Americans had rarely accepted outsiders as equals, and that was the case with immigrants coming to the U.S in the 1840s to the 1920s. A time in America where immigrants were not considered inferior to native white Americans did not exist. The hatred of anything non-American, especially with the coming of World War I in 1914, would only cause more Americans to despise immigrants. Part of this was rooted simply in racism, which existed towards groups other than African Americans, but much of it was simply that Americans considered themselves the chosen people while everyone else was below them. Thus, despite immigrants being accepted into America, those immigrants were still treated far worse than white citizens between the 1840s and 1920s, for the prejudice against them was obvious even in the laws created. During the 1840s-1850s Americans saw a huge increase in the number of immigrants arriving in America, and this only lead to white American citizens fearing them during that period. There was fear for many reasons, the main reason being Americans feared that immigrants would steal their jobs. Namely these jobs were in New York city and other large coastal …show more content…
This action consisted of whites promoting nativist ideas towards those of other ethnicities and trying to prove their inferiority. Some white Americans even tried to organize political parties such as the Know Nothing Party to staunchly resist certain immigrants being admitted into the U.S. Not only was it individuals promoting such ideas, but the Federal government helped ban immigration from certain countries and or limit it. This in contrast with what immigrants experienced in the 1920s was almost nothing as in the 1920s the KKK is reborn and the number of lynching’s increases. However, the violence expressed toward immigrants in America was not even considered wrong at either point in
The mid-19th century saw an unprecedented wave of immigrants coming into the country. At its peak, Ellis Island, the main processing station for immigrants, handled an astounding 5,000 people every day. Because of the language and culture barriers faced by each group of people, they often settled amongst themselves. Very quickly, country-specific neighborhoods began popping up throughout New York and the surrounding area. This helped to alleviate the stresses with moving to a new country; however, most immigrants came to the United States penniless and lived in low-income housing as their jobs rarely supported themselves let alone their families.
Although immigration had decreased during the war, after the war it had rose again. People were coming to the U.S. for peace, something difficult to find elsewhere in Europe. At the same time jobs were quickly diminishing because the need for jobs to build weaponry and other things needed for the war had gone away and big businesses did not care. So while many veterans and common people were out of jobs, immigrants were flooding in with no real limit on how many were aloud to come. This created a barrier between U.S. citizens and immigrants which made the citizens look down on them and see them as rivals.
The year 1919 or to say the early period during the 20th century is also known as the First Red Scare in the history of the United States of America. There was a widespread fear of Bolshevism and anarchism all over the United States, which was influenced by the Russian Revolution as well as the Worldwide Communist Revolution. Labor strikes, walkouts, social disorder, race riots, murders and much more violence had created chaos and paranoia throughout the nation. The threat of communist revolution in the United States following the World War I implied radical actions of American organized labor along with Bolshevism created tough challenges for maintaining social order as well as led to interracial violence among the whites and blacks. The Seattle
Anti-Immigrant sentiment in the 1920s The 1920s saw a growth in prejudice towards the influx of Central and Eastern Europeans, as well as Asians that had been immigrating to the United States since the 1800s.. As the economy grew after the Great War, a demand for cheap labor rose, in which many immigrants, penniless, were exploited into accepting low paying, long hour factory jobs as there were not many other options. Although urbanization increased with the economy and more and more people began to inhabit these massive cities, the migrants made up the majority of the poor and impoverished. Many shanty neighborhoods and slums sprang up to accommodate them.
A door opened for many Europeans to come to America during the challenges immigrants faced after the 1880’s. The strong population of countries immigrated and almost all immigrants came into America through Ellis Island. “In the West, there were protests against Chinese immigrants, and in 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring immigration from China for the next 10 years.” (The ban was later extended and ultimately not repealed until 1943.) Immigrants coming to the United States faced many financial, social, and educational problems that made life more difficult than was expected.
In 1877 America was known as the melting pot of the world because everyone that lived there was a descendent of immigrants. Englishmen traveled to America to create the colonies and this was the start of people finding new opportunity in America. Salves were imported to the colonies to work on plantations. The Federal government declared two years of registry to make it harder for immigrants to become American citizens. Federalists wanted to control aliens, so they made the sedition acts.
While the events described in Arc of Justice were occuring, America was dealing with ever increasing racial tensions. These were not just the typical black and white tensions that many people characterize the time period with, but tensions between self-described “native Americans” and the new waves of immigrants coming over from places such as Ireland and Italy. Sources such as Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race, showcase how these “new immigrants” were perceived as “[the new immigrants are] the weak, the broken and the mentally crippled of all races.” Tensions were building across the country in the early 20th century, with “the widespread notion that hordes of undesirable ethnic minorities were about to swamp the nation’s social structure, destroying the cultural purity and intellectual standards [of America].” (Parrish, Anxious Decades, pg. 111)
The U.S changed during the 1880’s because of many immigrants coming from North Western Europe. Many of them weren 't poor. Stuff that made them want to leave their homes in Europe were, religions, natural disasters, famine, tyrants, and discrimination. People wanted to come to the U.S because of religious freedom, democracy, free land, jobs, family, and affordable transportation. The Chinese were encouraged to come to U.S to build railroads in 1860’s, in 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act was made and so was the Immigration act, which was tax on immigration, they denied people who looked like lunatics and looked like they needed government.
The United States experienced an influx of immigrants between the 1890’s to the 1920’s. Immigrants entered the United States from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe. From these demographic shifts we can also see that there were changed in the United States attitudes towards recent immigrants. These attitudes are grounded in racialized notions of foreign peoples and African Americans. Nativist notions are set in ideas of whiteness and different factors make Eastern Europe and Southern Europe immigrants not quite white.
Describe the “New Immigration”, and explain how it differed from the “Old Immigration” and why it aroused opposition from many Native-Born Americans. Antiforeignism was not a new concept in America in the 1880s. It had begun in the 1840s when the first large influx of immigrants emigrated to America, predominantly from Ireland and Germany. The American, or “Know Nothing”, political party was created specifically for the sake of excluding and barring the newcomers from equal opportunities, especially with the case of the Irish in the northeast. Fast forward forty years later and the Irish and the German have become common place amongst the native born Americans and the new wave of immigrants emerges.
People began to realize that many of the immigrants were not of the highest class or did not have many values. They also noticed that this less than stellar crowd was beginning to cost domestic Americans jobs-- as mentioned in document C. The point of view of this author seems to be of the working class whose jobs are being taken by the foreigners willing to work for cheap. This is similar to the current debate on illegal immigration and the number of jobs being occupied by illegal aliens. By 1895, even the African Americans had began a political fight against immigrants (Document D).
The US experienced massive immigration from Europe in the 1800s, which saw millions of people across the Atlantic to the New World. These people came from all corners of Europe including Ireland, Germany, Italy, Norway, and other scores of other nations and provinces. The people came as young men and women in search of jobs, others as families fleeing religious persecution and others as political radicals who were fleeing from the police. In addition, others came as farmers in search of land and a new start for that matter, and as paupers hardly capable of affording the rites of passage. This was the first wave of immigrants that shaped the US in considerable ways.
Many believed that Mexican immigrants that now lived in the United States were getting better treatment then the Mexicans who remained in Mexico. There are many corridos written like this singing: “we’re anxious to return again to our adored county; but what can we do about it if our country is ruined? If they’ve talked about us it is because of all the braggarts who go jingling their dollars as if they’ve brought back millions,” They often believed that the immigrants who went to America in search of work were incredibly rich because of how they boasted and bragged about their earnings, so many grew jealous of those immigrants. It caused lots of
Disappointment. Betrayal. Deceived. All these terms are common themes in the writing of several immigrants during their journey to America. After reading many personal accounts of immigrants and learning about their expeditions to America, it became evident it is not as joyous a ride as many make it seem.
The number of immigrant to America reached 1.25 million and had a big tendency to increase. Americans began to doubt the government’s open door policy. Under pressure of the public, Immigration Act was passed on February 1917. Why American started feeling “angry” toward those new immigrants? The answers are: they were often poor; many of them were illiterate and had a big different cultural and religious background.