Changing Attitudes Towards Immigration [Isolated] Flashcards
What is the background for immigration in America?
In 1850…
- there was a 2.5 million population that was encouraging to migration
- majority of migrants were WASPs
- within the next 20 years, 15 millions immigrants moved to the Us, including Jews and Catholics
- by 1920 there was a 105 millions population who mostly lived in urban areas
What is the line of argument?
Isolationism was the main reason for changing attitudes
What was the Red Scare?
America feared being overpowered by communists and this was caused y the high amounts of Russians and Eastern Europeans that were emigrating to the US. This fear fuelled their idea that immigrants were influencing strike and riots which caused an anti-immigrant attitude as they had a group to blame. They did not want their system to be overthrown by communism so this caused them to enforce a closed door policy onto Eastern Europeans to protect themselves.
What were the Palmer Raids?
Around the 2nd anniversary of the Russian Revolution, numerous arrests were made under the suspicion of an upcoming revolution. 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists were arrested whilst Mitchell Palmer and John Edger Hoover tried to uncover evidence for the revolution they were convinced was going to happen. He and Hoover found no evidence for their belief and so people lost their belief in this supposed revolution. This panic showed how strong their fear was but people sooner cognised that the immigrants only wanted to adjust to their new living situations.
How would you evaluate the fear of revolution?
The panic caused by these fears would not have escalated so quickly and largely if ideas had not already been infiltrated into the publics minds. People would not have so quickly believed the rumours of an upcoming revolution if it wasn’t for the work of academics and the immigration restriction leagues as they both consisted of intelligent people spreading their negative opinions about immigrants and because it came from such prestigious people, the public believed it like it was fact.
What did the KKK do?
The KKK’s support came from those who felt their jobs were being threatened by the increasing number of immigrants. They were strongly against what they believed to undermine was stood for ‘American’ values e.g. anti-Catholic/Semitic/Communist. Due to their large membership they were difficult to ignore and those members were mainly WASP men whom had the vote and so the strength of their prejudice views was reflected through this.
What was the work of academics?
At the same time, respected academics were researching and publishing discriminatory views that were ebbing filtered down to the general public. These views were simply bias blamed as fact and so the public were far more likely to believe and support them. Madison Grant wrote a book on this matter and soon after Dr Harry Laughlin released a book which supported the views of Grant. They preached the ideas of immigrants diluting America’s culture and increasing levels of crime, insanity and social inadequacy along with the view that immigrants were imposters on this land. These books had a very limited audience though, meaning that they have little influence as they opinions were only being shared with the readers.
How would evaluate the impact of prejudice and racism?
The growth of the KKK and prejudice can be argued to have had no influence on the growing anti-immigrant views because the growth of the Klan’s membership can be relayed as a domino effect from the Red Scare as the KKK membership rose in the aftermath of the Red Scare. Even though this view can be argued, historians agree with the fact that increased levels of immigration in America caused the growth of the Klan.
What were the anti-immigration measures taken?
A $0.50 entry tax was introduced to allow power to be held above the heads of immigrants as anyone could be turned away if they were deemed unworthy (e.g. convicts, lunatics and idiots). This shows that they were finding any way possible to turn away immigrants without blatantly saying they didn’t want them to enter. Poor American’s began to hate Chinese immigrants as they would work long, cheap hours of labour. The willingness to work like this pleased employers due to the work to pay ratio. In1882 there was a temporary ban of Chinese immigrants and this became permanent during 1913 with the California Alien Land Law which prohibited “aliens ineligible of citizenship” from owning land or leasing it for more than 3 years. The act left Asians with the predicament of only being able o be a worker in this land and reduced the likelihood of achieving a better life when moving to America.
What was the Immigration Restriction League?
It was a large group of highly intellectual American’s who argued that illiterates should not be permitted entry to the country. They informed the public through books, meetings and articles, and providing “scientific racism” which made the information more believable and influential. They raised concern about rising levels of poverty and crime, using statistics of rising immigration levels to prove they were diluting the country. Their members were prestigious students, academic and politicians which means they had the ability and means to be heard and because of that were able to change the minds of some of the smartest people in the country.
How would you evaluate the impact of isolationism?
Chinese workers were hated because of their willingness to work longer hours for less. Economic fears in the North built because of Polish and Italian immigrants that were being used as strike breakers. People saw this and looked at Chinese immigrants as a possible next wave and feared more jobs being lost during strikes. If preexisting social fears had not been there then people would not have had such strong feelings against the Chinese as they would not have had previous events to build fear from.
What impact did immigrants participating in work strike have?
American’s feared that immigrants would take their jobs and dilute their wages. Polish and Italian immigrants wee used as strike breakers after WW1 as they were willing to work in pre-existing conditions and worse. This lessened the impact of the strikes currently happening to improve working conditions and wages. On the other hand, these immigrants became involved in labour and trade union activities which caused a contrasting opinion of them because now they were being blamed for strikes beginning rather than ending. The 1919 steel strike was investigated and it was discovered that 350,000 of those who walked from their jobs were immigrants which caused America to blame them for strike when they technically couldn’t American’s couldn’t criticise the actions of immigrant strikers as they were also walking from their jobs in hopes of better conditions and wages.
What was the impact of immigrants applying and getting jobs?
American’s believe that because they were born in America they had a right to a job there and that it belonged to them, and when immigrants started to settle they feared losing their jobs to those willing to work in worse for less. Most immigrants were illiterate and low skilled and spoke little to no English which meant they couldn’t do a vast amount of the WASP jobs available and so they did not pose that much of a threat to American jobs so it is unwarranted to suggest that this was a driver for support of immigration quotas.
What impact did immigrants have on the housing market?
The city housing market was a rough competition before immigration levels began to rise. And when they did they made it even more difficult to find a good quality home as housing was severely decreasing in quality. This caused tensions between American’s and immigrants, and this furthered with the fact that immigrants were not integrating into American communities which they saw as a threat. They feared their idealistic country would be dilute by the various other cultures; increasing the bad aspects and decreasing the good.
What impact did immigrants have on crime levels?
New York was popular with Italian immigrants. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian immigrants who were arrested and executed for the robbery and murder of two men. The trial became national and was extremely unfair as they were found guilty solely on political belief and ethnic origins. Italians gained a reputation of being criminals due to the high profile criminals linked to the group. Al Capone was one, an American gangster who smuggled alcohol and was involved in criminal activity such as prostitution. When better money opportunities rose in Chicago he moved to embrace them. American’s began to blame Italian immigrants for the levels of crime due to their link to high profile criminals but it was unfair for them to criticise Italians for their involvement in alcohol sale and prostitution as majority of their customers were WASPs which only encouraged this activity to continue.
