![Previous](images/arrows_contents1.bmp) ![Previous](images/arrows_back.bmp) ![Home](images/arrows_home.bmp) ![Next](images/arrows_right.bmp) ![](images/cloze_blank.jpg) ![](images/cloze.bmp)
A Divided Society
I – Immigration
|
|
Why did people emigrate to the USA?
Many were escaping poverty, persecution/discrimination in their country of birth
America was known all over the world as the land of
prosperity, opportunity and freedom.
|
Going Deeper
The following links will help you widen your knowledge:
BBC Bitezise notes on
immigration, the Red Scare
and
Life for Immigrants
Historiography of
American immigration
Isolationism
'Native' and 'Foreign' - extensive resources
about the immigration issue
Essay: What was life like for immigrants to America in the 1920s?
Podcast
Giles Hill on American Isolationism
Powerpoint
Isolationism
YouTube
Vito Corleone
comes to New York - director Francis Ford Coppola's interpretation of arriving at Ellis Island for the 1972 film The Godfather.
Little Italy - Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 interpretation
Little Italy
- images from the time
Source A
America is God's Melting Pot, where all the races of Europe
are melting and reforming! Germans, Frenchmen, Irishmen and Englishmen, Jews and
Russians - into the Melting Pot with you all! God is making the American.
Israel Zangwill, The Melting Pot (1908)
Source B
New arrivals should be limited to our capacity to absorb them into the ranks of good citizenship.
America must be kept American ...
I am convinced that our present economic and social conditions warrant a limitation of those to be admitted.
Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle
in America.
President Coolidge, Message to Congress, 1923
Source C
As soon as they step off the decks of their ships our problem has begun - bolshevism, red anarchy, black-handers and kidnappers, challenging the authority and integrity of our flag…
Thousands come here who never take the oath to support our constitution and to become citizens of the United Sates. They pay allegiance to some other country while they live upon the substance of our own. They fill places that belong to the loyal wage-earning citizens of America… They are of no service whatever to our people.
They constitute a menace and a danger to us every day..
Speech by Senator Heflin of Alabhama, 1921
Source D
![](images/ImmigrationQuota1921.JPG)
A 1921 cartoon by the American artist Hallahan: 'The Only Way to Handle
It'
|
Why did Americans want to stop immigration? [TRIADS]
ALL Americans were immigrant families, of course, but until
1890 most immigrants were 'WASPs' (white Anglo-Saxon Protestants) from the
wealthier countries of Europe such as Britain, Germany and Sweden.
Trade Unions
opposed immigration because they feared that immigrants
would work for lower wages and take their jobs.
-
Racism, nativism
and eugenics
The profusion of races worried the WASPs; one Senator in
the 1920s said that the American pioneers were turning into 'a race of
mongrels'. In 1916 eugenicist Madison Grant published The Passing
of the Great Race, which claimed that northern European races were
genetically superior, and that the ‘inferior stock’ of southern & eastern
Europe and Asia would dilute the purer American genes. This racism is
sometimes called ‘nativism’; in 1924 the state of Virginia passed a Racial
Integrity Act which set the 'one-drop rule': a person with even one drop of
non-white ancestry was classified as ‘colored’ or non-white.
-
Isolationism
The trauma of WWI led many Americans to want to return to
the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, that America should stay out of Europe's
affairs, and Europe should stay out of America's.
'Alien menace'
Communism terrified Americans; after 1919 there was a
‘Red Scare’ and immigrants – especially Italians – were suspected of
bringing communism and anarchism.
Meanwhile, Italian ‘Mafia’, Chinese ‘Tong’ and Jewish
groups such as the Detroit ‘Purple Gang’ formed organised crime groups. Famous immigrant gangsters
of the 1920s include
‘Lucky’ Luciano,
Frank Costello and
Al Capone.
'Different'
After 1890, more immigrants started arriving from Eastern
Europe and Asia; they were often poor, illiterate, could not speak English,
and had different cultures and religions … and tended therefore to live in
ethnic neighbourhoods, where they could worship, shop, and socialize
together. This separation from mainstream American society led to
further ignorance of their cultures and traditions among other Americans,
which increased prejudice and racism views in society.
-
'Swamped'
The large numbers of immigrants arriving (13 million
1900-14) led many Americans to fear they were being ‘swamped’. Cities
were growing quickly, and services struggled to keep up with the expansion.
|
Immigration Quotas
Demand grew to slow down immigration. An Immigration Restriction League was formed in 1894, and there followed a number of laws to restrict immigration:
1917: Immigration Law
This required all immigrants to prove they could read English,
banned all immigration from Asia, and charged an immigration fee of $8.
1921: Emergency Quota Act
This stated that the number of immigrants from 'the eastern hemisphere' could not be more than 3% of the number already in America in 1910.
It set the maximum number of immigrants in any year at 357,000.
1924: Reed-Johnson Act
Maximum number of immigrants in any year at 154,000.
Quota from eastern hemisphere reduced to 2% of those already in America in 1890;
the South and the East of Europe were thus only allowed to send 20,000
immigrants per year, and non-Europeans only 4,000.
|
|
The Experience of Immigrants [ARCADE]
Arrival
Immigrants (70% of whom
arrived on Ellis Island) had to undergo medical tests and anyone suffering from
a disease was kept on the Island for days or even weeks, or else returned to
their own country.
Immigrants were questioned about their work and
financial situation, and were given literacy tests (for fear they might
become a burden on society).
Some had to wait for money from relatives before they
could leave the island.
Young women were detained
until a relative came for them (for fear they might become destitute and
resort to prostitution).
Reduced Work
Opportunities
Many immigrants (and their children) took work in industrial and manufacturing sectors, including factories, mills, and mines. Jobs were often low-paying, physically demanding, and involved long hours – the jobs that native-born Americans would not take.
Some businesses took advantage of their need and recruited immigrants into
positions involving both long hours and low pay.
Many immigrants worked
fanatically hard, and sent their children to good schools, trying to build a
better life for the next generation.
Conditions &
Communities
Most immigrants went to the
cities, where they often lived in overcrowded, insanitary and substandard
housing, with many immigrant communities developing into slums.
Ethnic Enclaves developed – tight-knit communities where immigrants could maintain their cultural practices, speak their native languages, and support one another. Examples include Little Italy, Chinatown, and Jewish ghettos in major cities. Maintaining cultural traditions, such as food, language, religion, and festivals, was crucial for preserving a sense of identity and community – and therefore a sense of ‘safeness’ – among immigrants.
-
Access to healthcare and Social Services was often limited, with immigrants relying on community-based clinics and services provided by charitable organizations.
Settlement houses, such as Hull House in Chicago, provided essential
services to immigrant communities, including education, healthcare, and
legal assistance.
Americanisation
Measures were taken to 'Americanise' immigrants. Not all this was racism and prejudice - many social workers saw it as a way to help immigrants out of the terrible poverty many of them lived in:
Children of immigrants attended public schools where they learned English and American customs, aiding in their integration into American society.
-
In time, immigrant culture
significantly enriched American culture through contributions in music,
cuisine, literature, and the arts, building a pluralistic society in the
United States.
Discrimination
Anti-immigrant sentiment and
nativism led to every-day social discrimination, economic exploitation, and
legislative restrictions.
-
Laws such as the Naturalization Act restricted the ability of the ‘second wave’ of immigrants to become citizens. This barred them from voting and political participation.
-
In some industries, such as mining, immigrants were forced to live in company-owned towns where they paid rent and bought goods at inflated prices from company stores, leaving them perpetually indebted to their employers.
-
Housing rules and covenants often explicitly barred immigrants from certain areas.
-
Immigrants were ridiculed for their accents, customs, and traditional clothing.
-
The media often portrayed immigrants in a negative light.
-
Immigrants and immigrant
communities were disproportionally targeted by the Red Scare.
Engagement
Because of the everyday
discrimination they faced, immigrant often joined trade unions, participating in
strikes the fight for better wages and working conditions.
Some became involved in
local politics and advocacy, seeking to improve conditions for their
communities – examples include
Fiorello La Guardia ,
Emma Goldman,
David Dubinsky and
Rose Schneiderman.
|
Consider:
1. Can you find examples of the factors causing Americans
to oppose immigration [TRIADS]
in Sources B-D?
2. Use these ideas to explain why Source A is so
different in its atttitude to Sources B-C .
3 Why do you think the 1924 Reed-Johnson Act
pushed the date back from 1910 to 1890?
4. Write an essay: "How far was racism the cause of American opposition to immigration in the 1920s?" Can you do better than ChatGPT's essay?
5. Use the YouTube video of images from the
time to critique Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 interpretation of life in
Little Italy.
|