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Immigration in America in the 20th century
Essay on america's immigration history
Essay on america's immigration history
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I. Historical Background of Immigration Immigration in the United States was primarily unrestricted and unregulated up until the 1880’s. It wasn’t until 1882 when federal regulation of immigration began. Congress passed the Immigration Act which established the collection of a fee from each noncitizen arriving at a U.S. port. Immigrants were screened for the first time under this act, and entry by anyone deemed a "convict, lunatic, idiot, or person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge" was prohibited. The United States industrial revolution brought immigrants from near and far. Chinese immigrants began to arrive in large numbers after gold was discovered in California in 1848 but as the mining boom decreased, hostility toward the Chinese and other foreigners swelled and that began a succession of legislative measures to restrict immigration of particular racial groups, starting with the Chinese. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stopped immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years and extradition of anyone in the country illegally which was extended ten more years in 1892 with the Geary Act. In 1888 Congress passed, the Scott Act and banned the return of any Chinese immigrant with legal status in the United States if they had left the country. As more and more people came to the United States, …show more content…
The Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 dismantled the national-origins quota system and replaced it with a seven-category preference system based primarily on family unification. Before the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act amendments, Congress terminated the Bracero program, they had authorized during World War II to recruit agricultural workers from Mexico to fill farm and labor shortages in the United
One particular ethnic group that suffered severe discrimination was the Chinese people. They first came to America for several reasons. One of them was the gold rush in California in 1849, in which they were included in a group of immigrants called the “Forty-Niners” (179). From gold mining, they switched to other jobs with resulted in the rise of anti-Chinese sentiments. People felt that Chinese people were taking the jobs away from them, because Chinese people worked for much smaller salaries that businesses preferred. This mindset gave way to the creation of The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882, which prohibits more Chinese immigrants from coming to America. In addition, the act states “no State or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship”. Like the Naturalization Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act was created to hinder Chinese people from becoming citizens so that America could remain homogenously white (186). It also aimed to stop Chinese people from establishing a bigger community in the country in hopes of eliminating the threat of competition to their white counterparts (186). Like African-Americans, Chinese people were considered racially inferior and have struggled to prove that they were worthy to be called true Americans, rather than
The Great Migration started in 1910 and continued through 1930. It was a period in time which saw 1.6 million African Americans relocate from the southern states to the northern states(AAME). There are four main which contributed to this occurring. The first was better and more skilled job opportunities available in the north. Many blacks were not allowed to work or hold high paying jobs in the South. The second was the oppression of African Americans in the South. They were treated very poorly and were often victims of racism and crime at a much higher rate than in the Northern states. The third was they wanted to have the right to vote. The Jim Crow laws restricted African Americans from basic rights including voting, in the South, while
Many came for gold and job opportunities, believing that their stay would be temporary but it became permanent. The Chinese were originally welcomed to California being thought of as exclaimed by Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific Railroad, “quiet, peaceable, industrious, economical-ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work” (Takaki 181). It did not take long for nativism and white resentment to settle in though. The Chinese, who started as miners, were taxed heavily; and as profits declined, went to work the railroad under dangerous conditions; and then when that was done, work as farm laborers at low wages, open as laundry as it took little capital and little English, to self-employment. Something to note is that the “Chinese laundryman” was an American phenomenon as laundry work was a women’s occupation in China and one of few occupations open to the Chinese (Takaki 185). Chinese immigrants were barred from naturalized citizenship, put under a status of racial inferiority like blacks and Indians as with “Like blacks, Chinese men were viewed as threats to white racial purity” (188). Then in 1882, due to economic contraction and racism Chinese were banned from entering the U.S. through the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese were targets of racial attacks, even with the enactment of the 1870 Civil Rights Act meaning equal protection under federal law thanks to Chinese merchants lobbying Congress. Chinese tradition and culture as well as U.S. condition and laws limited the migration of women. Due to all of this, Chinese found strength in ethnic solidarity as through the Chinese Six Companies, which is considered a racial project. Thanks to the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, the Chinese fought the discriminatory laws by claiming citizenship by birth since the fires
Gold Rush 1849 was the reason for such a frenzy. It caused people to migrate to California from near and far too dig for gold from the river. According to the film, The Chinese Exclusion Act Explained: US History Review, “This attracted Chinese entrepreneurs to try to make it rich”. The Chinese was one of the cultures that was one of the cultures that left their home to find a better life for their families. However, after being greeted in the United States, they were discriminated against them since they were feared by the Europeans. Racism towards the Chinese immigrant caused a lot of hardship on them in the Western civilization, enabling them to enter or exit without returning to the States.
The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 encouraged Chinese immigration for work on railroads and southern plantations while simultaneously withholding the privilege of naturalization. This encouraged the emergence of ‘coolie’ laborers, whose passage into the United States was paid for under the agreement that they would work as indentured servants for a pre-determined period of time. Although the Chinese helped build the transcontinental railroad, their unusual style of dress still created prejudice against their ethnicity. This lead to the creation of Chinatowns as a necessary cultural barrier used for protection against the rest of society. After encouraging Chinese immigration, the government realized that these immigrants would procreate and needed to decide what immigration status children born in America would hold. The Naturalization Act of 1870 was the solution to this question, declaring any child born in the United States a citizen of the country, regardless of the race of the child. This necessarily lead to more immigration restrictions since a...
In 1960 another policy change was enacted. It changed the makeup and number of immigrants coming to the United States. Congress passed the Nationality Act of 1965. The act took effect in 1968 and set an annual immigration cap of 290,000. The eastern hemisphere could contribute 170,000 new immigrants and the western hemisphere could contribute 120,000 new immigrants for the grand total of 290,000 immigrants. The new law...
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.
-The 1921 Immigration Act was the first to include any quantitative restrictions on immigration. The Asian “barred zone” was upheld, but all other immigration was limited to three percent of the foreign-born population of any given group in the United States at the time of the 1910 census.
Though the Congress passed many constitutional amendments guaranteeing civil rights, Chinese immigrants were still segregated and discriminated against. Eventually in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, prohibiting any Chinese or Mongolian individuals from entering California. This act required Chinese who were not laborers to provide certification to show they were qualified to immigrate, defining deniable as skilled/unskilled laborers, and employed in mining. This made it extremely difficult for the Chinese to prove qualification to enter the state. In 1943, Congress had finally revoked this
declines in the 1920’s. Post World War One Immigration restrictions increase because railroads and basic industries were developed by the 1920’s and didn’t need cheap labor. The 1921 Emergency Quota Act established restrictions on the number of immigrants, and the countries they’re from. The Immigration Act of 1924 shut down most Immigration to America. After the Immigration Act of 1924 87% of permits went to European countries such as Ireland,Britain, France, Germany, and Scandinavia. Immigration to the U.S. changed in the 1920’s because more Immigration restrictions were introduced.
Migration is an arduous process and can be a stress-inducing experience (Aroian & Norris, 2003) that can lead to numerous social and mental health issues varying from social isolation, depression and anxiety (Blair, 2000). Alongside migration comes the complex and lifelong endeavor of acculturation, defined as the process by which individuals or groups transition from one or more cultures into another (Cainkar, 2000). Although Arab immigrants have been migrating to the United States since 1854 (Miller, 1976) and may currently number more than two million today (Nydell, 2012), discussion of the Arab American populations was, until recently, conspicuously absent from the literature. This article will first explore the reasons for immigration as it impacts the way this population assimilates to their host country. It will then provide a description of the challenges and difficulties this population faces, with a focus on the source of the post immigration stressors they undergo and the impact it has on their acculturation process. Finally, it will explore the use of an existential approach in treatment with an Arab-American client resisting assimilation to the new host country due to an inability to cope with post-immigration stressors.
Immigration has been a topic that has caused multiple discussions on why people migrate from one country to another, also how it affects both the migraters and the lands they go. Immigration is the movement from one location to another to live there permanently. This topic has been usually been associated with sociology to better explain how it affects people, cultures and societies. Sociology has three forms of thinking that are used to describe and analyze this topic. There are three forms of thinking that are used to tell and describe immigration to society; structural functionalist, symbolic interactionist, and conflict theory. Each of these theories uses different forms of thinking and rationality to describe and explain socio topics.
Immigrants have always been an important part of United States’ population. Each year, there are hundreds of thousands of immigrants, from all around the world, including legal and illegal, come into the United States for job opportunities, new life, or the American Dream. “Immigrants have contributed significantly to the development of the United States. During the Lincoln administration, immigrants were actually encouraged to come to America, as they were considered valuable to the development of the country.” (Soylu & Buchanan, 2013). They believe that the US will give them more freedom, protection, and opportunities, which sometimes it becomes the major issues for immigrants. That’s why “the U.S. population is becoming more racially and
Today, in most cases, people don’t spend very much time thinking about why the society we live in presently, is the way it is. Most people would actually be surprised about all that has happened throughout America’s history. Many factors have influenced America and it’s society today, but one of the most profound ways was the way the “Old Immigrants” and “New Immigrants” came to America in the early to mid 1800s. The “Old Immigrants were categorized as the ones who came before 1860 and the “New Immigrants” being the ones who came between 1865 and 1920. The immigrants came to the United States, not only seeking freedom, but also education. Many immigrants also wanted to practice their religion without hindrance. What happened after the immigrants
The immigration continued with subsequent large-scale labor projects, such as the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. During the early stages of the Gold Rush, the Chinese were tolerated. As gold and jobs became increasingly sparse, competition increased in conjunction with an aversion for the Chinese. California citizens pressured the state legislature to exclude all foreign miners, as many believed the Chinese were taking gold that belonged to the US. This led to the Chinese Police Tax Law of April 26, 1862. This law was enacted to protect free white labor against competition with Chinese coolie labor, and to discourage the immigration of the Chinese into the state of California by implementing a monthly tax of $2.50 on Chinese immigrants seeking to do business in California. The signing of this law was the signal that acknowledged and accepted subsequent state-sanctioned racism. The Chinese were segregated in schools, banned from sections of cities, subject to additional taxes and were prohibited from marrying white citizens. In 1854, the Appellate Supreme Court of California ruled that