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selfbnd411 -> RE: Immigration crackdown, its about time. (5/13/2007 2:19:37 PM)
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Here's a bit of history for you. I think you'll find that almost everyone was considered to be an "undesirable alien" in this country at some point in their family history. You'll also see that most of the charges against immigrants today were leveled against your own ancestors as well.
Immigration is a legitimate policy debate, but it should be based on those terms only: public policy. Not based on the ignorance of American history that I see so strongly demonstrated in these posts. I find it to be a shameful thing that such great quantities of stridently held opinion are based on very little empirical evidence. Argue the pros and cons of immigration, but do not claim that you are so very different from current immigrants unless you have the knowledge and reason to back it up.
Prior Immigration waves:
Irish: mid-19th century. Their Catholicism branded them as "barbarians," and they were considered to be "non-white" as American nativists drew upon English prejudice against them. Their alcoholism made them poor additions to America's Anglo-Saxon genetic stock according to some. They were not considered to be "white" until subsequent waves of immigrants arrived, many of whom were more different from the Anglo-American model than the Irish had been.
Chinese and Japanese: 1860s and 1870s. Obviously physically different, and spoke an incomprehensible language to many Americans. Americans of all stripes united against the "Yellow Peril" though the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which effectively forbade any immigration by the Chinese. Japanese immigration was similarly limited by local legislation, followed by the so-called "Gentleman's Agreement" between Theodore Roosevelt and Japan under which the United States agreed to eliminate prohibitions on Japanese immigration in exchange for the Japanese agreeing to prevent immigration to the United States. This was seen as "saving face."
Italians: Late 19th/early 20th centuries. Also Catholic, poor, and often dark-skinned due to the mixing of various races as a result of many occupations of Italy over the generations. Thought to be genetically disposed to criminal behavior, the worst example of which was the importation of the notion of highly organized crime thought the Mafia. At best, they were clannish and whole swaths of major American cities fell to the invasion of "Little Italys." Approximately 20% of Italian immigrants were here as temporary workers, returning home after earning their money.
Slavs: Late 19th/early 20th centuries. Poor, often Jewish, and considered to be of mixed racial heritage (Slavs were thought to be a "bridge" race between Asians and Europeans). Also spoke an incomprehensible language. Worse, these individuals had roots in autocratic nations, and it was thought that an "invasion" of these peoples would result in the death of American democracy. They hailed from Empires: Russia and Austria-Hungary. They were said to be a threat to the living conditions of the average working man--unionization was difficult because employers consciously hired large groups of Slavic immigrants, then pitted them against their native American co-workers. Since native Americans hated these people, their presence effectively prevented any sort of collective action to improve wages and working conditions.
Germans: World War I was a period of great trial for German-Americans. Many Americans sympathized with the "mother country," England, during the war. However, some thought German-Americans were a real threat to American national security. De-Germanification fads hit America--A German-American was lynched for speaking poorly of President Wilson, foods such as sauerkraut were renamed "Liberty Cabbage," the New York Philharmonic Society banned the playing of German music for the duration of the war, German was no longer taught in schools, and a statue of the great German author Goethe was painted white.
A wave of immigrants struck America once again immediately after World War I. The war had effectively prevented immigration since passage was too dangerous, and this pent-up demand released itself as soon as the war was over. This caused renewed fears of an "immigrant invasion." Often, Americans of Western European heritage during the 1920s would proudly refer to themselves as "One Hundred Per Cent Americans," clearly distinguishing themselves from the Irish, Italians, Slavs, and Germans. By implication, these people were not quite 100% American.
This renewed wave of immigration led to the 1921 Emergency Quota Act, followed by the National Origins Act of 1924. This imposed a quota equal to 2% of the 1890 Census population from any particular country. The intended consequence of this act was to prevent the further immigration of "alien" peoples such as Italians and Slavs, because they had not begun to immigrate en masse until after the 1890 census. The act was passed during the 1920s and 1930s, when the theory of Eugenics was popular. This theory held that nations had particular racial compositions, and thus allowing too many Slavic immigrants would "poison" the "pure American bloodline." It was also the basis of Nazism.
There was no restriction on immigration from Latin America, because American farmers needed Latin labor. The National Origins Act of 1924 remained the law until the Immigration Act of 1965, which replaced the quota system with a flat level of immigration that was roughly equal for the Western and Eastern hemispheres. It eliminated the exclusion of Asians from immigration. The Immigration Act of 1965 remains the basis of American immigration policy to this day.
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