Changing attitudes towards immigration

Question 1

List of factors

Answer 1

The First World War
Isolationism
The Red Scare
Economic Fears

Question 2

The First World War

Answer 2

• Lusitania sunk by German U-Boat
• Led to anti-German feeling, German products renamed
• 1916 Easter Rising, Ireland
• Created anti-Irish feeling - anti-British = anti ally.
• Liberty bonds meant that the US relied on immigrants for war effort

Question 3

Isolationism

Answer 3

• The IRL, saw immigrants as a threat to the American way of life
• Spread hateful message through books, pamphlets, meetings and newspapers
• Eugenics movement
• Now had ‘scientific proof’
• It was bogus

Question 4

The Red Scare

Answer 4

• Following WWI, big communist scare especially in the rich
• Red scare, people scared of immigrants (again, a threat to the way of life)
• Fears led to the Palmer Raids, wrangling, deportation or imprisonment of 6,000 immigrants
• Would have assumed it was more of a threat than it actually was
• Many in the working class saw the raids as too extreme

Question 5

Economic Fears

Answer 5

• When war ended, men came home to find work, there weren’t enough jobs - immigrants agreed to work for a poorer deal
• Immigrants were seen as ‘job stealers’
• Trade Unionists campaigned, organised strikes - but immigrants didn’t participate
• Immigrants were seen as strike bearers, the government showed support for those breaking strikes
• Many blamed the government for encouraging strike breaking instead of immigrants