Issue 1 : Immigration Flashcards
Isolationism : Knowledge
INCREASED XENOPHOBIA
• Congress began passing laws on legislation agains immigrants
• 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act which was renewed in 1892 and 1902
•50% tax on each immigrant, and denied entrance into the USA of “any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge”.
• An example of this was the Alien Land Law of 1913 which forbade ‘aliens’ (immigrants)from owning any agricultural land in California. It was meant to apply to all recent immigrants but was more directed at the Japanese. Eleven other states quickly followed the Californian example.
Isolationism : knowledge II
POST WAR LEGISLATION
•After breaking isolationism to enter WWI, many Americans wanted to return to isolationism when the war ended –evident through refusal to join the League of Nations
•This was done through the introduction of anti- immigration legislation
• 1921 Emergency Quota Act–limited immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe by regulating entry into the U.S.3% of existing cultural population as of 1910 census. 4/5 migrants now came from Northern Europe.
Isolationism : Analysis
• These Acts and the President’s unwillingness to be involved in external affairs such as the League of Nations encouraged Americans to believe that immigration should also be reduced to help this policy, and that U.S wanted to protect native born Americans against immigrants.
isolationism : Analysis +
• Hugh Brogan: there was a concern over ‘eugenics’ –that certain races weren’t desirable enough to be ‘American’
Fear of Revolution : Knowledge
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
• Lenin set about destroying capitalism and replacing it with a socialist system where the huge gap between rich and poor would be closed.
• Communist ideas are the exact opposite of what most Americans believe in –free enterprise, competition and hatred of government interference.
• As ‘New Immigrants’ from Russia continued to arrive in large numbers following the First World War this created a fear that they were also bringing with them the politics of murder and revolution.
Fear of Revolution : Knowledge II
STRIKES
• On 21st Jan 1919 35,000 shipyard workers in Seattle went on strike.
• February 6th this increased to 60,000
• Despite the absence of any violence or arrests, the strikers were immediately labelled as ‘Reds’ and were charged with trying to incite revolution.
• The press reported that these strikes were “conspiracies against the government”, and “plots to establish Communism“ –further creating this idea of a ‘RED SCARE’.
Fear of Revolution : Analysis
• This led to further intolerance and suspicion towards immigrants and convinced many Americans to demand that action be taken to stop the flow of revolutionaries into the country.
• These strikes increased fear of revolution in America, and therefore increased hostility towards those seen to be the cause of the spread of revolutionary ideas
Fear of Revolution: Analysis +
• Alistair Cooke: “The country was seized with the fear that the last great wave of immigrants had brought the revolutionary spirit with them”
Prejudice & Racism : Knowledge
OLD VS NEW IMMIGRANTS AND THE DILLINGHAM COMMISSION
• Old Immigrants had assimilated well into American society, and saw themselves as ‘natives’, thus superior –New Immigrants did not, tending to keep their cultures and languages.
• The Commission thought these immigrants were inferior compared to the WASP immigrants who arrived mainly before 1890 –unsuited to life in America.
• They had to show they could write a short passage in English or another language
• They recommended that a literacy test be used to make it harder for ‘inferior’ immigrants to get into the USA.
Prejudice & Racism : Knowledge II
GROWTH OF NATIVISM
• The effect of high levels of immigration increased the WASPs sense of superiority and their determination to maintain racial “purity”. This was the 100% American movement.
• Academics and some politicians even claimed to have ‘scientific’ evidence (eugenics) that the new immigrants from Southeast Europe were racially inferior.
Prejudice and Racism : Analysis
• The WASPs were not happy as they feared that their culture would be replaced. Legislation reflected these prejudiced fears.
• This clearly shows that bigotry, prejudice and racism gave rise to the soon to be passed anti-immigration legislation.
Prejudice & Racism : Analysis +
• Hugh Brogan: “An upsurge of passionate nationalism…the peoples [of the USA]…clung to each other for reassurance and cemented their union with hatred, fear and contempt of foreigners.”
Social Fears : Knowledge
SLUMS & DRUNKENNESS
• The majority of immigrants settled in four large cities: Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh & New York
• People in the slums lived in houses that were damp, dark and filthy with no water supply, toilets or drains -rubbish and sewage was thrown into backcourts or streets.
• Whole families sometimes 10 or 12 people had only one room to live in.
• Many native Americans despised the lifestyle of certain immigrant groups.
• Especially the Germans and Italians whose cultural traditions involved what seemed to be the large consumption of alcohol.
Social Fears : Knowledge II
CRIME : SACCO AND VANZETTI
• On May 5th 1920, Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were arrested in Massachusetts and charged with murdering two men during an armed robbery.
• Their lawyer put forward the defence that they were elsewhere when the robbery took place
• 107 witnesses said they had seen the men elsewhere at the time and claimed they were being persecuted for their well-known political beliefs.
• There was little concrete evidence against them.
• Sentenced to Death
Social Fears : Analysis
• Immigrants were blamed for the poor conditions and overcrowding even though in reality it was the responsibility of the city authorities rather than the immigrants.
• This shows America already had preconceived judgements about people of a certain nationality.
