Immigrants In The 1920's

Even after the emergence of the US constitution, rights were not granted equally. I believe that it is quite hypocritical from the US to possess a constitution, which is addressed to everyone, but not applied to everyone. For example, the fourteenth amendment, which clearly tackles the equal protection of the laws, only truly applies to the whites rather than all peoples in the United States. Therefore, I believe that the latter aspect confirms Harris’s claims of the privilege of being white.

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.

Describe the “New Immigration”, and explain how it differed from the “Old Immigration” and why it aroused opposition from many Native-Born Americans.

During the Gilded Age “New” Immigrants came and were worse at integrating than the Old Immigrants. New Immigrants which hailed places like Greece, Mexico, and China. New Immigrants that didn’t speak English and didn’t share the same customs. How racist was the gilded age? In the gilded age there were 3 branches of hardships Immigrants faced were in social, economic and political.

Nativism is described as “the political idea that people who were born in a country are more important than immigrants”( "Nativism Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary"). Nativism was most seen during the 1870’s through the 1920’s. Nativism was a major cause in middle-class disputes since middle-class workers feared that the immigrant workers would drop wage prices and that they “...threatened social stability”(The Many Faces of Immigration). Many Catholic immigrants were blamed for the overflow of immigrants in the poverty sections of cities. This was not the only case of discrimination against religious affiliations in immigrants. Many groups sprung up that targeted select groups of immigrants like anti-Catholicism, anti-Irish,

Most immigrants who came to the U.S had high expectations that they would find wealth but once they arrived they realized their expectations weren’t what they expected. Although, they were disappointed in not finding wealth the conditions in which the U.S was in by the late 1800s were still a lot better than the places they all had left behind to come. The majority of the immigration population anticipation was to find profitable jobs and opportunities. When the large numbers of immigration were migrating to the U.S, it was during the “Gilded Age”, which was the prime time for the country’s expansion of industrialization. This rapid expansion of new industries led to the need of workers which motivated people from other countries to come to

In the article, “Breeds of America: Coming of Age, Coming of Race,” which was first published in the Harper’s magazine, William Melvin Kelley recalls his “confusing” childhood of being a colored citizen in the United States. He begins his memoir by portraying a simple skin comparison with his friends. An Italy kid was blushed because he had a same brown skin color as Kelly does under the sun. Kelly raised a question about that blush: why would brown skin make the Italy kid embarrassing? Then Kelly introduces the unfair collision of race and culture. His Italian friends like him but never take him as the same level as they were. He mentions that no parents would tell their kids that their skin colors will make a difference in the future. African

Throughout the years of American history there has been an abundance of groups that have decided to immigrate to the United States from other countries. The Irish people, Italian and Jewish groups of people departed from their country and moved to have their chance to experience the “American Dream.” These groups moved over and experienced a numerous amounts of stereotypes, discrimination, and finally assimilating into American culture.

Founded by colonists, settlers and pioneers, the United States can be defined as a land of immigrants. But public opinion on immigration has changed dramatically in the past decades. In the 1920s, the majority of these immigrants originate from Europe, while immigrants in the United States today include a large percentage of those coming from Asia and Latin America (Chow and Keating). Immigration issues made division in the general public, especially among politicians. The greatest controversial subject in the immigration issue is the subject of illegal immigration. For example, immigration reform supporters block a street on Capitol Hill on Thursday, August 1, 2013, in protest against immigration policies and the House’s inability to pass a bill that contains a pathway to citizenship ("The Facts on Immigration Today.").

African Americans face a struggle with racism which has been present in our country before the Civil War began in 1861. America still faces racism today however, around the 1920’s the daily life of an African American slowly began to improve. Thus, this time period was known by many, as the “Negro Fad” (O’Neill). The quality of life and freedom of African Americans that lived in the United States was constantly evolving and never completely considered ‘equal’. From being enslaved, to fighting for their freedom, African Americans were greatly changing the status quo and beginning to make their mark in the United States. They have endured severe oppression and racism for many years and suffered under Jim Crow Laws as well which were created specifically

On October 21st at the noon lecture we had one of our freshmen year experience professors address the issue of immigration. Professor Daniel Malpica started the lecture by stating why immigration is important. He had gave us many reasons but the most important idea that I took from the list was how immigration has changed the face of the United States. It has been said that 13.5% of the United States’ population is made of up immigrants. Throughout the lecture we began to distinguish the differences and similarities between “Old” immigration and “New” immigration. Old immigration often referred to immigrants from Europe such as Italy, Poland, Greece, and Russia. As for the “New” immigration it adverted to immigrants from Latin America and Asia.

Americans had rarely accepted outsiders as equals, and that was the case with immigrants coming to the U.S in the 1840s to the 1920s. A time in America where immigrants were not considered inferior to native white Americans did not exist. The hatred of anything non-American, especially with the coming of World War I in 1914, would only cause more Americans to despise immigrants. Part of this was rooted simply in racism, which existed towards groups other than African Americans, but much of it was simply that Americans considered themselves the chosen people while everyone else was below them. Thus, despite immigrants being accepted into America, those immigrants were still treated far worse than white citizens between the 1840s and 1920s, for the prejudice against them was obvious even in the laws created.

The mid-19th century saw an unprecedented wave of immigrants coming into the country. At its peak, Ellis Island, the main processing station for immigrants, handled an astounding 5,000 people every day. Because of the language and culture barriers faced by each group of people, they often settled amongst themselves. Very quickly, country-specific neighborhoods began popping up throughout New York and the surrounding area. This helped to alleviate the stresses with moving to a new country; however, most immigrants came to the United States penniless and lived in low-income housing as their jobs rarely supported themselves let alone their families. Most of these jobs were labor-intensive, and oftentimes, very dangerous. “These urban immigrants

As immigration and relations between races become more influential issues in politics, there have been many opposing views on the treatment of minority groups. Some people believe that diversity and immigration is a threat to original identity while others believe that they are extremely beneficial to society. Writers Samuel P. Huntington in The Hispanic Challenge and Herbert Marcuse in Repressive Tolerance express these differing views regarding these important topics. Huntington takes the ‘threat to identity’ side when explaining how Mexican immigration is extremely different from European immigration. On the other hand, Marcuse takes a different route when explaining the idea of tolerance, claiming that majority groups who oppress the minority

As a young country, the United States was a land of prejudice and discrimination. Wanting to grow their country, white Americans did what they had to in order to make sure that they were always on top, and that they were always the superior race. It did not matter who got hurt along the way because everything that they did was eventually justified by their thinking that all other races were inferior to them. A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki describes the prejudice and discrimination against African Americans and Native Americans in the early history of the United States. We see how the leaders of this country, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, had prejudice thoughts about these two different ethnic groups, how prejudice was built into society and the