Although the United States was created as a nation of immigrants, outsiders after the initial wave were quickly and repeatedly looked down upon. Additionally, there were repeated attempts to both limit the rights and immigration levels of these so-called "outsiders".
One of the first movements that were partly based off of targetting immigrants was the Temperance Movement. this supported the ban on the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol. Supporters argued that alcohol caused men to beat their wives and waste their paycheck; more importantly, alcohol was purportedly more popular among immigrants, such as the Catholic Irish. This quickly drew supporters as many Americans disliked the "rowdy" Irish Immigrants and the largely Protestant population was against Catholicism.
Further conflicts arose during the mid 19th century, as middle-class Americans were unhappy over the fact that immigrants were stealing their jobs for lower wages.A political party that fed on these beliefs was the know-nothing party. This Party was strongly against Catholics, and the name "Know-Nothing" came from the fact that it was a secret organization, and any members were supposed to respond that they "knew nothing" if asked. The party very quickly spread in influence as it harnessed the opinions of the Protestant majority and at its peak, even won the Massachusetts Legislation.
The late 19th century saw the Chinese exclusion act, which as the name suggests, severely limited the immigration of Chinese people. This bill, which was passed in 1882, passed new guidelines that excluded all skilled, unskilled, and miners from immigrating. This continued to 1943, with a yearly quota of only 105 Chinese people. Continued after this bill was the immigrant act of 1924, which still limited the number of immigrants using a national quota.
Ever since the creation of the USA, there have been repeated movements and bills that tried to limit the influx of immigrants. This pushback against immigrants has continued into the current day, and it is yet to be seen whether it will change in the future.
https://www.thoughtco.com/temperance-movement-prohibition-timeline-3530548
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Know-Nothing_Party
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=47
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act
I learned a lot from this post and was really surprised to discover that the prohibition era was tied with anti immigration reform. Looking deeper into the subject, it's very clear that prohibition was used to justify immigration reform. The cultures that many of these immigrants came from were more tolerant in regards to alcohol and immigrants made up the brewing industry. The prohibition era combined nativist sentiment with the morals of trying to retain America's purity through banning alcohol. It goes to show that while people may start off with one intention, they're actions become twisted and they end up harming others.
ReplyDeleteSource : https://wilsonquarterly.com/stories/what-prohibition-can-teach-us-about-immigration-reform/
I really liked how you went through out the American immigration attitude and how it progressed in the 19th century. I looked into the current attitude towards such quotas coming back due to the conservative nature of our current government and found that Jeff sessions has praised the quotas and Asiatic barred zone of 1917. In 1965 these quotas were repealed allowing alot more immigrants to arrive.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/daca-the-1924-immigration-act-and-american-exclusion_us_59b1650ee4b0bef3378cde32