, and immigration data going back to 1820.

Scholastic.com, which has thousands of pages of free content for teachers and students, will host the live virtual field trip to Ellis Island on March 29, 2012 at 1 p.m. ET. Students from across the country will join National Park Service Rangers on the historic island and follow the same path as the immigrants who arrived on Ellis Island from 1898-1924. Produced by Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, in partnership with the National Park Service , the virtual field trip gives students an opportunity to learn about the history of the immigrant experience as new arrivals to America traveled through the Baggage Room, Registry Room, Stairs of Separation, and the rest of the island.

"In difficult economic times, many school budgets for field trips have been cut and teachers are looking for creative ways to keep classes engaged without leaving the classroom," said Kathy Walsh, Director of Teacher Outreach at Scholastic. "This free, live webcast is a great opportunity to bring the world to the classroom using digital tools. Regardless of where they are living, students across the United States can learn about the history of our ancestors as if they are walking the path they took through Ellis Island more than a century ago."

"The immigrant story is central to the American story. Since the colonial period, the dreams and hopes of immigrants and their drive to succeed in this 'land of opportunity' have shaped our nation," said David Luchsinger, Superintendent of Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island. "This virtual field trip experience allows us to share that story interactively with more than 1.5 million students in a single 30-minute period. It's a significant feat as in a typical year approximately 4.5 million visitors arrive at the park. We hope the students we reach through this program will be inspired to visit the national park in their own back yards and to one day visit us here at Liberty and Ellis islands."

"Coming to America: Ellis Island" is the latest in Scholastic's continuous series of live virtual field trips designed to give students everywhere a chance to visit unique places around the country and help schools make subjects like science, social studies and math come to life.

Last updated: February 26, 2015

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Virtual Field Trip Will Give More Than a Million Students an Early 20th Century Immigration Experience at Ellis Island

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NEW YORK, NY — March 14, 2012 — More than a million students from across the U.S. will travel to Ellis Island in New York Harbor on March 29 to learn the history of immigration on a virtual field trip via a free live webcast on Scholastic.com. "Coming to America: Ellis Island" is an experiential supplement to free teaching resources and digital activities available to teachers in grades 3 to 8 at Scholastic.com/immigration . The site also includes an interactive archive of Ellis Island history, photographs, videos and audio; an interactive timeline on U.S. immigration; lesson plans, downloadable classroom activities, and immigration data going back to 1820.

Scholastic.com, which has more than one million registered teacher users and thousands of pages of free content for teachers and students, will host the live virtual field trip to Ellis Island on March 29, 2012 at 1 p.m. ET. Students from across the country will join National Park Service Rangers on the historic island and follow the same path as the immigrants who arrived on Ellis Island from 1898-1924. Produced by Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, in partnership with the National Park Service , the virtual field trip gives students an opportunity to learn about the history of the immigrant experience as new arrivals to America traveled through the Baggage Room, Registry Room, Stairs of Separation, and the rest of the island.

"In difficult economic times, many school budgets for field trips have been cut and teachers are looking for creative ways to keep classes engaged without leaving the classroom," said Kathy Walsh, Director of Teacher Outreach at Scholastic. "This free, live webcast is a great opportunity to bring the world to the classroom using digital tools. Regardless of where they are living, students across the United States can learn about the history of our ancestors as if they are walking the path they took through Ellis Island more than a century ago."

"The immigrant story is central to the American story. Since the colonial period, the dreams and hopes of immigrants and their drive to succeed in this 'land of opportunity' have shaped our nation," said David Luchsinger, Superintendent of Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island. "This virtual field trip experience allows us to share that story interactively with more than 1.5 million students in a single 30-minute period. It’s a significant feat as in a typical year approximately 4.5 million visitors arrive at the park. We hope the students we reach through this program will be inspired to visit the national park in their own back yards and to one day visit us here at Liberty and Ellis islands."

"Coming to America: Ellis Island" is the latest in Scholastic's continuous series of live virtual field trips designed to give students everywhere a chance to visit unique places around the country and help schools make subjects like science, social studies and math come to life. Since its original broadcast in Fall 2010, nearly nine million students have visited Plimoth Plantation to learn about The First Thanksgiving . Previous virtual field trips include, a visit with Ms. Frizzle and The Magic School Bus to Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, and before that, to meet Winter the Dolphin at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida.

For more information about Scholastic, visit our Media Room at http://mediaroom.scholastic.com .

Nadia Almahdi Scholastic 212-343-6635 [email protected]

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Interactive Tour of Ellis Island

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http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/

Social Studies | Grades 3-8

The Interactive Tour of Ellis Island engages students with the history of immigration in America.

• Kids explore the history of Ellis Island through an interactive map, historical timeline, audio, video clips and photos
• Web-based activity works on any device, including Chromebook

Each section of the Interactive Tour includes a Teacher's Guide linked on the top banner of the page

The Interactive Tour of Ellis Island is free to access . Additional educator resources can be found on the bottom of this page: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/index.htm .

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Scholastic presents: ellis island interactive tour.

You'll hear first-hand stories told by people who came through Ellis Island; see historical photographs and films; read fascinating facts; and discover the central role this station played in the story of American immigration.

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Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.  

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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Immigration | Stories of Yesterday and Today

A new land 1492-1790.

Expanding America 1790-1880

The american dream 1880-1930, a place of refuge 1930-1965.

Building a Modern America 1965-Today

The beautiful land of the New World amazed the European explorers who arrived on North American shores around 1500. They realized the economic possibilities of the fertile soil and many natural resources. In the 17th century, Europeans established successful permanent settlements in what is now the United States. The European settlers soon dominated the Native American civilizations, which had existed for thousands of years. The major European powers (including England, Spain, and France) established colonies,

which are lands controlled by a faraway government. The people who lived in the colonies were called colonists. Enduring great hardship, the colonists built new communities in the New World

The Explorers

In 1492, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer and excellent sailor, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in search of a shorter trade route to Asia. After more than two months at sea, he landed in the Bahamas in the Caribbean islands. Although Columbus never reached the mainland of North America, he had discovered the gateway to a vast continent unexplored by Europeans. Columbus returned to Europe believing he had reached previously unknown islands in Asia. Word of the new route spread in Europe. Over the next few decades, other explorers followed in Columbus's wake, hoping to take advantage of the shortcut to Asia. It would be another Italian explorer, named Amerigo Vespucci, who realized that what had actually been discovered was a continent unknown to Europeans. He called it the New World.

New Settlements

European nations—including Spain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and England—vied to claim pieces of the new land. In the 1600s, England founded colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, from what is now New Hampshire to Georgia. These original 13 colonies would eventually become the United States of America. Spain founded a colony at Saint Augustine, Florida, as early as 1565 and would go on to claim parts of what are now the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. France established colonies along the Saint Lawrence River, in what is now Canada; and also in the southern part of North America, in the region that is now Louisiana. The Dutch began the settlement of New Amersterdam on the southern tip of what is now Manhattan Island, home to part of New York City. The European countries often fought each over ownership of the new land; more land meant more power and economic opportunity.

Jamestown Succeeds

In 1607, England sent 100 men to America to found a new colony. The colony was named Jamestown after King James I and was located on the coast of what is now Virginia. It would become the first English colony to succeed in America, but its beginning was exceptionally difficult. The colonists were hoping to find gold easily, but didn't. And tragically, they hadn't anticipated how hard it would be to survive in the New World. More than half of the settlers died in the first year because of the harsh winters, poor planning, and disease. But under the leadership of the colonist John Smith, the colony began to succeed. They grew tobacco, which was sent back to England and sold for profit. With the profit, the colonists had the money to plant other crops, such as wheat, grapes, and corn, which is a food native to North America. By 1620, Jamestown plus other settlements that sprang up nearby had a population of about 4,000. The colony was thriving. This economic success gave England a powerful interest in protecting its foothold in the New World.

Slavery Begins

Africans first arrived in North America in 1619. In that year, 20 African people were brought to the Jamestown colony aboard a Dutch warship. They were slaves. They had been taken from their homes in Africa by force. They were beaten and enchained by men carrying weapons. Over the next almost 200 years, hundreds of thousands of Africans would be brought to America as slaves to work on plantations, especially to grow tobacco. By the end of the colonial period, Africans numbered about 500,000 and formed about 20 percent of the population of the United States.

The Pilgrims

Some colonies were formed because people wanted to escape religious persecution in Europe. In 17th century England, two groups of Christians, the Catholics and the Anglicans, were arguing over what religion and church should be the true church of England. Some of the Anglicans, called Puritans, thought that there should be more distinction between their Church of England and the Catholic Church. Some Puritans, called the Separatists, didn't want to belong to the Church of England at all anymore. King James, who was the head of the Church of England, would not allow the Separatists to practice religion on their own. To escape the situation in England, a small group of Separatists left Europe on the Mayflower ship. In 1620, the ship landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, carrying 102 passengers. Many were Separatists, who became known as the Pilgrims. They established Plymouth Colony. After the Pilgrims, many more people flocked to the new colonies for religious reasons: About 200,000 Puritans emigrated from England during the years 1620 to 1641.

Religious Freedom

After the Pilgrims, many other immigrants came to America for the religious freedom it offered. The colony of Maryland was founded in 1634 as a refuge for Catholics, who were persecuted in England in the 17th century. In 1681, William Penn began a Quaker colony in the land that was later named after him: Pennsylvania. The main settlement was Philadelphia, which prospered through farming and commerce. In 1685, 14,000 Huguenots who were persecuted in France also joined the growing English colonies.

Expanding Colonies

Early immigrants to America settled up and down the East Coast. Farming was difficult in the rocky soil of New England, so people grew only enough food for their families to live on. This is called subsistence farming. They also became fishermen, fishing cod in the Atlantic Ocean and selling it to the European markets. As they needed good ships for fishing, they started making them, becoming successful shipbuilders. In the South, where farming was easier, colonists started large plantations to grow crops, such as tobacco, rice, and indigo. Indigo was a rich blue dye, mainly used for dyeing textiles. Plantations depended on the free labor of the slaves. Many more slaves were forced to come to America to meet the demand for labor. By the time of the Revolutionary War, about 2.5 million people lived in the colonies, including approximately 450,000 Africans; 200,000 Irish; 500,000 Scottish and Scotch-Irish; 140,000 Germans; and 12,000 French.

As the colonies grew, people began to look past the natural barrier of the Appalachian Mountains. They moved west into the frontier lands, in what is now Ohio, and beyond.

A New Nation

The colonies grew prosperous and the population increased. Between the time of the first settlements and the Revolutionary War, about seven generations of people were born in America. Many of them no longer wanted to be ruled by the English throne. And they didn't want to pay taxes to the English government when they had no colonial representation in the Parliament. They became known as Patriots, or Whigs, and they included Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. The Loyalists were colonists who wanted to remain part of England. The Patriots and Loyalists were bitterly divided on the issue. In 1776, the Continental Congress, a group of leaders from each of the 13 colonies, issued the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration stated that the United States of America was its own country. The Patriots fought England in the Revolutionary War to gain independence for the colonies.

In 1783, with the help of the French, who had joined their side, the colonists won the war. The United States of America was a new nation. The new government conducted a census, or count, of everyone living in the United States. At the time of the first census in 1790, nearly 700,00 Africans and 3 million Europeans lived in the new United States.

• The Americas

In the decades after the Revolutionary War, the 13 original colonies grew to include states stretching from Maine in the north to Louisiana in the south; from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to Illinois in the west. As a new nation, the United States of America thrived. By 1820, the population had grown to nearly 10 million people. The quality of life for ordinary people was improving. People were moving west, creating towns along the route of the Transcontinental Railroad, which connected the entire country by rail, east to west, for the first time.

The prosperous young country lured Europeans who were struggling with population growth, land redistribution, and industrialization, which had changed the traditional way of life for peasants. These people wanted to escape poverty and hardship in their home countries. More than 8 million would come to the United States from 1820 to 1880.

Slavery Continues

At the turn of the 19th century, more than 1 million African Americans lived in the United States. As slaves, they were not considered citizens. Large farms and plantations depended on the free labor they provided in fields and homes. It was difficult, backbreaking work. In 1808, the United States government banned the importation of enslaved people into the country, although the practice did continue illegally. Slavery, however, was not abolished for nearly 60 more years.

The Irish and Germans

In the early and mid-19th century, nearly all of the immigrants coming to the United States arrived from northern and western Europe. In 1860, seven out of 10 foreign-born people in the United States were Irish or German. Most of the Irish were coming from poor circumstances. With little money to travel any further, they stayed in the cities where they arrived, such as Boston and New York City. More than 2,335,000 Irish arrived between 1820 and 1870. The Germans who came during the time period were often better off than the Irish were. They had enough money to journey to the Midwestern cities, such as Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, or to claim farmland. More than 2,200,000 Germans arrived between 1820 and 1870.

The Irish Potato Famine

In 1845, a famine began in Ireland. A potato fungus, also called blight, ruined the potato crop for several years in a row. Potatoes were a central part of the Irish diet, so hundreds of thousands of people now didn't have enough to eat. At the same time of the famine, diseases, such as cholera, were spreading. Starvation and disease killed more than a million people. These extreme conditions caused mass immigration of Irish people to the United States. Between 1846 and 1852, more than a million Irish are estimated to have arrived in America. The men found jobs building railroads, digging canals, and working in factories; they also became policemen and firemen. Irish women often worked as domestic servants. Even after the famine ended, Irish people continued to come to America in search of a better life. More than 3.5 million Irish in total had arrived by 1880.

Civil War and the End of Slavery

In the early 1860s, the United States was in crisis. The Northern states and Southern states could not agree on the issue of slavery. Most people in the Northern states thought slavery was wrong. People in South, where the plantations depended on slavery, wanted to continue the practice. In 1861, the Civil War began between the North and South. It would be an extremely bloody war; over 600,000 people would die in the fighting. Many immigrants fought in the war. Since immigrants had settled mostly in the North, where factories provided jobs and small farms were available, hundreds of thousands of foreign-born men fought for the Union. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that all the slaves in the rebelling Southern states were free. It was the beginning of the end of slavery.

To ensure that the abolishment of slavery was permanent, Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed slavery throughout the United States. The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, declared that African Americans were citizens of the United States. In 1870, African Americans numbered almost 5 million and made up 12.7 percent of the U.S. population.

The Homestead Act

In the late 19th century, America was looking west. People began moving away from the now crowded Eastern cities. Some were motivated by the Homestead Act of 1862, which offered free land from the government. The government offered to give 160 acres of land—considered a good size for a single family to farm—in areas including Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. Homesteaders were required to stay on the land, build a home, and farm the land for five years. The offer attracted migrants from inside the country—and waves of more immigrants from Europe. For example, many people from Sweden, where land was extremely scarce, were drawn to come to the United States. These brave settlers worked hard to start a new life on the frontier. Though life was difficult, many succeeded.

The Transcontinental Railroad

The Transcontinental Railroad was a massive construction project that linked the country by rail from east to west. The railway was built entirely by hand during a six-year period, with construction often continuing around the clock. Chinese and Irish immigrants were vital to the project. In 1868, Chinese immigrants made up about 80 percent of the workforce of the Central Pacific Railroad, one of the companies building the railway. The workers of the Union Pacific Railroad, another company that built the railroad, were mostly Irish immigrants. These railroad workers labored under dangerous conditions, often risking their lives. After the Transatlantic Railroad was completed, cities and towns sprung up all along its path, and immigrants moved to these new communities. The Transcontinental Railroad was a radical improvement in travel in the United States; after its completion, the trip from East Coast to West Coast, which once took months, could be made in five days.

By 1880, America was booming. The image of America as a land of promise attracted people from all over the world. On the East Coast, Ellis Island welcomed new immigrants, largely from Europe. America was "the golden door," a metaphor for a prosperous society that welcomed immigrants. Asian immigrants, however, didn't have the same experience as European immigrants. They were the focus of one of the first major pieces of legislation on immigration. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 severely restricted immigration from China.

And the 1907 "Gentlemen's Agreement" between Japan and the United States was an informal agreement that limited immigration from Japan. Despite those limitations, nearly 30 million immigrants arrived from around the world during this great wave of immigration, more than at any time before.

Ellis Island

In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison designated Ellis Island in New York Harbor as the nation's first immigration station. At the time, people traveled across the Atlantic Ocean by steamship to the bustling port of New York City. The trip took one to two weeks, much faster than in the past (when sailing ships were the mode of transportation), a fact that helped fuel the major wave of immigration. For many immigrants, one of their first sights in America was the welcoming beacon of the Statue of Liberty, which was dedicated in 1886. Immigrants were taken from their ships to be processed at Ellis Island before they could enter the country. About 12 million immigrants would pass through Ellis Island during the time of its operation, from 1892 to 1954. Many of them were from Southern and Eastern Europe. They included Russians, Italians, Slavs, Jews, Greeks, Poles, Serbs, and Turks. Explore the Ellis Island Interactive Tour

Bursting Cities

New immigrants flooded into cities. In places like New York and Chicago, groups of immigrants chose to live and work near others from their home countries. Whole neighborhoods or blocks could be populated with people from the same country. Small pockets of America would be nicknamed "Little Italy" or "Chinatown." Immigrants often lived in poor areas of the city. In New York, for example, whole families crowded into tiny apartments in tenement buildings on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Many organizations were formed to try to help the new immigrants adjust to life in America. Settlement houses, such as Hull House in Chicago, and religious-based organizations worked to help the immigrants learn English and life skills, such as cooking and sewing.

Angel Island

On the West Coast, Asian immigrants were processed at Angel Island, often called the "Ellis Island of the West." Angel Island, which lies off the coast of San Francisco, opened in 1910. Although the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricted immigration, 175,000 Chinese came through Angel Island over a period of three decades. They were overwhelmingly the main group processed here: In fact, 97 percent of the immigrants who passed through Angel Island were from China. Explore the Angel Island Activity

Building America

Many of the immigrants who arrived in the early 20th century were poor and hardworking. They took jobs paving streets, laying gas lines, digging subway tunnels, and building bridges and skyscrapers. They also got jobs in America's new factories, where conditions could be dangerous, making shoes, clothing, and glass products. Immigrants fueled the lumber industry in the Pacific Northwest, the mining industry in the West, and steel manufacturing in the Midwest. They went to the territory of Hawaii to work on sugar cane plantations. Eventually, they bargained for better wages and improved worker safety. They were on the road to becoming America's middle class.

By the 1920s, America had absorbed millions of new immigrants. The country had just fought in the "Great War", as World War I was known then. People became suspicious of foreigners' motivations. Some native-born Americans started to express their dislike of foreign-born people. They were fearful that immigrants would take the available jobs. Some Americans weren't used to interacting with people who spoke different languages, practiced a different religion, or were a different race. Racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia (fear and hatred of foreigners) were the unfortunate result. In 1924, Congress passed the National Origins Act. It placed restrictions and quotas on who could enter the country. The annual quotas limited immigration from any country to 3 percent of the number of people from that country who were living in the United States in 1890. The effect was to exclude Asians, Jews, blacks, and non-English speakers.

The Great Depression and War in Europe

In the 1930s, the country was going through the Great Depression, a terrible period of economic hardship. People were out of work, hungry, and extremely poor. Few immigrants came during this period; in fact, many people returned to their home countries. Half a million Mexicans left, for example, in what was known as the Mexican Repatriation. Unfortunately, many of those Mexicans were forced to leave by the U.S. government. In 1933, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was formed. It still exists today. In 1938, World War II started in Europe. America was again concerned about protecting itself. Fears about foreign-born people continued to grow. As a result of the turmoil in the 1930s, immigration figures dropped dramatically from where they had been in previous decades. In the 1920s, approximately 4,300,000 immigrants came to the United States; in the 1930s, fewer than 700,000 arrived.

World War II and the Postwar Period

The United States entered World War II in 1942. During the war, immigration decreased. There was fighting in Europe, transportation was interrupted, and the American consulates weren't open. Fewer than 10 percent of the immigration quotas from Europe were used from 1942 to 1945. In many ways, the country was still fearful of the influence of foreign-born people. The United States was fighting Germany, Italy, and Japan (also known as the Axis Powers), and the U.S. government decided it would detain certain resident aliens of those countries. (Resident aliens are people who are living permanently in the United States but are not citizens.) Oftentimes, there was no reason for these people to be detained, other than fear and racism. Beginning in 1942, the government even detained American citizens who were ethnically Japanese. The government did this despite the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which says "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without the due process of law."

Also because of the war, the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943. China had quickly become an important ally of the United States against Japan; therefore, the U.S. government did away with the offensive law. Chinese immigrants could once again legally enter the country, although they did so only in small numbers for the next couple of decades. After World War II, the economy began to improve in the United States. Many people wanted to leave war-torn Europe and come to America. President Harry S. Truman urged the government to help the "appalling dislocation" of hundreds of thousands of Europeans. In 1945, Truman said, "everything possible should be done at once to facilitate the entrance of some of these displaced persons and refugees into the United States. " On January 7, 1948, Truman urged Congress to "pass suitable legislation at once so that this Nation may do its share in caring for homeless and suffering refugees of all faiths.

I believe that the admission of these persons will add to the strength and energy of the Nation." Congress passed the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. It allowed for refugees to come to the United States who otherwise wouldn't have been allowed to enter under existing immigration law. The Act marked the beginning of a period of refugee immigration.

The Cold War Begins

In 1953, the Refugee Relief Act was passed to replace the Displaced Persons Act of 1948, which had expired. It also allowed non-Europeans to come to the United States as refugees. The Refugee Relief Act also reflected the U.S. government's concern with Communism, a political ideology that was gaining popularity in the world, particularly in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was also controlling the governments of other countries. The Act allowed people fleeing from those countries to enter the United States. When he signed the Act, President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "This action demonstrates again America's traditional concern for the homeless, the persecuted, and the less fortunate of other lands. It is a dramatic contrast to the tragic events taking place in East Germany and in other captive nations." By "captive nations," Eisenhower meant countries being dominated by the Soviet Union.

In 1956, there was a revolution in Hungary in which the people protested the Soviet-controlled government. Many people fled the country during the short revolution. They were known as "fifty-sixers". About 36,000 Hungarians came to the United States during this time. Some of their countrymen also moved to Canada. In 1959, Cuba experienced a revolution, and Fidel Castro took over the government. His dictatorship aligned itself with the Soviet Union. More than 200,000 Cubans left their country in the years after the revolution; many of them settled in Florida.

Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, also known as the Hart-Celler Act. This act repealed the quota system based on national origins that had been in place since 1921. This was the most significant change to immigration policy in decades. Instead of quotas, immigration policy was now based on a preference for reuniting families and bringing highly skilled workers to the United States. This was a change because in the past, many immigrants were less skilled and less educated than the average American worker. In the modern period, many immigrants would be doctors, scientists, and high-tech workers. Because Europe was recovering from the war, fewer Europeans were deciding to move to America. But people from the rest of world were eager to move here. Asians and Latin Americans, in particular, were significant groups in the new wave of immigration. Within five years after the act was signed, for example, Asian immigration had doubled.

Vietnamese Immigration and the Refugee Act

During the 1960s and 1970s, America was involved in a war in Vietnam. Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia, on the Indochina peninsula. From the 1950s into the 1970s there was a great deal of conflict in the area. After the war, Vietnamese refugees started coming to the United States. During the 1970s, about 120,000 Vietnamese came, and hundreds of thousands more continued to arrive during the next two decades. In 1980, the government passed the Refugee Act, a law that was meant specifically to help refugees who needed to come to the country. Refugees come because they fear persecution due to their race, religion, political beliefs, or other reasons. The United States and other countries signed treaties, or legal agreements, that said they should help refugees. The Refugee Act protected this type of immigrant's right to come to America.

Latin American Immigration

During the 1980s, waves of immigrants arrived from Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. Hundreds of thousands of people came just from Cuba, fleeing the oppressive dictatorship of Fidel Castro. This was a significant new wave of immigrants: During the 1980s, 8 million immigrants came from Latin America, a number nearly equal to the total figure of European immigrants who came to the United States from 1900 to 1910, when European immigration was at a high point. The new immigrants changed the makeup of America: By 1990, Latinos in the United States were about 11.2 percent of the total population.

A Multicultural America

Since 1990, immigration has been increasing. It is at its highest point in America's history. In both the 1990s and 2000s, around 10 million new immigrants came to the United States. The previous record was from 1900 to 1910, when around 8 million immigrants arrived. In 2000, the foreign-born population of the United States was 28.4 million people. Also in that year, California became the first state in which no one ethnic group made up a majority. Today, more than 80 percent of immigrants in the United States are Latin American or Asian. By comparison, as recently as the 1950s, two-thirds of all immigrants to the United States came from Europe or Canada.

The main countries of origin for immigrants today are Mexico, the Philippines, China, Cuba, and India. About 1 in 10 residents of the United States is foreign-born. Today, the United States is a truly multicultural society.

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Hi, my name is Asya. I was born in Nickolaev, Ukraine, but I have lived most of my life in a suburban town near Atlanta, Georgia. I moved to the United States with my parents when I was a baby. I am now in the third grade and speak both English and Russian. My brother, Tim, is in the first grade. I also have a cat named Tiger and a pet water frog named Perry. When I grow up I want to be a paleontologist, an artist, and an ice skater.

My family flew to the United States from Ukraine on an airplane. We moved from Ukraine when my father won a green card and got a job here. We lived in Michigan first and then moved to Atlanta.

Thanksgiving is a new tradition for us. We decorate the table and put all kinds of food on it. We celebrate together.

Things are different in the Ukraine and the United States. The holidays are different. We celebrate Christmas on January 7. Ukraine is an Orthodox Christian country, and Orthodox Christian countries follow the Julian calendar. It is 13 days behind the normal calendar, so we celebrate Christmas later than other parts of the world.

And Thanksgiving is a new tradition for us, because it is not celebrated in the Ukraine. At Thanksgiving, we decorate the table and put all kinds of food on it. We celebrate together.

I have been back to Ukraine several times to visit. There is a lot more traffic in Ukraine than here. When I visited, I remember thinking, "who can forget that road, it's so crowded!" People in Ukraine use a lot of different kinds of transportation. There aren't a lot of cars, just vans and trains and buses.

When people ask me if I miss the Ukraine, I say that I miss my grandmother most of all. I talk to my grandmother on Skype, and she tells me stories about her cat Buska. One day Buska caught a pigeon and brought it in the house. Buska always does funny things. My grandmother also tells me stories about the neighborhood in Ukraine where she lives.

I like living in the United States. It's clean, and I have a lot of friends here. Some of my favorite places to go are the ice-skating rink and gymnastics class. I also like to go to restaurants in New China. I love to go to the beach in Florida!

I think I will go back to live in Ukraine one day. My parents will have to decide that. When I went to visit my grandmother in Ukraine, she met us at the airport with balloons in her hand. It felt like I was really at home. It felt like my real home.

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• Electrostal History and Art Museum

You can spend time exploring the galleries in Electrostal History and Art Museum in Elektrostal. Take in the museums while you're in the area.

• Cities near Elektrostal

• Places of interest
• Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
• Peter the Great Military Academy
• Central Museum of the Air Forces at Monino
• History of Russian Scarfs and Shawls Museum
• Ramenskii History and Art Museum
• Balashikha Museum of History and Local Lore
• Pekhorka Park
• Balashikha Arena
• Drama Theatre BOOM
• Bykovo Manor
• Malenky Puppet Theater
• Pavlovsky Posad Museum of Art and History
• Saturn Stadium
• Church of Vladimir
• Likino Dulevo Museum of Local Lore
• Orekhovo Zuevsky City Exhibition Hall
• Noginsk Museum and Exhibition Center
• Fairy Tale Children's Model Puppet Theater
• Fifth House Gallery
• Malakhovka Museum of History and Culture

THE 10 BEST Things to Do in Elektrostal

Things to do in elektrostal.

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• 4.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• Good for a Rainy Day
• Good for Kids
• Good for Big Groups
• Adventurous
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• Hidden Gems
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• Good for Adrenaline Seekers
• Things to do ranked using Tripadvisor data including reviews, ratings, photos, and popularity.

1. Electrostal History and Art Museum

2. Statue of Lenin

3. Park of Culture and Leisure

4. museum and exhibition center.

5. Museum of Labor Glory

7. Galereya Kino

8. viki cinema, 9. smokygrove.

10. Gandikap

11. papa lounge bar, 12. karaoke bar.