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Immigration in american in the 20th century
Immigration in american in the 20th century
Brief history of immigration in united states essay
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In 1944 when many internees were allowed to leave the internment camps many of them had no place to return to. Many of them had sold their homes and belongings in belief that they would never be able to return. If their house was still there it was common for racial comments and signs to be written on their houses. Their houses were often destroyed. Japanese Americans were also treated rather poorly by other Americans due to racial discrimination during the war.
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.
Internment camps were common in many countries during World War 2, including America. The Japanese-Americans were interned out of fear from Pearl Harbor and, although the conditions weren’t terrible, the aftermath was hard to overcome. Along with the Japanese-Americans, our American soldiers were also interned in Japan, but in harsher conditions and aftermaths. The camps, no matter how unpleasant, were turning points for both internees. While reading Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, these points are obvious.
In America during both the time period of 1840s-1850s and 1910s-1920s, resistance to immigrants happened through social and political movements such as the KKK and nativist movements. However, immigrants were more likely to have restrictions in the 1910s-1920s. Also, during the 1910s-1920s people were more afraid that immigrants would change the democracy and bring new ideas of communism in the country. Therefore, these two time periods are more different than similar.
Americans considered immigrants as outcasts,
Anyway, there are no Italian-American, or German-American citizens in such camps” (Document E). This proves that the internment was extremely racist. At the time, the United States was also at war with Germany and Italy but did not put German Americans or Italian Americans who lived on the East Coast in a camp. German and Italian Americans were not put into camps because they were seen as white people by the country unlike Japanese Americans, who were seen as Asians. Above all, racism was one of many reasons that the internment of Japanese Americans was unjust during World War
This opposition to joining the war made the president at the time Woodrow Wilson very angry. He actively stated things and later passed acts to attack German immigrants. President Wilson stated in 1915 “immigrants have poured poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life”. (McPherson 2014) This kind of rhetoric from a president created an idea that all immigrants were evil.
Whilst the Japanese were being sent to the camps, many people on the west coast were hanging racist signs in storefronts and neighborhoods giving the obvious notice that Japs were not welcome. This attitude of hatred is what caused the poor conditions of the internment camps on the west coast, carried out and justified by the idea that the white Americans were better than the Japanese Americans due to the suspicion of espionage. The Japanese Americans were thought of as spies therefor they were thrown into internment camps where the discriminatory attitude of western Americans brought upon their unjust treatment. The pressure of WWII caused the American government to make unecessary precautions in hopes of protecting a nation when they in fact they divided it.
Immigrants from all over the world were eager to come to America, as many of them still are today, to free themselves from religious standards, communist governments, and simply for a fresh start. Fear lead the United States into punishing innocent Japanese Americans; evidence did
The Refugee Act of 1980 put into place policies for refugees. It would redefine what a "refugee" was to agree with the United Nations norms. An objective for around 50 thousand for refugee immigrants was set around 50,000 while worldwide immigrant quota was reduced to 270,000 annually. Six years later the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) was passed. This Act created penalties for employers who, knowing hired illegal immigrants.
In the early 19th century, millions of immigrants from Europe had traveled to the United States to escape difficulties faced in their native lands such as poverty and religious persecution. Italian, German, Irish, and many other eastern European immigrants sought the prosperous and wealthy lifestyle advertised in the land of opportunity, the United States. However, after settling down they often faced the difficulties they had fled from as well as sentiments of prejudice and mistrust from the American people. Most immigrants were discriminated against due to their religious beliefs as well as their language barriers which fostered the beliefs that they were intellectually inferior to Americans.
I honestly feel if they cherish and represent the United States then they should be let off a little bit. They do at least fill in the jobs that others won’t do. Immigrants do take care of our lawns, work in restaurants, fix our roofs repair some of our streets and work hours in the winter time when people need to get to school, work and other places. They do snow removal and keep it safe for families, when they have families at home waiting for them. If they are making money, instead of doing nothing then, I feel they have every right to be here.
However, the prejudiced behavior towards Japanese people during the war did not start with the war but it encouraged the placement of Japanese Americans in internment camps. From the time the first Japanese arrived in United States groups formed against them. Since, American people were afraid that Asian people were a moral danger to the United States because they were not Christian. They also feared that Japanese people were taking away jobs from Americans. An example of the racism present in the early 1900s was the Immigration Restriction League, a group of anti-Japanese people.
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.
The Bible makes many references to people living away from their homeland and has a lot to say about caring for foreigners or refugees. In fact, the Scriptures speak of displaced people in both covenants, the Old and the New Testament. Thus, throughout the biblical narrative, a phenomenon has always been in evidence: people in movement, crossing territories and interacting with people from other cultural environments. In the midst of this very context, God reveals His heart for the stranger. 2.1.
