Opposition to Immigration in 19th and 20th Century America

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Immigration in 19th and 20th Century America During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many American nativist groups opposed free unrestricted immigration. Although racism is a main reason, there were many others. Economic, political, social and moral standards seemed to be threatened by these newcomers. The immigrants were unfamiliar of the language and customs that we take for granted in our everyday lives. The fear that gripped the nation was why people reacted so strongly against immigrants. The people feared change might distort the course of our prospering country. We did not want to become what those immigrants were fleeing. Many economic changes were changing the pace of our nation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There were changes being made in how business was being taken care of and how the workers were being treated. Strikes and riots were a constant concern to factory owners. They felt they could not afford to risk their enterprise to demonstrations of dissatisfaction by their workers. By the owners standards, their workers were being paid quite well. However, an immigrant would be willing to twice as much work for half the wages. Millions of immigrants came to America looking for work. This made many Americans apprehensive at the thought of immigrants taking over their jobs. With so many immigrants, who were thought of as untrained, dirty, uncultivated and an inconvenience, factory owners feared that they would be unable to control such kind of unfamiliar people. These immigrants stuck together, almost like animals, nativists thought. Living in ethnic communities, and working in groups with one another. Separately they were seen as weak and unworthy of any basic human ca... ... middle of paper ... ...n garbage that failed to even get recognition in their old country, and then they come here to spread their disease. This is what the nativists believed. Jails were full, because immigrants were violent animals. Insane asylums were full because, immigrants were not as capable of equal mentality. Almshouses, were full of immigrants because they were lazy, leaching people who wouldn't get jobs. This may sound harsh, but this is how nativists felt. Immigrants were seem and treated like breathing debris that could stepped on without a second thought. However when so many people set so many obstacles against you, it I hard to overcome them and become successful. Immigrants were part of the changes in society, that is true, but they did not cause the change. Civilizations evolve and most people just could not come to terms with that unless they had something to blame.

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