Immigration in the U.S Flashcards
1
Q
Developing ideas in liberal thought
A
- John Lockes theories of religious tolerance: letters concerning toleration (1689-1692) demonstrated of the impossibility of assessing religious truth claims
- Tom Paine: opposition of hereditary government, support for French Revolution
- Lipsett (1963) called America the first new nation, because it developed an American ideology based on “Liberty, egalitarianism,individualism, republicanism, democracy and laissez faire economics.
2
Q
Civic nationalism
A
- Feeds into the notion of American exceptionalism and manifest destiny
- Manifest destiny: the belief that America was destined to expand across North America. Spread these values across the world.
3
Q
Immigran assimilation model/Ellis island paradigm
A
- America as a melting pot
- Each group contributed its culture its food, its language, tradition. each group disrespected as American citizens.
- Some people don’t like this:
1) “The U.S has become a dumping ground for everybody else problems… when Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people hat have lots of problems, and they’re bringing their problems with them, they’re bringing drugs and crime” - After the World War II, the immigration designated European immigrants as white on application forms rather than designating racial categories previously used on immigration records. (Zimring,C.2016)
- The years after the war saw millions more Americans achieve white identity rather then they had before the war. (Zimring,C.2016)
- The assimilation was not immediate however Zimring,C.2016)
- American views on who could and could not enjoy the privileges of white society were more restricted in the 1950’s (Zimring,C.2016)
- Exclusive clubs and subdivisions still discriminated against Jews in 1950 (Zimring,C.2016)
4
Q
Defining Immigration
A
-Pre-European colonialization, America was inhabited by a multitude of native civilisations, cultures and tribes
-1600 native Americans
-1650 Europeans begin to arrive
-1700 mostly native Americans however a few Europeans now and some African slaves in small numbers.
-1750 nearly 50% are European
-1800 native Americans are a minority
Stannard (1992), Native Americans were seen as inferior beings, defined as natural slaves, sub human beasts of burden. Satan’s helpers, murderous wild men of the forest, mass killings was deemed the only thing to do.
-Crisis in the eighties in America coupled with immigration led to many Americans believing that immigrants were linked in one way or another to every festering problem (Higham,J.2002)
5
Q
British colonies welcome British and European migrants
A
- Immigrants from Europe were granted permission to become subjects of the British empire in America.
- Race embedded into the construction of the nation
- Given incentives to colonise in America.
6
Q
Red, black and white
A
- By the time of the American revolution in the 18th century, there was a racial formation of people grouped by others as being the same
- White, Indians, blacks
- By 1660’s many original Scots, Irish, Germans, English all called themselves ‘whites’
- English people in particular ceased to be Yorkshire man or English folk- instead they see themselves as ‘white Americans’
- Bans on marriage between black and white Americans was banned until 1967 (Zimring,C.2016)
- White ethnics, enjoyed dramatic socioeconomic mobility after the World War, strong reason as to why some groups were thriving and some groups stayed mired in poverty and violence.
- Not being black had great benefits to the white ethnic groups in post war America (Zimring,C.2016)
7
Q
For many, the bill rights of rights only applied to white Americans
A
- The govt was formed by the white and so built for the benefit of the white man
- Black Americans counted as 3/5 of a white person
8
Q
Naturalisation law 1790
A
- Facilitate white foreigners to become American citizens
- Explicitly excluded native Americans, slaves, servants, free blacks , muslims and Asians
9
Q
Where are the English or British?
A
- 19th century Britain was urbanised and America had need for labour
- British and English immigrants could be found in mines, factories and mills.
- 1820-1860, 800,000- Official British migrants recorded, real figure likely to be higher
- White British were automatically seen as white Americans instantly due to racial sameness, similar languages and so was much easier for hem o fit into the culture
- Not seen as foreign or culturally or legally easier to gain citizenship legally- easier to gain citizenship and acceptance into society
- English established colonies on the East coast of North America, the colonist all belonged to the Anglo Saxon race and shared the same then ethnic origin, identity, language, heritage, culture, education. (Emmigration.info.2014)
- British immigrants are nearly invisible in the United States, where they have assimilated quickly. (Barrat,D.)
10
Q
German immigration
A
- German saw political unrest throughout the 19th century
- Occasional economic issues but not generally the poor and huddled masses
- Germantowns in many cities.
- Would make the transition from German to Gemran Americans to unambiguous white Americans.
- During first World war, parts of America grew hysterically anti German (TheEconomist.2015)
- Some Germans were spat at in the street, the teaching of their language was banned in school. German books were banned. (TheEconomist.2015
- When New Ulm, a predominately German town in Minnesota, refused to let its young men join the draft, the National guard was sent in. (TheEconomist.2015)
- Germans have imported their culture in the form of Christmas trees, easter bunnies and gave America a taste for pretzels, Bratwursts. (TheEconomist.2015)
11
Q
Irish immigration
A
- Long troubled history of colonial rule in Ireland by England and successive UK monarchs sought to establish British rule
- Irish potato famine in 1940’s forced many Irish peasants off the land.
- Disease and illness spread- English govt blames it on congenital Irish indolence
- 2 million Irish people left Ireland if they could afford it.
- Quickly assimilated in America due to their first language being English and also most had skills and savings to start to build a new life. Around 1846. (Irish Genealogy)
- During the famine ears, the arrival of destitute desperate catholics, many of whom only spoke Irish, played out very differently
1) Limited language barrier
2) Illiteracy and a lack of skills, main problem (Irish Genealogy) - The wave of Irish immigrants sought reguge among their own kind (Irish genealogy)
- Many that survived the journey often had just one thing on their minds: to be free of British oppression (Irish Genealogy)
- Lack of trust between the predominatelyProtestant America born middle class and the impoverished catholic immigrants (Irish Genealogy)
- when the economy was poor the Irish were linked with this as they were blamed for stealing jobs. ‘No Irish need apply’ was a familiar comment in job advertisements (Irish genealogy)
12
Q
Nativism and the know nothings
A
- Some had suspicion of non-English whites
- Protestantism enjoying a revival and for some this was expressed too in anti- catholic sentiment
- Romanism becomes a counter point to the American republicanism who (ironically) describe themselves as natives.
- Catholic Churches were burned down periodically and one riot in Philadelphia in 1844 killed 30 people.
13
Q
July 1863 Draft riots, New York city
A
- Builds up admist racial, social and economic tension in New York
- Happens during the civil war in which the Northern states were fighting the southern states, principally over slavery.
- Resentment builds up when draft means one may be selected for military service
- Immigration policies allow newcomers to get citizenship through enrolment
- Nativist help create racial sentiments about blacks coming to take ‘white jobs’
14
Q
The Chinese exclusion act and ‘yellow peril’
A
- Chinese immigration had become significant during the California gold rush (1848-1855)
- Lasted until 1943 and the first law banning a specific ethnic group explicitly
- Provided useful tax revenue as immigrant workers- cheap labour
- Anti Chinese violence became a feature of life in the American west.
- It was enacted due to economic fears, native born Americans attributed unemployment and declining wages to Chinese workers whom they also viewed as racially inferior. (Harvard University open collection)
- Prohibited Chinese from becoming Chinese citizens and halted Chinese immigration for 10 years (Harvard University open collection)
15
Q
Johnson Reed act 924
A
- Support for quotas goes up and rather than based on biology it is based now on ‘assimilation’
- Northwest and Scandinavia, 86.5%
- Eastern and Southern Europe, 11.2%
- Other countries, 2.3%
- Johnson Reed act shut the borders in 1924, immigration and nationality act of 1965 opened them ended quotas; allowed for immigration from Africa, Asia and South America.
- It completely excluded immigrants from Asia (Office of the Historian)
- The quota put the maximum amount of visas available each year to new immigrants 350,000 (Office of the historian)
- Later on they changed the quota calculations, the new quota calculations included large numbers of people of British descent whose families had long resided in the U.S (Office of the historian)
- As a result, the percentage of visas available to individuals from the British Isles and Western Europe, but newer immigration from other areas like Southern and Eastern Europe was limited (office of the historian)
