The New Immigrants

New immigrants

25 million immigrants arrived between 1880-1994 from southern and eastern europe including catholic tensions and jewish beliefs. Also chinese in the west who work on railroads. Multiple push and pull factors and mostly settling in cities. beaten men from beaten races:

Nativism

progressive critique and political machines that take advantage of new immigrants. Political machine do favor for immigrants and then they vote for them. Progressivists do not like this and see immigrants as problem but are also helping them with settlement houses. Immigrants break strikes leading to tension within unions. Emergence of the industrial workers of the world (IWW) that organizes all workers no matter who with goal at breaking capitalism. belief that immigrants are too different to be assimilated.

1875 page act

chinese labor central to railroad construction in west. product of treaty in 1868 for migration. page Act ban immigration of chinese women in hopes of reducing prostitution but it actually made it worse. fears are racialized.

chinese exclusion act

1882 bans all chinese immigration passed along racialized fears. Trying to contain contamination.

anarchist exclusion act

expanded the immigration restrictions to anyone who was anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes

Geary act

1892 has 10 year life span which was renewed and expanded required chinese immigrants to carry certificates at all time that show they are there to work.

Immigration Restriction league (1894)

expanded immigration restrictions to include the illiterate.

Fong Yue Ting v. United States

United states government has power to decide whether somone is illegal or not without due process.

industrial workers of the world (IWW)

organized union for all workers including immigrants so immigrants seen as labor radicals and they want to change the structure of the united states. Goal of IWW is to break capitalism in favor of the worker.

sterilization laws

indiana in 1907 then 31 other states followed with 60,000 people sterilized over course of the 20th century.

eugenics

belief that certain traits are desirable and some peoples are inferior and should not be able to pass their genes.

dictionary of races or peoples (1911)

ranked races based on how civilized they were. thought of southern italians as least civilized.

passing of great race (1916)

Massive influx of inferior immigrants is diluting american blood. Reflects holocaust ideas.

johnson reed act (1924)

strict immigration quotas. ban on asian immigration extended to japan.