Immigration and the Exclusion Act

Immigration and Exclusion Act

• Lecture focuses on immigration and the act of exclusion, early immigration laws that created the immigration system in the US.

Pre-1875 Immigration

• Prior to 1875, there were no illegal immigrants in the US.

• Immigrants worked and contributed to US society.

• Opinions toward immigrants fluctuated based on the group.

• Arguments against immigrants remained the same, changing from group to group.

• Key question: What is America going to be? Melting pot or isolationist?

• If isolationist, what is lost (culture, music, food, technology)?

Manifest Destiny

• Manifest destiny is the idea that it's the duty of the US to spread across the continent, spreading American values and goodness from sea to sea.

• Resist all foreign powers who will thwart our destiny.

• Drives westward expansion from the 1820s to the current period.

• Debate: Does manifest destiny mean stopping at the borders, or taking it outside?

• If so, will that bring more outsiders into the US?

Definitions

Race

• Race included religion, language, nationality, physical attributes, and political views.

• Catholics were regarded as a separate race.

• Even differences between whites (Northern European vs. Southern European) were defined.

Nativism

• Nativism is the belief that natives (white, English-speaking, Protestant Europeans) are superior intellectually and physically to people from other countries.

• Sees danger in outsiders but believes they can be assimilated.

• Nativism becomes racialized, leading to fear and targeting of people.

Xenophobia

• Xenophobia is the fear of anyone or anything that is perceived as foreign or different.

• Cause of racialized nativism, used to promote white supremacy.

• Leads to bigotry, oppression, and violence.

• Irrational decision-making and irrational fear are central themes.

History of Immigration

• 1607-1790: Millions of Europeans arrived in the new world.

• People came from England, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Sweden, China, The Middle East.

• African slaves were brought in as well.

• Early 1700s-1860: Large numbers of Germans came in.

• Some suspicion, but generally accepted because they were white and predominantly Protestant.

• Germans dispersed into the countryside and were mostly farmers.

• Complaints: They're going to steal our country. They're going to ruin our culture. They're going to expect us to speak their language. They're going to steal our women. They're going to steal our elections.

• 1845-1852: Over 2,000,000 Irish poured into the US due to the potato famine.

• Not sure if we liked the Irish when they came in.

• White, but different language and predominantly Catholic.

• Portrayed as subhuman and mongrels.

• Cartoon depictions of Irish as drunk and causing riots.

• Civil War: Irish fought well in northern armies, leading to acceptance.

• Second Industrial Revolution: Huge influx of immigration (1880-1920).

• Over 20,000,000 immigrants, mostly from Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

• About 4,000,000 Italians and 2,000,000 Jews.

• Complaints but no laws to stop them because they were a source of cheap labor and filled up the vast land.

Chinese Immigration

• Chinese immigrants started coming in 1849 in California during the gold rush.

• About 300,000 came in over 30 years, leading to disgust and the creation of immigration laws.

• Liked them as cheap labor for railroads and dangerous work, but growing animosity.

• Chinese were different: didn't look like us, didn't speak the same language, didn't practice Christianity, ate strange foods, seen as outsiders.

• Xenophobia ran rampant, leading to violence.

Los Angeles Massacre (1871)

• Fight between rival Chinese factions, accidental shooting of a white man.

• Rumors spread that Chinese were attacking and killing white people.

• Mob of 500 white men marched into the Chinese district, looted, and attacked.

• 19 innocent Chinese men were tortured and killed.

• Largest mass lynching in US history.

• No one held accountable.

Rock Springs Massacre (1885)

• Mining town; white miners resentful of Chinese workers.

• Believed Chinese were taking jobs and driving down wages.

• 150 white men armed themselves and went into the Chinese portion of town.

• Chinese immigrants were robbed, beaten, and shot.

• White women cheered on the mobs as they burned houses.

• 28 confirmed dead, possibly as many as 75.

• Local newspapers applauded the massacre.

• Federal government sent in troops.

• No convictions.

• Violence against Chinese immigrants took place throughout the West.

• Overt racism led to the immigration system.

History of Immigration Laws

Steerage Act of 1819

• Federal law to address immigration.

• Required ship captains to maintain standards of cleanliness and report demographics.

• Allowed the federal government to keep count of immigrants, but no restrictions.

Page Act of 1875

• Federal law to restrict immigration.

• Barred undesirable immigrants from certain areas of the world (East Asia).

• Undesirables: forced laborers, slaves, convicts, criminals, and Chinese women.

• Argument: Chinese women engaged in prostitution and carried diseases.

• Real reason: Prevent Chinese from establishing themselves permanently.

• Restricted Chinese from being able to establish themself in The United States.

• Before the law, about 40,000 Chinese women had come to The US.

• After this law passes, about a 136 come in over the next several decades.

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

• Banned all Chinese immigration for ten years (men, women, children).

• Exceptions for the wealthy, educated, and diplomats.

• Justification: Chinese were ruining American culture, stealing jobs, stealing women, stealing elections.

• Chinese represented 2 \frac{1}{10} of 1% of the US population.

• Established US government's right to regulate foreigners.

• Justified immigration restrictions in the name of national security.

• Established Chinese immigrants as the ultimate example of a dangerous, degraded alien.

• Made the US the global leader in racist immigration laws.

• Led to the creation of modern enforcement system: immigration agents, surveillance, control, registration, deportation.

• Established that just one's presence in the country is a crime.

• Cheered by the American press; Canada and Mexico followed suit.

• Remained on the books until 1943.

Geary Act of 1892

• Required all Chinese individuals to get certificates of residence and identity.

• Applied to all Chinese people, even US citizens.

• Made one's immigration status punishable.

• Penalties:

  • Sentenced to at least one year in prison of hard labor,

  • Deportation

• Only applied to the Chinese.

Dillingham Commission (1907)

• Examined immigration in the US.

• Distinction between old immigrants (Western Europe) and new immigrants (Eastern Europe, Asia).

• Old immigrants: capable of assimilation.

• New immigrants: less skilled, less intelligent, cannot be assimilated.

• Used scientific racism to prove that one group is superior to another.

• Recommended that the Chinese exclusion policy should be applied to people from India, Japan, and Korea.

• Recommended restricting entry to anyone who cannot read or write English.

• Recommended a quota system to allow immigrants from the good countries and restrict those from the bad ones.

• Published a dictionary of races or peoples.

• Defined race by religion, language, physical attributes.

• Created a new race of Americans (white, English-speaking, Protestant).

Immigration Act of 1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone Act)

• Barred all immigrants from a designated Asian zone.

• Barred all immigrants over 16 who cannot read or write.

• Restricted those who are feeble minded, imbeciles, insane, poor, diseased, political radicals, those with physical and mental ailments, and homosexuals.

• Made exceptions for the wealthy and well-educated.

Motivations for Immigration Restrictions

Economics

• Economic downturns: People started blaming immigrants for taking jobs and working for low wages.

• Labor unions got involved.

• Knights of Labor: Campaigned against immigrants and supported the Chinese Exclusion Act.

• American Federation of Labor (AFL): Argued that restricting immigration is necessary for self-protection and instrumental in passing many immigration laws.

• President of this labor organization was Samuel Gompers, who made the famous speech that said meat versus rice

Politics

• Fear of anarchists who would lead to the destruction of the US government.

• Fear that immigrants would vote in such record numbers, they're going to steal our elections.

Cultural Arguments

• Fear that immigrants would change American culture.

• However, it was American segregation that led to neighborhoods that may consist primarily of one immigrant group.

Racialized Nativism and Xenophobia

• The real reason for immigration restrictions was racialized nativism and xenophobia.

• Discrimination against those who are different.

• Growing sense of American colonialism.

• With connectivity growing, news of immigrants on the other side of the country could affect irrational fears.

Fallacy

• If the white Anglo Protestant English speaking American race is dominant, then why be fearful that inferior races could somehow hurt you and bring you down?

Immigration Restriction League (1894)

• Influential anti immigrant political group founded by three Harvard graduates.

• Crafted xenophobic messages to influence the government.

• Promoted the idea of racial inferiority.

• Spread racist rhetoric through respected academic journals and everyday magazines.

• Weaponized false statistics.

• This leagues members were from the upper crust in politics.

• Wrote the Immigration Act of 1917.

Madison Grant

• Lawyer, anthropologist, and conservationist who promoted scientific racism.

• Funded Ota Benga, an African man who was put on display in zoos next to apes.

• Wrote the book The Passing of the Great Race (1916), promoting the idea of a superior white Nordic race.

• Coined the expression America for Americans, promoting idea that America should be for the descendants of the Nordic race because they are better than everyone else

• Proposed segregation and sterilization of the worthless races.

• Many of the arguments he makes and the southern plantation Owners prior to Civil War to justify African slavery.

• His book was embraced and printed by the Nazis, with Hitler calling it his bible.

• But also responsible for saving the American bison, California Redwoods, creating the Bronx Zoo, and National Parks.

• His influence shows that these ideas are not fringe.

• This shows not fringe.

Conclusion

• Discrimination against those who are different existed since the dawn of civilization.

• Growing sense of American colonialism (White Protestant nation better than those countries who are not).

• News spreading faster, making small issues seem like bigger issues.

• If the white Anglo Protestant English speaking American race is dominant to all other in the world, then why would you be fearful that these horribly inferior races could somehow hurt you and bring you down?

• Americans were struggling and growing as a country.