The Nature of immigration

Question 1

Give me some reasons as to why old immigrants feared the impact of new immigrants in America?

(Don’t forget Coolidges Claim)

Answer 1

1. Threat to national values/ most old Americans were Protestant the new immigrants contains a lot of catholics and Russian Jews who they feared would bring papal despotism and communism.(this also helped the inspire the revival of the kkk)
2. They would damage the superior stock of Americans/as they were seen as unintelligent by war time army intelligent tests.This was further instigated by Coolidges claim that different people could “mix or blend” beneficially.
3. strike breakers/ as they accepted low paid domestic work
4. resented the impact new immigrants had in urban life/for example overcrowding in slums and ghettos caused poverty and thereby crime,drunkenness and prostitution which was high in places like Chicago which consequently created a base to blame immigrants as one third of the 2.7 million population was foreign born.
5. They created corrupt political machines/democrats with a political boss would welcome and help immigrants in order to gain votes.

Question 2

How did World War One intensify the fears of old Americans towards new immigrants?

Answer 2

WW1 increased nationalism and isolationism and caused an example of this was prohibition which was seen as being patriotic to ones country and therefore they would not want to have different type of ethnicities and cultures arrive in the USA

Question 3

How did post war economic depression intensify fears of new immigrants?

Answer 3

new immigrants coming in they would happily accept the jobs so now they just became competition and post war depression makes it harder to get a job

As well as after the war there were a lot of strikes (3600) and therefore new immigrants happily taking the jobs people were Striking against undermines the labour movement

Question 4

How did the first red scare intensify fears of new immigrants?

Answer 4

Crime and anarchist bombings occurred(general Mitchel Palmer)
caused fear and hysteria and people were looking for someone to blame which often fell on immigrants as they were the ones who usually brought in communist,anarchist views an example of this would be Sacco and venzetti.
Sacco and venzetti case(1920) Italian born labourers declared their hatred of capitalism and ‘coincidentally’ during the red scare they were put on trial for murder even though some people considered them not guilty as well as the judge privately called them ‘anarchist bastards’