An Evaluation Of The Reasons For Changing Attitudes Towards Immigration In The 1920’s

Question 1

Introduction - Context

Answer 1

America was known as ‘The Land of the Free’, its declaration reads, “All men are created”. These features made the prospect of moving to America appealing to immigrants looking to start a new life in the USA. However, until the 1920’s, America operated on an ‘Open Door’ policy but by the 20th century Racial tensions were building.

Question 2

Introduction - LOA

Answer 2

• This was due to changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s.

Question 3

Introduction - Factors

Answer 3

• Social Fears is indeed the main reason for changing attitudes to immigration in the 1920’s.
• However, there were other key factors for changing attitudes to immigration such as Isolationism, Fear of Revolution and Prejudice and Racism.

Question 4

Social Fears - Explain + Evidence

Answer 4

• Social Fears was the most important factor as to why there was changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s.
• This is because there was statistics showing soaring crime rates in neighbourhoods with high concentrations of immigrants such as out of approx 17,300 persons were arrested in New York in 1858, approx 14,600 were foreigners.
• In addition, on the 5th of May 1920, Italian Immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti were charged with the murder of two men even though 107 witnesses saw them elsewhere at the time of the murders.

Question 5

Social Fears - Analysis

Answer 5

• Arguably, these social fears against non-first wave immigrants showcases changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s as many Americans viewed immigrant communities with immediate disdain and suspicion leading them to believe they were ultimately behind the rising crime rates.

Question 6

Social Fears - Explain+Evidence - reinforce

Answer 6

• Furthermore, Social Fears was the most important factor as to why there was changing attitudes to immigration in the 1920’s as Americans believed immigrants were to blame for the dirty slums in America.
• Slums were the cheapest housing in the worst areas, they were often damp, dark and filthy.
• Immigrants were often blamed for these poor conditions and overcrowding in the slums, in reality it wasn’t actually their fault and was actually the responsibility of the Landlords and the cities authorities.
• Landlords often would increase rent due to competition so this resulted in aggressive resentment towards the immigrants.

Question 7

Social Fears - Explain+Evidence - reinforce Analysis

Answer 7

• Arguably, this is the most important reason for changing attitudes towards immigrations in the 1920s as immigrants were being wrongfully blamed for social issue which they did not cause therefore resulting in them being wrongfully mistreated and judged by ‘Native’ Americans.

Question 8

Social Fears - evaluation

Answer 8

• In Evaluation, it is clear that Social Fears is the most important reason for changing attitudes towards immigration compared to other factors such as Prejudice and Racism as the ‘Native’ Americans disagreed with the drinking culture some immigrants had especially the Italians and Germans who used drinking to celebrate some of their cultural traditions.
  -From this we can see that the Americans deemed this unacceptable, and they despised the lifestyle of certain immigrant groups therefore supporting the fact that Social Fears was the most important factor towards changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s.

Question 9

Fear of Revolution - Explain+Evidence

Answer 9

• Fear of Revolution was also a significant factor as to why there was changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920s.
• The ‘Red Scare’ was the fear that immigrants from Communist Russia would bring Communism to America. In January 1919, 35,000 people went on strike in a shipyard in Seattle, the press reported this as a Communist Plot.

Question 10

Fear of Revolution - Analysis

Answer 10

• Arguably, this is an important reason to why there was changing attitudes toward immigration as Americans feared that the more new immigrants that came into the country the more communist messages would spread and possibly turn America into a communist country which they did not want.
• The press reporting this as a ‘Communist Plot’ proved those higher up were starting to believe these immigrants were spreading communism so this would impact changing attitudes to immigrants

Question 11

Fear of Revolution - Counter argument

Answer 11

• However, Fear of Revolution can be questioned in regard to changing attitudes towards immigration as the number of immigrants who identified as communists was exaggerated as in reality only 150,000 of the US population identified as anarchists or Communists which represented only 0.1% of the overall population.

Question 12

Fear of Revolution - Counter argument Analysis

Answer 12

• Arguably, this is important as to why there was changing attitudes towards immigration as one journalist said that the ‘whole lot were about as dangerous as a flea on an elephant’ meaning the overall number of anarchist in America was extremely small, proving that they would not be able to cause an uprising and were barely a threat, proving they ultimately could not cause enough of a threat to change attitudes towards immigration.

Question 13

Fear of Revolution - Evaluation

Answer 13

• In evaluation, the Fear of Revolution was a significant reason for changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920s as the number of immigrants who identified as anarchist was exaggerated which showed they were not as big a threat as initially portrayed by journalists. Nevertheless, Fear of Revolution is less important than Social Fears in changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s as in 1820s Puritans saw their Sabbaths ignored by drunken Irish navvies fighting, swearing and gambling in the slums of Boston which hardened attitudes towards immigrants as they deemed them to be of a lower class.

Question 14

Prejudice and Racism - Explain+Evidence

Answer 14

• Prejudice and Racism was also a significant factor as to why there was changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920s.
• The Dillingham Commission thought immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were inferior.
• They made the Quota act to restrict new immigrants coming into the USA, this law imposed an annual limit on the number of immigrants from Eastern Europe entering the US to 3% of the number of Nationals who were living in the US in 1911.

Question 15

Prejudice and Racism - Analysis

Answer 15

• Arguably, this growing Prejudice and Racism against people in the US originating from their race showcases changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s because the Dillingham Commission made it difficult for ‘new immigrants’ from less desirable regions enter the USA as only a small percentage could enter.

Question 16

Prejudice and Racism - Counter Argument

Answer 16

• However, it can be argued that the Dillingham Commission was infact not the main reason for changing attitudes towards immigration but more so the KKK.
• The KKK focused on the evils of Catholicism and Racism, by 1924 the KKK were openly parading through the streets of Washington D.C. Clifford Walker stated that America should “build a wall of steel, a wall as high as Heaven” against the flow of immigrants.

Question 17

Prejudice and Racism - Counter Argument Analysis

Answer 17

• Arguably, this shows that Prejudice and Racism was important as to why there was changing attitudes towards immigration as the hatred of certain groups was being pushed into the mainstream by the KKK and those who supported the Klan were starting to push out the message that America must cut off access to immigrants and focus on not letting them in.

Question 18

Prejudice and Racism - Evaluation

Answer 18

• In evaluation, prejudice and racism was an important factor towards changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s as high government officials were beginning to pass laws against immigration and racist groups were promoting these horrible claims against immigrants. Nevertheless, Social Fears was a more important factor because Italian immigrants were assumed to be dangerous and criminals due to thought association to the Mafia suggesting that Social Fears was the most important reason for changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920s.

Question 19

Isolationism - Explain + Evidence

Answer 19

• Isolationism was also a significant factor as to why there was changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920s.
• Xenophobia begun to increase across America especially towards those from Asia and South America.
• An act was published in 1882 called the Chinese Exclusion Act which inflicted a 50% tax on each Chinese immigrant and denied entrance into the USA or anyone deemed to be a ‘convict, idiot and lunatic’.

Question 20

Isolationism - Analysis

Answer 20

• Arguably, this shows that the USA wanted to cut off unwanted immigrants and started passing laws to make it harder for them to access the country. US officials also took the responsibility of deeming certain people to be unsuitable to join the US.

Question 21

Isolationism - Counter argument

Answer 21

• However, it can be argued that the Chinese Exclusion Act was not the main reason for changing attitudes towards immigration but more so the National Origins Act.
• In 1924, the National Origins Act was published which reduced Eastern European immigrant quota to just 2% of the existing Eastern European population in 1890.
• Hugh Brogan said, “There was a concern over ‘eugenics’ that certain races weren’t desirable enough to be American’.

Question 22

Isolationism - Counter argument Analysis

Answer 22

• Arguably, this act encouraged Americans to believe that immigration should be reduced to protect ‘Native’ born Americans against immigrants and that some immigrants were inferior and deemed not good enough to join American society.

Question 23

Isolationism - evaluation

Answer 23

• In Evaluation, Isolationism was an important factor towards changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s as acts were being passed to curb the number of immigrants being allowed to live in America and some historians believe there was a belief in America that immigrants from certain places were not good enough to become an American and they did not meet the supposed standard.
• Nevertheless, Social Fears was a more important factor because the judge in the case of Sacco and Vanzetti privately called them ‘those anarchist bastards’ and many people believed that the two men were innocent and even thought there was a massive worldwide campaign, they were executed in 1927 suggesting that Social Fears was the most important reason for changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920s.

Question 24

Conclusion - isolationism

Answer 24

• In Conclusion, there was many factors that impacted the changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920s such as Social Fears, Isolationism, Prejudice and Racism and Fear of Revolution. Isolationism was quite important because the Chinese Exclusion Act inflicted a 50% tax on each Chinese immigrant. However, this is less important than Social Fears because the surging crime rates where more important as 14,638 immigrants were found guilty of committing crimes in New York in 1858 and Americans were starting to treat immigrants with disdain.

Question 25

Conclusion - Fear of Revolution

Answer 25

• Fear of Revolution was also a major reason why there was changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920s because the ‘Red Scare’ installed the fear in Americans that there would be a communist uprising and the press even called the strikes taking place a ‘communist plot’.
• However, the Fear of Revolution is not as important as Social Fears because Landlords often would increase rent in the slums due to competition, so this resulted in aggression towards immigrants and blame was placed on them.

Question 26

Conclusion - Prejudice and Racism + overall conclusion

Answer 26

• Prejudice and Racism was of great importance because the Dillingham Commission launched the impression that those in government positions deemed immigrants to be inferior therefore the ‘Native’ Americans begun believing the same.
• However, Social Fears is the most important pivotal factor because due to the Sacco and Vanzetti case the public begun to profile certain immigrants as dangerous and criminals even if there was no solid proof of them committing a crime, furthermore it begun a social trend of encouraging this aggressive and distasteful behaviour towards immigrants in the US.
• Therefore, ‘Social Fears’ is the most important reason as to why there was changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s.

Question 27

Economic Fears - Key factor 1

Answer 27

• Economic Fears was the most important factor as to why there was changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s.
• This is because after the war, unemployment more than doubled from 5.2% to 11.7% by 1921.
• Employers could pay immigrant workers less because they were desperate for work and were willing to accept lower pay than WASP workers.
• Arguably, these economic fears changing attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s as there was increased anger towards the immigrants taking on these jobs and they were blamed for stealing jobs from WASP workers and Americans believed blame should be placed on immigrants for unemployment rates as immigrants would accept poor paying jobs.

Question 28

Economic Fears - Key factor 2

Answer 28

• Furthermore, Economic Fears was the most important factor as to why there was changing attitudes to immigration in the 1920’s as trade unions believed that any positives they achieved in areas of working conditions and wages were wrecked by Italian and Polish workers who would work longer hours for less money.
• Arguably, this is the most important reason for changing attitudes towards immigrations in the 1920s as the WASPs adverse impact was primarily a result of some immigrants acting as strike breakers therefore the acceptance of these poor working condition angered poor, ‘Native’ Americans as they believed immigrant workers kept wages low and condemned them to terrible working condition.