Before the 1920’s American had an ‘open door’ policy and many people from around the world travelled there to fight poverty and experience the American dream. However then America introduced two immigration laws in 1921 and 1924 which restricted immigrants from Southern, Central and Western European countries such as Italy and Russia. Fear of communism explains the changes in American policy toward immigration in the 1920’s to a certain extent. However factors such as Isolationism, Prejudice and Racism, Social Fears, the Effects of WW1 and Economic fears were also important.
In 1917 the Russian revolution took place. Many Americans were suspicious that Russian immigrants might spread communist ideas. This shows that Americans were scared of/ didn’t want communism as it contradicted the American Dream and took away personal advancement by hard work. In January 1920, 5 elected members of the New York State Assembly could not take
The Emergency Quota Act 1921 reduced immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, only 3%of each nationality already living in the USA were allowed to stay (everyone else was removed. This shows that they were trying to isolate themselves from troubles in other parts of the world. The Origins Act 1924 reduced the Eastern European quota to 2%and banned any more Asians from entering. This shows that many Americans were xenophobic (scared of immigrants) as they thought that new immigrants would destroy what old immigrants had worked for. Isolation partly explains the changes in American policy towards the fear of immigration. Isolation was a larger reason for the changes in American policy towards immigration than the fear of communism. This was because the fear of communism was only a short term problem revolving around the Russian revolution and the palmer raids, whereas Isolationism gave many Americans a general ill feeling about being involved in European
Americans knew about Communism because Communists had been at large in the country for years. When the Bolshevik revolution succeeded in Russia, it sent a shock wave in America. Americans have never been sympathetic to radicalism in any form. People that were associated with radicalism, rightly or wrongly, were harassed, lynched, jailed and subject to all sorts of bias. Thousands were arrested in 1920 and often held for long periods without trial. The Red Scare of 1920 was a precursor of McCarthyism (Baughman 200).
As America continued to recruit workers from other countries, they continually worried about an immigration problem. In 1924, the Federal government passed the Immigration Act which officially barred further immigration from Asia and Europe to the U.S.
In the early 1920's, many generational Americans had moderately racist views on the "new immigrants," those being predominantly from Southern and Eastern Europe. Americans showed hatred for different races, incompatibility with religion, fear of race mixing, and fear of a revolution from other races. At the time, people believed the Nordic race was supreme. John Higham explains in "Racism Immigration Restriction" that in Americans at the turn of the century already had a dislike for the new immigrants and now with more entering America after World War I, the personal dislike intensified. He writes: "...
American was a prosperous country with incredible economic growth between the end of Reconstruction and the Great Depression. It was during this time that "industrial expansion went into high gear because increasing manufacturing efficiencies enabled American firms to cut prices and yet earn profits for financing still better equipment (Henretta 488)." During this era, the manufacturing of steel, the construction of railroads, factories, and warehouses, and the growing demand for technological advancements, increased greatly. Philanthropists, such as Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, and John D. Rockefeller, took advantage of the situation they were in by investing large sums of capital into the growing economy. Carnegie constructed an enormous steel mill outside of Pittsburgh that became one of the worlds' largest. Mellon started the Union Trust Fund in Pittsburgh, which developed in its later years to one of the largest financial institutions in the country. Rockefeller, who was involved in the petroleum industry, built the Standard Oil Company. Philanthropists were not the only group of people funding the growth of Corporate America. "The federal government, mainly interested in encouraging interregional development, provided financial credit and land grants (Henretta 490)." As a whole, the American economy was growing at an incredible rate. It was due to this growth that countless immigrants from Europe made their way over the Atlantic, as well as African Americans migrating from the South, both with hopes of improving their own standards of life.
According to Mae Ngai, American officials like Everett F. Drumright and other individuals were able to use the scare of communism to influence immigration policies (Ngai 2004). Drumright claimed that the Chinese were sneaking communists into American as immigrants with false documentation. The fear of communism gave Drumright the power he needed to deny passports and visas to immigrants, even though his accusations were based on suspicion. This is one of the ways the United States provided a reason to keep immigrants, especially immigrants from Europe and Asia, out of the United
The 1920’s were also referred to as the roaring 20’s because it was a time of and change in the U.S. However, with this new decade came reform, with this reform came conflicts. During the first fifteen years of the Twentieth Century, more than 13,000,000 individuals came to the United States. For quite a while, open feeling against unlimited movement had been developing. Through a progression of measures coming full circle in the Immigration Quota Law of 1924, the yearly number of outsiders was restricted to 150,000, to be circulated among people groups of different nationalities in extent to the quantity of their comrades as of now in the United States in 1920. From 1820 to 1929, more than 32,000,000 people from Europe had gone to the United States, where they had discovered new homes and manufactured new lives and contributed lavishly to its way of life.
The Bolshevik Revolution of Russia happened in 1917. This put a lot of fear into the hearts of Americans for one reason: Communism. Communism is the main
Ross felt that the immigrants would never truly fit into American society and that they would always cause problems such as alcoholism, crime, and poverty. Because of the beliefs, many American citizens discriminated against the new immigrants, often in violent ways. In addition, many Americans wanted the government to restrict the number of new immigrants allowed into the country. One group calling for restrictions was known as the “Nativists” because they felt “that native born people should be given first consideration for jobs” (Anderson 19). Another group was called the “Know Nothing Party” because its members were sworn to secrecy. Because of pressure from these groups, the U. S. government passed several laws to limit immigration. For example, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882. Other laws were passed that prohibited “undesirables” from entering the country. These “undesirables” included not only people with criminal records, but also people who were mentally ill or illiterate. In the 1920s, the U. S. government passed a series of “quota” laws that not only limited the number of new immigrants allowed into the country, but also showed favoritism toward immigrants from north and west
Question 1: The reason the 1920s were a unique time period because there was significant amount of changes. The Roaring twenties was a time where there was technology was getting more advanced and there was an economic growth. Also women were more open, they smoked in public, danced, and listen to jazz. It challenges the way others look at women, the stereotypes and expectation for them were ignored. There were making more money and they were able to get job like teachers, and nurses. Lastly Harlem Renaissance was a time where African Americans moved to Harlem and they made a community where they can display their talents. It helped changed how people view African Americans and it gave them their own identify.
The U.S. during this time period had a strong sense of nativism and did not like immigrants. Immigrants scared the American people because they brought new ideas and were seen as having different thoughts that were not “American”. This eventually led to an increase in the KKK membership because it promoted “100% Americanism.” Immigrants also had jobs that an unemployed American could have, causing more hatred towards immigrants. So immigrants could be limited the U.S. passed the National Origins Act of 1924, which only allowed a certain amount of immigrants to come into the U.S. Strikes were also another reason that led to anti-communist feelings because the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia showed that the people had the power to overthrow the government and lead to creation similar to the Soviet Union. Strikes were seen as a passageway to for revolutions occurring in the U.S. An example of a strike that affected the U.S. was the 1919 Seattle General Strike because it was a five day stoppage of work, which decreased
Quotas and restrictions passed into law made it very difficult to immigrate to the United States from overseas. The Immigration Act of 1924 limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the United States by providing visas to two percent of the total number of people of each nationality, completely excluding immigrants from Asia. This was partially due as a result of a growing concern about radical revolutions being imported into the country. The Immigration Act was an amendment of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 that hurt New Immigrants by cutting the acceptances from the census of 1890 from three percent to two percent. Labor unions also feared that immigrants would take jobs away from “real” Americans. Native born Americans felt they were losing their cities and jobs to undesirable newcomers which revived a renewed nativism and hostility to new immigrants. Prior to the Emergency Quota Act and Immigration Act, the only restriction against immigrants by federal law was the Chinese Exclusion Act. Rather than hoping that the New Immigrants could be molded into good Americans, these Acts focused on blocking immigrations
From 1820 to 1930, the United States received about 60% of the world’s immigrants. Population expansion in developed areas of the world, improved methods of transportation. Reasons for immigration, like those for migration, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. These economic, political, and social conditions led to the “New” immigration after 1890. Take for instance the political reasons, where new immigrants favored democratic America where citizens had a voice in government because European governments were run by upper classes and commoners had no say in political matters. When it comes to social reasons we see that the European society was characterized by class distinctions for the lower class and discrimination against religious minorities, and most European governments forced young men to serve terms of military service. Economically, European city workers worked for low wages ant there was unemployment. Immigrants figured finding a job would be easy and making money would be a cinch.
United States was become an Isolation country. United States close the doors to limited immigration from Asia at first, finally, United Sates also limited the immigration from Europeans, particularly eastern and southern
Many Americans disagreed with the the increasing numbers of Immigrants and those immigrants values in the United States, so some of them took action to prevent them from coming to America. In the past there had been some attempts at restricting immigration, for instance, Congress banned Chinese immigration in 1882 and Theodore Roosevelt tried to limit Japanese immigration in 1907. In the 1920s nativists were concerned there were too many European immigrants coming to the U.S. These concerns were introduced to Congress and emergency immigration restrictions were passed in 1921.
A child reunites with his or her mother for the first time in forever, put yourself in their shoes and imagine what it would be like. How would you feel? Immigration has been an important and frequently debated topic in the U.S. because of many people migrate here legally and illegally and the effects it has in the country, but first what is immigration? According to the Oxford dictionary, Immigration is the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country. In the last few years, a lot has changed with the Immigration policy in the United States. According to American Immigration Council (AIC), the body of law governing current immigration policy, provides for an annual worldwide limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants, with certain exceptions for close family members (AIC, 2014). Everyone has different opinions about the change, but I am more interested in the reason behind why people migrate to United