BP3-Immigration Flashcards
What was the dillingham comission?
-Made its report in 1911.
-Said immigration was beginning to pose a serious threat to American society and culture.
What was the USA’s policy on immigration before ww1?
-Open door policy
-Only three acts to restrict immigrants (e.g disabled and Chinese).
-No restrictions on the number of yearly immigrants or where they came from.
-Cities grew rapidly due to industrialisation and the immigrants joined the stream of migrants heading that way.
What were the findings of the dillinham comission used to justify?
The 1921 Emergency Quota act.
According to the dillingham commission, who were ‘old immigrants’?
people from England, Ireland and Germany
According to the dillingham commission, who were ‘new immigrants’?
from southern and eastern Europe
Difference between view of ‘old’ and ‘new’ immigrants.
New immigrants seen as racially inferior.
What was the immigration restriction league?
-A campaign set up in 1894 to restrict immigration.
-Members wrote booklets and pamphlets about the dangers of the flood of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.
-This set people against them.
-1896 Congress passed an immigration restriction bill that included a literacy test and a list of ‘undesirable’ immigrants.
-President Grover rejected the bill.
-Congress kept passing the bill but the presidents kept rejecting it.
-Finally, in 1917, the bill became law.
When was the immigration restriction bill from 1896 finally passed?
1917
Why after ww1 did the presidents want to restrict immigration?
-Post war isolationism- they wanted less contact with the rest of the world.
-The dillinham comission
-The red scare
-Fears that immigrants would compete for jobs, housing , facilities etc.
What was the impact of the first red scare on immigration?
-Led to fears that immigrants might be communists, anarchists or worse.
-anarchist bombings and riots exacerbated public fears and led to deporations.
-The years after the war had people in a swirl of hostility toward black people, Catholics, communists, and immigrants (anyone who had posed a threat to WASPs and their values.
-Thousands were deported during the Red Scare.
When was the first red scare?
1919-1920.
What were WASPs?
White anglo saxon protestants.
Associated with wealth, power and influence.
What did the 1917 immigration act say?
Listed a number of ‘undesirable immigrants’ to be excluded.
What type of people were classed as ‘undesirable immigrants’ in the 1917 immigration act?
Homosexuals
Insane persons
Criminals.
What did the 1917 immigration act require.
A literacy qualification for anyone over the age of 16.
What was the 1921 Emergency Quota act?
Restricted the yearly number of immigrants from any country to three per cent of the total number of people from that country living in the USA in 1910.
When was the Johnson-Reed immigration act?
1924
What was the Johnson-Reed immigration act?
Changed the quota system to two percent of people from the country of origin in the 1890 census until July 1927 and after this it was to be fixed at 150,000 a year.
What was the 1929 National origins formula?
Confirmed the 150,000 limit and banned Asian immigrants all together.
Which piece of legislation banned Asian immigrants altogether?
The National origins formula (1929)
Before the great depression, what were attitudes to Mexican immigrants like?
-In 1920, immigrants from South America e.g Mexico increased rapidly to fill the need for cheap labour. Some of these were ‘official’ registered immigrants and some crossed the border illegally.
-The demand for workers meant that the employers did not ask too many questions but also meant as they were illegal they could exploit them e.g paying very little with terrible conditions.
What was the impact of the great depression on immigration?
The great depression slowed immigration to much less than the quotas set.
When the depression hit, officials began to deport mexican workers.
