Due to the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and National Origins Act of 1924, international immigration to America became limited to a precious few thousand people because of common fears of communism and increased prejudice from native-born Americans against foreigners. While Americans believed they could control the influx and migration of foreign-born people during this time, they possessed little to no control of internal migration within their country. Considered legal, natural-born citizens of the United States, African American retained full ability to migrate throughout the country as they pleased, provided they could find the finances for it. Though the most basic of principles for internal and international migration matched fluidly, each group’s ability to complete its migration varied immensely between places of
This ban barred Chinese laborers from entering, working, and attain citizenship in America. The question, as it is now, is why would white Americans support an immigration ban?
Often times this can be seen throughout history, especially in the United States, many cases such as the immigration of the Chinese and Irish back in the late 19th century and early 20th century. When immigrants tried to assimilate into the western culture while still preserving their cultural many were excluded and even faced hardships such as unemployment, homelessness, and in extreme cases even death. In the book, At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-194, written by Erika Lee, examples of the hardships and unwelcoming arms of America to the Chinese and their culture are discussed in a tremendous amount detail. The nature of this act was cruel and did not allow for the Chinese to excel in a land of freedom and opportunity, instead, the act strictly prohibited the Chinese becoming citizens. “The Chinese Exclusion Act, passed in 1882, barred all Chinese laborers from entering the country for ten years and prohibited Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens.”
As can be seen in documents A-H, from 1880 to 1925, immigration went from being the staple of the American culture to the common enemy of “native” Americans. In 1880 and before, immigrants were welcome to the United States with open arms, which is shown in document A with all of the foreigners flooding into the wide open gate of America. The purpose of document A was to advertise the acceptance of immigrants into the United States and all of the great things they would find when they arrived here. Document B displays that even until 1888, immigrants were viewed by the established Americans as a “double advantage”: helpful to the economy when needed and conveniently out of the way when unnecessary.
Response to “Our Fear of Immigrants” In “Our Fear of Immigrants” Jeremy Adam Smith takes a neutral stance on the immigration and anti-immigration argument. Smith begins by telling the story of a 4th grade class at Jefferson Elementary School in Berkeley, California who try to fight back against immigration laws after a classmate of theirs was deported back to his home country. Smith then goes on to compare the 4th graders to the adults of their town who fight for stronger immigration laws asking his readers what qualities the children possess that the rest of the citizens do not to make them react so differently.
Roger Daniel’s points out that there is masses of evidence pre dating the 1920s which can argue that hostility toward immigrants was certainly not a new development in America. This is an equally important factor as it shows there was always a flaw with the ‘melting pot’ theory and hostility was always a major part of America’s history. In the 1860s large numbers of Chinese immigrants flocked to America as cheap labour for projects such as the Union Pacific Railroad and by the 1870s there was over 1000,000 Chinese immigrants in the United States. They were often threatened with racial violence and driven out by WASPs who were threatened by the cheap labour they were willing to offer.
The fact that they had considered this discrimination against immigrants, implies that this kind of behavior was normal in America during the 1920s and after the Red Scare in general. The Quota Acts were acts created to limit the amounts of immigrants coming to America by 3%, later 2%, of the current amount of that country’s immigrants. This limited the number of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Many immigrants were not able to be reunited with family members that were in the United States, because of the quotas put out by the government.
“The obstacles of the past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings. ”-Ralph Bloom. Many chinese immigrants fought for their future,lives,and rights. Chinese immigrants were misunderstood because of their culture,looks,clothing styles,etc.
These immigrants were immensely different ethnically and culturally. This immigration resulted in nativism – the fear of immigrants – becoming a major issue. Ordinary citizens of the United States looked to both control and restrict immigrants with a number of laws including the Chinese Exclusion Act which was enacted in the year 1882 (Lamoreaux, 2010). Most of the immigrants resided in ethnic urban neighborhoods. Immigrants were also affected since most of them were poor and lived in poorer neighborhoods and slums where conditions were
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
Thesis: The Chinese Exclusion Act. A document that was first signed in 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur. This was and still is important because it was the first law that restricted immigration into the United States. This document was signed because Congress was concerned about keeping white “racial purity,” even though the Chinese population consisted of only 0.002 (two thousandths) percent of the whole population.
Prior to 1965, immigration was set up on a quota system and allowed 2% of nationalities that America favored, which was Western Europe. Some countries were not allowed to immigrate to the U.S., such as China and the Philippines. From 1924-1965 approximately 6 million people legally immigrated to the United States. By 1960 some countries were claiming that the U.S. immigration policy was discriminating against them. With the civil rights movement happening, President John F. Kennedy and the Democratic Party moved to change the immigration policy.
The Red Scare in particular made the entirety of American Society anti immigration. The Red Scare was the growing fear of the U.S. having a rise in Communism. There was also a large concern about the growing amount of immigrants coming into the U.S.. To combat this the U.S. established the Emergency Quota Act in 1921 the act established a limit on the number of immigrants accepted from each country. The U.S. would take 3 percent of the population of residents from the origin country into the U.S. each year.
The Asian groups, mainly Chinese, were treated unequally with fewer salaries, restrictions on voting rights and the head tax of immigration which was announced on the Chinese Exclusion Act(1923) in order to prevent them from coming. Furthermore, The Immigrant Action(1910) even
Another group was soon persecuted after the Chinese immigrants were deported: the Japanese, who had come to work in mines and agriculture on the West Coast. Just as Americans today treat Mexican immigrants, the Japanese were seen as threats to security. A “yellow peril” ensued, and governments proposed pieces of legislation to segregate the Japanese from other American citizens (Brown). The unfair treatment of Japanese-Americans parallels with the current decrees of politicians that immigrants are stealing jobs and are a threat to U.S.
