Immigration, 1917-1980 Flashcards
How many acts were there preventing immigrants from entering the US before the First World War and which two main groups were targeted with these acts?
- Three acts
- The Chinese and the disabled
What was the policy that the US operated before WW1 surrounding immigration and what famous American symbol contains a poem which emphasises this policy?
- ‘Open door’ policy
- The Statue of Liberty
How many immigrants a year entered the US for the 100 years after the Americans won independence?
170,000
How much did the number of immigrants coming to the US rise to between 1882 and 1907?
- 1882 - 650,000
- 1907 - 1,200,000
What was the difference between the immigrants arriving before 1882 compared to after?
- 1882 - 13% of immigrants were from eastern and southern Europe, most were from western European countries like UK, Germany and Ireland
- 1907 - 81% were from southern or eastern European countries
Once new immigrants arrived, where did they go?
Majority went to find jobs in big cities - due to industrialisation, jobs were easier to find
What did the Dillingham Commission state?
- Immigration was beginning to pose a serious threat to American society and culture
- It distinguished between the ‘old’ immigrants (UK, Germany and Ireland) and the far greater numbers of ‘new’ immigrants (eastern and southern Europe), seeing them as racially inferior
- Made no concession for the shorter span of time the new immigrants had had to adapt
- Findings were used to justify the Immigration Acts of the 1920s, including the Emergency quota Act of 1921, which set limits on the number of immigrants
What factors led to the introduction of immigration legislation in America?
- Post-war isolationism
- Government wanted less contact with the rest of the world
- Immigration was a controllable point of contact
- The Dillingham Commission
- The Red Scare, 1919-20
- Spike in unemployment
- Public reaction to immigrants was sometimes extreme
1917 Immigration Act
- Lists a number of ‘undesirable’ immigrants to be excluded, including homosexuals, insane persons and criminals
- Imposes a literacy qualification for any immigrants over 16 years of age
1921 Emergency Quota Act
Restricts the yearly number of immigrants from any country to 3% of the total number of people from that country living in the US in 1910
1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act
- Changed the quota system to two percent of people from the country of origin in the 1890 census (further favour shown to northern and western Europe) until 1 July 1927
- After 1927, the number of immigrants was to be fixed at 150,000 and the quota was to be based on the 1920 census
1929 National Origins Formula
Confirms the 150,000 limit and bans Asian immigrants altogether
What did Reverend Jesse James say about the situation surrounding immigrants in the US?
He disagreed with the ‘melting pot’ analogy, instead describing it as a ‘soup’ with ‘all the chopped ingredients visible as separate bits’
Give two examples of how Jesse James’s analogy is supported by specific communities living in the US
Chinatown and Little Italy
What happened to the level of immigrants entering the US in the 1920s?
- Focus of 1920s legislation was on immigrants from Europe and Asia
- A combination of immigrant legislation and the Great Depression slowed European migration to far lower than the quotas set
- Immigration from South America, especially Mexico, increased rapidly in the late 1920s to fill the need for cheap labour in states such as California and Texas, in agriculture, mining and railroad building
- Some of them were ‘official’ immigrants, registered by the Bureau of Immigration, some were ‘unofficial’
