Immigration 1917-1980

Question 1

What was the US policy on immigration before WW1

Answer 1

Open door policy

Question 2

How many immigration laws were there before WW1 and who did this forbid from immigrating to the USA

Answer 2

3 - Banned diseased people, criminals/dangerous people and Chinese people (1882)

Question 3

What limitations on yearly numbers of immigrant numbers were there before WW1

Answer 3

no limits

Question 4

From 1776-1876, what was the average number of people immigrating to the USA per year?

In 1882?

In 1907?

Answer 4

1776-1876: 170,000
1882: 650,000
1907: 1.2 million

Question 5

What region was the source of most new immigrants before WW1 and what % of yearly immigrants were they in 1882 and 1907?

Answer 5

Southern and Eastern Europeans:

13% of immigrants in 1882

81% of immigrants in 1907

Question 6

Why were Eastern European immigrants more of a problem for the USA than many other immigrants

Answer 6

On the whole, they struggled to integrate into America more

Question 7

What report investigated the impact of immigration on the USA from 1907-1911

Answer 7

The Dillingham Commission

Question 8

What did the Dillingham Commission say

Answer 8

It divided immigrants between ‘old’ immigrants (from countries like the UK, Ireland and Germany) and ‘new’ immigrants from Eastern Europe. It said the new immigrants’ failure to assimilate was a threat to US society and culture

Question 9

What was the flaw in the Dillingham Commission

Answer 9

It did not consider that Eastern European immigrants had far less time to assimilate

Question 10

What was the impact of the Dillingham Commission

Answer 10

It made the USA reconsider their open door policy and used it as justification for many immigration policies

Question 11

Give 4 reasons for the USA introducing immigration legislation after WW1

Answer 11

• Dillingham Commission
• Fears some immigrants were Communist during the Red Scare
• Post war isolationism in USA
• Spike in unemployment

Question 12

Name the 3 immigration laws put into place during the 1920s

Answer 12

• 1921 Emergency Quota Act: Restricts the yearly number of immigrants to 357,000 and (for any given country) 3% of the total number of people who already live in the USA originally from that country
• 1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act: Changes the quota system to 2% and uses the 1890 census
• 1927, the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act changed to fix immigrants per year at 150,000 and the quota was to be based on the 1920 census
• 1929 National Origins Formula: Banned all Asian immigrants as well as Chinese ones

Question 13

What was the point of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act using the 1890 census instead of an up to date one

Answer 13

It favoured the ‘old’ immigrants from England, Germany etc, who were more accepted by the USA

Question 14

What trends were there about which groups immigrated to the USA most by 1929

Answer 14

• European immigration had almost stopped due to the Great Depression and immigration laws
• Asian immigration had been banned
• Latin American immigration was not banned and almost encouraged to fill cheap labour in Western states

Question 15

Why did America switch from accepting Mexicans illegally to deporting them so quickly in 1929

Answer 15

After the Great Depression struck, white people wanted the Mexicans jobs, so the white people took priority and the Mexicans were of no use to the USA anymore

Question 16

Estimates state that ______ Mexicans were deported in the Great Depression

Answer 16

400,000

Question 17

What was the impact of WW2 on some immigrants already in the country

Answer 17

German, Italian, and especially Japanese immigrants, even if they were US born, were alienated, with their businesses often vandalised and Japanese immigrants (about 120,000 of them) were sent to internment camps and had their property confiscated

Question 18

What immigration law was introduced in 1952 and what did it do

Answer 18

1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, keeping quotas as its system for accepting immigrants but made its immigration policy universal rather than specific to different ethnicities

Question 19

What was a major flaw of using quotas as a system

Answer 19

Every time a refugee crisis (a lot in the Cold War) caused an influx of potential immigrants, a new quota had to be implemented

Question 20

What was an example of a mass immigration which the USA struggled with

Answer 20

200,000 Cubans moved to the USA after Castro took power

Question 21

Which President was strongly against immigration quotas and what did he do about it

Answer 21

JFK, he wrote a book about it, said immigration should be seen as enriching the country and not with suspicion, and was trying to make a new law removing immigration quotas when he was assassinated

Question 22

What year were immigration quotas abolished in favour of other systems, and who by

Answer 22

1965, by Lyndon B Johnson, who used JFK’s proposed law

Question 23

What law removed quotas completely from the USA and what system replaced it

Answer 23

1965 Immigration and Nationality Act

The quotas were replaced by accepting people based on their skillset and family connections with US citizens. 170,000 a year

Question 24

Which particular group massively increased US immigration numbers after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act and why?

Answer 24

Southeast Asians like Vietnamese and Cambodian people, due to the fear of the Cambodian genocide and Vietnam War, as well as communism in general

Question 25

Name 3 immigration laws in the 1960s

Answer 25

• 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act: Abolishes quotas, sets a 170,000 a year limit. Makes people eligible to move to the USA based on their skills and family
• 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act: Gives citizenship to any Cuban who entered the USA after 1959
• 1968 Armed Forces Naturalisation Act: Gives US citizenship to anyone who fought for the USA in any war

Question 26

How many Vietnamese immigrants lived in the USA in 1985?

Answer 26

700,000

Question 27

What Operation around 1954 focused on deporting illegal Mexican immigrants, and how many people did it deport

Answer 27

Operation Wetback

The INS claims 1.1 million deported
Most independent investigations claim 300,000

Question 28

When did the USA put a limit on Hispanic immigrants and how many a year

Answer 28

Limited it to 20,000 a year in 1976

Question 29

Did the US limit on the Hispanic population change the immigration levels and why

Answer 29

No

• The Hispanic population weren’t used to limits so just crossed illegally
• Employers helped Hispanic people get into the USA in return for cheap labour

Question 30

In 1980, how many illegal immigrants were deported

Answer 30

1 million

Question 31

The INS estimates state in the mid 1970s, there were _______ illegal immigrants in the USA and ______ were getting deported per year

Answer 31

The INS estimates state in the mid 1970s, there were 7,000,000 illegal immigrants in the USA and 600,000 were getting deported per year

Question 32

What % of foreign born immigrants were Europeans, Asians and Latin Americans in the years 1930-1980

Answer 32

1930:

Europe 83%, Asia 2%, Latin America 6%

1980:

Europe 39%, Asia 20%, Latin America 33%

Question 33

How did attitudes shift towards immigrants over time?

Answer 33

It depended on which party was in power - Democrats were more pro-immigration than Republicans. However, by 1980, the now conservative culture in the USA had led to many white citizens blaming the USA’s problems on immigrants and attitudes of immigrants worsened by 1980.