I can identify push

and pull factors for

immigration to the
U.S and describe
what it was like for
immigrants coming
through Ellis Island.
(4 - G1.0.1)

Lesson 3:
Push and Pull
Factors Immigration to
the United
States
Unit 3: Human Geography in the
U.S.

Day 1

Unit 3 Focus Questions:

What questions do geographers ask in

examining human geography in the United
States?
How have the concepts of movement and
human/environment interaction influenced the
development of the United States?
How might the country resolve contemporary
public issues related to movement and
human/environment interaction in the United
States?

Movement

Movement provides an example of where history and geography are

connected.
Both historians and geographers study how and why people have
moved within the United States as well as to the United States from
other places.
Geographers and historians talk about push and pull factors when they
study movement of people.

Push factors are why people leave some places.

a shortage of good farmland in New England can be viewed as a
push factor resulting in people leaving New England.

Pull factors are reasons that act as a magnet to pull people to a

particular place. This means that some push people out of places.
Good farmland acted as a magnet to pull people to Michigan in
the early 1800s.

Remind students that in the last lesson they explored reasons people
migrated, or moved within the United States. In this lesson they will explore
immigration, the movement of people to the United States from other
countries. Have students share where their families have immigrated from and
note where they are on the map. Discuss their reasons for immigrating.

Give some examples of people

who immigrated to Michigan.

Early Native Americans moved into

Michigan long ago.
French people, and later British
people, moved to Michigan to take
part in the fur trade.
People from different countries in
Europe immigrated to Michigan to
work in lumber camps and mines.

Ask students to think of some examples of the immigration of people to

Michigan from what they have learned in third grade about Michigan history.
List student ideas on an overhead transparency or on the board.

Push and Pull Factors

Factors that PULLED people to Michigan/ US

Good farmland
Mining jobs
Lumbering jobs
Jobs in factories
Cities where there were already immigrants from a certain
country

Factors that PUSHED people out of their home countries

Famine
Political problems
Lack of religious freedom
Discrimination
Conflict in home countries
Hard times in home countries

Have students fill out the graphic organizer using these facts.

Immigration Data

What conclusions can we draw based on this data?

Possible conclusions include:
In the 1800s most of the immigrants were from Europe.
Between 1880 and 1900 there was a shift in European immigration. More
and more people began to immigrate from countries in Southern and
Eastern Europe.
Not many people from Asia immigrated to the U.S. in the 1800s.
Between 1920 and 1939 most immigrants came from countries in Europe or
from Mexico or Canada.
In recent times, the majority of immigrants have come from countries in Asia
and the Americas.
End Day 1

Push and Pull Factors

What push factors were evident in the two books?

What pull factors were evident?
How were the two immigrant stories alike?
How were they different?
What are some conclusions we can draw about immigration
from the two stories?

Day 2

What Did People Bring With

Them?

I welcomed Florio Vincenzo when he came over to become

one of us. Florio is fourteen. He came from Palermo. He
traveled light. When he opened his cheap paper valise, it
was apparently empty, except for a pair of discredited and
disreputable old shoes. Florio bowed, cap in hand, and his
white teeth flashed as he smiled. There was an odor that
an old inspector knew. He picked up one of the shoes and
extracted from it, after some manipulation, a creased and
crumpled hunk of Bologna sausage. The other shoe was
stuffed with a soft, sticky and aggressively fragrant mass
of Italian cheese. These articles and a sum of Italian money
equivalent to about $1.80. The clothes he stood in, formed
the basis on which Florio expected to rear his fortune.

Day 3
Explain that an inspector that worked at Ellis Island wrote the descriptions.
Read and discuss the descriptions of what two immigrants brought with them
together.

What Did People Bring With

Them?

Pietro Viarilli was gray-haired and round-shouldered. He,

too, had come make his fortune. His belongings consisted
of one padlocked canvas case lined with paper. It
contained two striped cotton shirts, one neckerchief of
yellow silk, one black hat (soiled and worn), one waistcoat,
two pairs of woolen hose, one suit of underwear, one pint of
olive oil and about half a peck of hard bread biscuits.
Source: Americans in the Raw. Ohio State eHistory. 14 November 2008 <http://ehistory.osu.
edu/osu/mmh/Immigration/AmericansinRaw.cfm>.

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Analyzing Artifacts

Explain that another way to explore the kinds of things immigrants brought with
them is to analyze artifacts themselves.. Discuss what the objects are and
why immigrants would bring them.
Object 1: an accordion from Italy
Object 2: a birth certificate from Poland
Object 3: a candlestick from Austria-Hungary
Object 4: A cloth apron from Ukraine.

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Compare and Contrast

Discuss the differences in the images. Note that Image #1 shows European
immigrants aboard a ship sailing to the United States. Image #2 shows the
way in which enslaved Africans were taken to the United States. Ask students
how the immigration of these two groups differs. Guide students to the idea
that Africans were forced to immigrate to the United States. Share and discuss
the following information regarding slavery:
It is estimated that as many as 15 million people were transported as
slaves, with unknown numbers dying while on the journey across the
Atlantic.
They were taken from Africa by force, transported to the Americas, and
enslaved there.
Most of the enslaved people ended up in South America or the Caribbean,
while nearly 500,000 were transported to North America.
By the time of the Civil War, there were approximately 4 million enslaved
African Americans living in the southern region of the United States.
In fifth grade and eighth grade you will learn about the institution of slavery
in depth.

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I can describe what immigrants

experienced at Ellis Island.

Ellis Island

Today you will explore a website

showing the stops at Ellis Island.
You will take notes on the
important things that you read
from each section. You may work
with your table partner, but each of
you should be on your own
chromebook.
After, get on Edmodo and
complete the writing assignment.
You will need to place yourself in
the shoes of an immigrant going
through each stop at Ellis Island.
Describe the experience. Use
sensory details to help your reader
to feel like they are there. Make
sure to use the writing process.

Many European immigrants

entered the U.S. through Ellis
Island between the years 1892
and 1924.

Tell the students to carefully look at the photographs and write some possible
conclusions about immigration in the early 1900s based on what they see.
Discuss what they see. Possible conclusions include:
People sometimes came with families and sometimes came alone.
People brought very little with them.
People wore numbers to identify them.
People brought things like instruments with them.
Explain the virtual field trip we will take today and the writing assignment. This
will take several days.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/index.htm

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