Americans at the turn of the century were alarmed about what they perceived as a change in the type of immigrants entering the United States. Some of the traits they saw as distinguishing the new immigrants from the old immigrants were real; some were imagined; some were half-true. The old immigration peaked in the 1880s. The new immigration peaked in 1907. Most of the old immigrants had come over from northern or western European countries, and were protestant. They were literate and skilled, came over as families, and had some money with them. They were also quick to assimilate into society due to their fair and tall characteristics. The new immigrants usually came from southern or eastern European countries and were usually Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish. They were also illiterate and unskilled, and came over as birds of passage. They were also poor and reluctant to assimilate into society due to their radical beliefs, and short and dark physical features. The "old" immigrants, being Anglo-Saxon, felt that in order for newer immigrants to become Americanized, they must divest themselves of their old culture and conform themselves to Anglo-American ways, which has it's roots all the way back to the British colonies. In the mid-19th century, numerous native groups sprang up. One of the most influential groups was the "Know-Nothing Party." It was called that because the members all answered, "I know nothing," when asked about the party's activities. What the party did was condemn the Irish and German immigrants for taking jobs away from the Native. And they also condemned them for being clannish and failing to assimilate into American society. But the biggest reason they condemned them was because they were Roman C... ... middle of paper ... ...sts tried to wipe every aspect of German culture from the United States. They stopped performing many German opera's, sauerkraut was renamed "liberty cabbage" and hamburgers became known as "Salisbury Steaks." In WW2, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, pacific coast groups became paralyzed with fear of the Japanese and the rumored "fifth column" engaged in espionage on behalf of the Japanese emperor. This led to the government internment camps in which over 110,000 people, 70,000 who were American citizens, were placed. The "melting pot" that was created in the United States did not grow and mold itself as smoothly as possible. It dealt with many hindrances from the "old" immigrants or nativists. Later on in the early 20th century, many other laws were passed such as the Immigration Acts of 1924, 1957, and 1965 which all helped restrict immigration.
In the years from 1860 through 1890, the prospect of a better life attracted nearly ten million immigrants who settled in cities around the United States. The growing number of industries produced demands for thousands of new workers and immigrants were seeking more economic opportunities. Most immigrants settled near each other’s own nationality and/or original village when in America.
The term melting-pot has been used since the 1700s. It has always been a metaphor to describe immigrants coming to America. The melting pot is a fusion of cultures and ethnicities into one larger culture. Americans did not like the idea of immigration to their country, viewing their country as beautiful the way it was. Many thought America would be ruined if too many people immigrated and left their cultural mark on the country. The melting-pot concept on immigration seems to highlight historically how America came to be, but for more current immigration, Americans views are more negative. American attitude towards immigrants in the 1900s was not very favorable. Since they feared them, immigrants were often treated horribly by Americans. Robert H. Clancy says, “Vigorous complaint and more or less bitter persecution have been aimed at newcomers to our shores. Also the congressional reports of about 1840 are full of abuse of English, Scotch, Welsh immigrants as paupers, criminals, and so forth.” (Clancy,
The United States’ government instilled a closed door policy with the creation of many immigration laws in an effort to make America a melting pot of similar ethnicities. However, the prejudice of American society that was enforced by immigration policy forced immigrants to form their own communities for the purpose of survival and protection, turning America into a mosaic of different cultures. The Burlingame Treaty of 1868 and Naturalization Act of 1870 both created a false image of acceptance for immigrants while simultaneously restricting immigration. The United States’ government only began clearly restricting immigration with the Page Act of 1875 and Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
The United States had an open door policy on immigration from the nations beginning until 1921. During that time, between 1790 and 1920, the population grew by 102 million. That’s about one million new immigrants each year for 130 years. Most of these immigrants were from European countries. In 1921 Congress passed the Quota Act which put a cap of 360,000 new immigrants per year. Congress did this because the public was concerned about the number of new immigrants and how it would affect the country. This act also favored immigrants from England, Germany, France, and Scandinavia over those from Asia, Africa, and southern Europe.
Discrimination of Immigrants in 1920's America Beginning in the early nineteenth century there were massive waves of immigration. These "new" immigants were largely from Italy, Russia, and Ireland. There was a mixed reaction to these incomming foreigners. While they provided industries with a cheap source of labor, Americans were both afraid of, and hostile towards these new groups.
In the eyes of the early American colonists and the founders of the Constitution, the United States was to represent the ideals of acceptance and tolerance to those of all walks of life. When the immigration rush began in the mid-1800's, America proved to be everything but that. The millions of immigrants would soon realize the meaning of hardship and rejection as newcomers, as they attempted to assimilate into American culture. For countless immigrants, the struggle to arrive in America was rivaled only by the struggle to gain acceptance among the existing American population.
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.
During the last 10-15 years of the Progressive Era, more than 15 million immigrants arrived in the United States— a number equal to the total number of immigrants that arrived in the previous 40 years. In 1910, three-fourths of New York City's population was made up of either immigrants or first generation Americans. Unlike earlier immigrants, the majority of the newcomers during this time came from non-English speaking European countries. Immigrants mostly traveled in from...
One reason that the old immigrants had such negative feelings toward open immigration was the amount of jobs that would be taken from them due to the cheap labor these new immigrants provided. In a resolution letter to congress from the AFL the unstated motive to denying Chinese immigrants from entering our country was not that they would increase crime or corrupt the politica...
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
America’s first wave of immigration began in 1840 through 1860 and lead to many demographic changes. Population increased due to natural reproduction and immigration. Many immigrants relocated to America seeking economic growth and opportunity or to escape religious persecution and political tensions. The Irish and the Germans were the first immigrants to migrate to America during the first wave of immigration. Each group had different reasons for settlement, but both faced discrimination from the Nativists.
With the extreme social and economic changes in the United States during the 1920s, there came many cultural and religious disputes. In the beginning of the twentieth century and before it, a huge amount of immigrants came to the U.S., searching for a better life. Many of the immigrants were Catholics or Jews who came from Europe. In light of all these foreigners coming to America, U.S. citizens became hostile and felt like something needed to be done about the unrestricted immigration that was happening. Americans wanted to keep their national, cultural, and religious identities in tact and also maintain the contrast of new and old values. The Americans who wanted this were known as nativists. Expressions of nativism started to become more frequent throughout the 1920s, and in turn, stricter immigration laws began to be put into place and Americans also began to take matters into their own hands in order to show who was in charge.
Until the 1860s, the early immigrants not only wanted to come to America, but they also meticulously planned to come. These immigrants known as the “Old Immigrants” immigrated to America from many countries in Northern and Western Europe, known as, Sweden, Norway, Scandinavia, Wales and Ireland. Some of them traveled to Canada, but most of them came to the U.S. seeking freedom they didn’t get in their own countries. Ireland had also recently suffered through a potato famine, where the citizens were left poor and starving. Most settled in New York City and other large cities, where they worked in factories and other low-paying jobs. The immigrants caused a great increase in population in these areas. The “Old Immigrants” tried not to cluster themselves with others of their own nationality. They would mostly try to fit in with Americans as best as they could. Many of them had a plan to come to America, so they saved their money and resources before they arrived so they could have a chance at a better life. On the other hand, another group of immigrants began to arrive
...ch made it so intelligent immigrants were allowed into the country. In 1921, the Emergency Immigration Act was passed. This act made it so the number of aliens of any nationality admitted to the U.S. in a year could not exceed 3 percent of the number of foreign-born residents of that nationality living in the U.S. in 1910. Even though this heavily cut down the number of immigrants entering the country, the majority of the immigrants were "new immigrants." This led to the National Origins Act in 1924. This act was harsher than the act of 1921 because it decreased the percentage of immigrants from 3% to 2%, and pushed the year from 1910 to 1890, thus making the majority of immigrants "old immigrants."
Millions of immigrants over the previous centuries have shaped the United States of America into what it is today. America is known as a “melting pot”, a multicultural country that welcomes and is home to an array of every ethnic and cultural background imaginable. We are a place of opportunity, offering homes and jobs and new economic gains to anyone who should want it. However, America was not always such a “come one, come all” kind of country. The large numbers of immigrants that came during the nineteenth century angered many of the American natives and lead to them to blame the lack of jobs and low wages on the immigrants, especially the Asian communities. This resentment lead to the discrimination and legal exclusion of immigrants, with the first and most important law passed being the Chinese Exclusion Act. However, the discrimination the Chinese immigrants so harshly received was not rightly justified or deserved. With all of their contributions and accomplishments in opening up the West, they were not so much harming our country but rather helping it.