1920's Immigration Issue

The events that occurred in response to the Red Scare not only reveals that the government was willing to discriminate against non-native and non-democratic Americans as a form of protection, but shows that many natural-born Americans still believe in “America for Americans” from the 1800’s, causing nativism to return. In fact, immigration was now limited more than ever, especially since the need for unskilled labors greatly decreased due to the effects of World War I.

The 1920’s was an interesting time in American history. This era was also known as the roaring twenties. Although it is remembered as a fond time before the Great Depression there was also a lot of conflicts arising, Cultural conflicts in particular were at the center. Prohibition and Immigration were two of the main cultural conflicts during this time period.

The united states is full of immigrants. A American is either an immigrant or has someone in their family who were one. A great period of immigration occurred during the 1800s on to the 1920s when two waves of immigrants came to American shores from Europe. Old immigrants arrived in the mid-1800s mostly coming from Northwestern Europe. Also the New Immigrants arrived a little later mostly traveling from Europe. Most immigrants shifted to escape problems in their native countries and in search of new opponents in America. Many Americans welcomed immigrants as an asset to other Americans. Old immigrants had affected the new immigrants so they could things harder with each other.

The US experienced massive immigration from Europe in the 1800s, which saw millions of people across the Atlantic to the New World. These people came from all corners of Europe including Ireland, Germany, Italy, Norway, and other scores of other nations and provinces. The people came as young men and women in search of jobs, others as families fleeing religious persecution and others as political radicals who were fleeing from the police. In addition, others came as farmers in search of land and a new start for that matter, and as paupers hardly capable of affording the rites of passage. This was the first wave of immigrants that shaped the US in considerable ways.

The period of time after the Civil War and before World War I was a period of tremendous change in America. Although immigration is a major tenet of the United States, due to the changing economy, improvements in transportation, a shifting of the American people to the city, and deepening class divisions, industrialization was the most powerful force shaping the country between 1865 and 1914, followed by urbanization, and finally immigration.

The United States experienced an influx of immigrants between the 1890’s to the 1920’s. Immigrants entered the United States from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe. From these demographic shifts we can also see that there were changed in the United States attitudes towards recent immigrants. These attitudes are grounded in racialized notions of foreign peoples and African Americans. Nativist notions are set in ideas of whiteness and different factors make Eastern Europe and Southern Europe immigrants not quite white.

Immigration has always been a crucial topic in the United States government. Especially when it comes to giving amnesty and passing an immigration reform to 11 million immigrants, that live in the country. Many citizens believe that immigrants are detrimental to the well-being of the United States and do not agree with the passage of an immigration reform. One reason is that many believe immigrants take away the jobs of American citizens. Other reasons are that immigrants bring crime to the country and affect the economy.

One of the most prominent social biases, both in the 1920’s specifically and throughout American history, is race. In the period after WWI, race tensions were heightening. Tom clearly does not approve of the idea that black people could rise socially and “infiltrate” his world. Even though Tom himself has a mistress, he says, “Nowadays people begin by sneering at family life and family institutions and next they'll throw everything overboard and have intermarriage between black and white.”(Fitzgerald p130) He does not see any problem morally with cheating on his wife, but the idea of interracial marriage is abhorrent to him. Tom also believes that white people - Nordics - have contributed everything good to society. He tells Nick, "This idea

Immigration has always been a major part of American history. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people travel to the United States in search of a better life. Of the 1.49 million immigrants who traveled to the United States in 2016, 150,400 immigrants were from Mexico. There have also been many people from Mexico who have immigrated illegally to America, with 5.6 million Mexican unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. in 2015 and 2016. The large scale of immigration, both legal and illegal, has brought up issues such as national security and the U.S. economy. The U.S. Senate is struggling to find a viable solution; they can’t seem to come up with a plan on how to deal with immigration that appeases both sides of the political spectrum.

The U.S changed during the 1880’s because of many immigrants coming from North Western Europe. Many of them weren 't poor. Stuff that made them want to leave their homes in Europe were, religions, natural disasters, famine, tyrants, and discrimination. People wanted to come to the U.S because of religious freedom, democracy, free land, jobs, family, and affordable transportation. The Chinese were encouraged to come to U.S to build railroads in 1860’s, in 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act was made and so was the Immigration act, which was tax on immigration, they denied people who looked like lunatics and looked like they needed government. The statue of liberty was later built in 1881 by France and was finished in 1886. She welcomed people immigrants

Due to the fact that immigrants began to flood in from Europe during the 1920’s, many Americans began to segregate these immigrants from “true” American society and Congress passed laws to hold back the tide of rushing immigration. As immigration reached a peak of the time, many “native-born” Americans held themselves higher and viewed themselves as superior to people not born in America even though many of them had ancestors from previous generations that were the immigrants of their time. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 led to the red scare from 1919 to 1920 that began a great surge of segregation and suspicion of foreigners because a majority of the immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. Nativists

Throughout the 1920 to 1970s, there were shifts in immigration policies that reflect the changes of American ideology; however, there were some aspects that fundamentally remain the same. Main factors that shifted American ideology, which then shifts immigration policies, was the rise of nativism and the aftermath of WWII, yet the classification of wanted and unwanted immigrants was still present.

Well, as many of you might already now, I am here today to give you all some basic information about the USA and the daily life in the states. You all just saw a video with typical American things to give you all a first impression about the daily life in America.

There will always be people seeking freedom in the States. No matter where they’re from. They come here to hopefully start over and have a better life than they did in their previous home country. Some of the first immigrants were forced here.Then they were coming mostly from eastern europe and asia. We had a big drop in immigration during World War II. Now we have many different populations coming from a lot of different countries. I am going to tell you where they came from, how they got here, and a few problems we have today.