How Did Public Policies Affect German Americans

America is known for its diverse culture and society. It is full of many races and contains various ethnic groups which help shape it and make it what it is. America is a country that was built by immigrants and slaves. The Germans and the Chinese were a part of the immigrants that helped to build the foundations on which the United States stands. The Germans were the first to come to America and the Chinese followed around 150 years later. They each had their own reasons for leaving their home countries and did not know of the obstacles that would impede them and their future. At a point in time, public policies had negatively affected German Americans and Chinese Americans by causing maltreatment, persecution, and death. Some of the first Germans arrived in 1683 in Pennsylvania and settled in a spot that would later become Germantown (Tolzmann, 2007). They had many reasons to come to America but two of

In the first place, the United States’ declarations of war on Germany, during World War I and World War II, greatly affected German Americans. Many non-German Americans developed anti-German sentiments because they felt that the German Americans had too much loyalty to their homeland. Additionally, the Alien and Sedition Acts affected German Americans by allowing for them to be interned in camps during World War I and World War II (Tolzmann, 1994). As previously stated, these policies really hurt the German Americans and they stunted their success in the United States. To begin with, the United States’ declarations of war on Germany affected German American success by showing that they may have been a threat, and this caused people to treat them badly. Furthermore, the Alien and Sedition Acts affected German American success by showing that it was okay for them to be treated as a threat which made them feel unsafe and afraid to interact with non-German