Immigration Law In The 20th Century

The United States of America was built from the ground up through the labor of immigrants and slaves, yet has a history of discrimination against both. Moreover, resentment towards the latter escalated during the Industrial Revolution because citizens felt that their jobs were being robbed by immigrants. To restrict them, they first created the Chinese Exclusion Act which banned Chinese immigration for ten years, stemming from “economic and cultural tensions, as well as ethnic discrimination” (History State). Many of these foreigners fled their countries due to religious persecution, poverty, and political persecution. Therefore, citizens and foreigners had the same goals: freedom and the ability to support their families.

There are approximately 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States spawning from many different countries and continents. Illegal immigrants come to America to escape from many different kinds of mistreatment from their home country. When an individual moves they are often followed by others who are encouraged to find a better quality of life. Obtaining a citizenship is strenuously difficult to attain because of raised standards, language and education barriers, along with the fear of the United States government and society projecting bias towards immigrants. The feeling of being burdensome, unappreciated, and unintelligent due to the language barrier when communicating with others.

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.").

Immigrants faced discrimination from American citizens and had to make a living for themselves, while still trying to fit in. As it is said in the article, ? The Philosophy of Immigration,? ?? the power of absorption possessed by the people of the United States is astonishing?? (The Philosophy of Immigration).

America is a country with a history founded on people looking for a new start and emigrating from the old world to fulfill their dreams. Immigration is not always happiness, rags to riches, and the American dream. Major immigration periods happened from 1607, 1820-1870 and again in the early 1900’s. Immigrant numbers were growing so exponentially that the National origins Act of 1921 and 1924 was enacted to put a quota limit that blatantly discriminated against immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Immigrants that made it in faced many hardships such as learning new languages, abandoning family, and accepting the American values.

In the nineteenth century, the United States was regarded for being the land of opportunity and shelter for immigrants. For many immigrants, the promise of not having to withstand the pressures of political, economic, and religious persecution in Europe helped boost thousands of people to come to the coast of Staten Island. Despite what the Americans conceived their roles towards immigrants to be, the perception of the immigrants to the real story of how they survived in America does not support the claim that America is a land of opportunity and shelter.

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.

Out of the 7.6 million Europeans that arrived between 1900 and 1909, 72% came from Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Italy. Ellis Island in New York was the major port for immigrants crossing the Atlantic Ocean during 1892, and Angel Island in California for those arriving through the Pacific Ocean. Americans began to worry about the rapid expansion of immigrants, whose customs seemed strange to most of the native population. As a result, anti-immigrant movements and the uprising of nativism arose. Immigration reached its peak from 1900 to 1915 when nearly 15 million people entered the U.S; that is as many as in the previous forty years. Nearly 120,860 Caribbean immigrants arrived during 1919 where the majority was Filipinos. Immigration experienced

Having survived the atrocities of World War I, the population of the United States embarked on a newer never before experienced pathway in the 1920s. With over 100 million people now living in the United States, the numbers of immigrants coming into the country was again on the rise (Pop Culture:1920, 2015). The number of immigrants frightened the Americans and sent them into a state of anti-immigrant hysteria called nativism (Tindall & Shi, 2013). Although many citizens conveniently disregarded that their ancestry dated from earlier immigration, the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 was passed by Congress in 1921 to limit and restrict the number of immigrants allowed annually into the United States (Tindall & Shi, 2013). The Emergency Immigration Act was passed because many population groups believed the newer groups of immigrants were foreign radicals

Immigrants, fleeing their homeland to escape oppression for religion or to find better opportunities for employment, were drawn to the booming American land of industrialization and urbanization. Old immigrants from Western Europe entered the country prominently in the 1880’s. But from the 1890’s to the outbreak of World War I, New Immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe flooded the country. These immigrants, bringing with them lesser-practiced customs and religions that could shape the culture of America, mainly congregated with people of similar nationalities in ethnic neighborhoods in the growing cities, thus limiting their assimilation into American society. Another factor limiting the influence of immigration on America was the resistance of the “native” Americans to the New Immigrants.

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.

America is a country filled with multiple ethnicities and cultures; this is due to increase in immigrants. The majority of settlers want to move into United States because of the political and economic conflict back in their country. They are hunger for opportunities and American dreams. As a result, America is considered to be one of the country that occupied with multiple races. At the earlier time, however, minorities—such as Asians—were not welcome into the country.

The United States of America, is known to be one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world. It has often been referred to by many as a global melting pot or as locals may say callaloo, due to the amassing of diverse ethnicities, cultures and nationalities. Within its borders, resides immigrants or descendants of immigrants from almost every region in the world, and each has in some way added to the American culture and way of life. America is known for its stance on freedom, it is a nation that values equality and justice, this can be noted in the last few words of their national anthem ‘indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ However, for many, high levels of economic and social inequalities are daily struggles, a battle that has been fought for decades to claim the most basic rights, in the pursuit of achieving the American Dream.

As the closing of the frontier began, Americans celebrated the 400th anniversary of Columbus 's arrival to the new world. It was a chance for America to exhibit its power. The fair showcased the products of progress. According to Ben Wattenberg, “There was a 22,000-pound block of cheese from Canada, and the world 's largest cannon, from Germany” (pbs.org). Wattenberg also stated that by the turn of the century, social scientists created a system using numbers to define the standards of beauty and the status of the ideal man and woman.

During the late 20th century, family conflicts between parents who immigrated into the United States and their children who were born in the United States started to develop. The main reason for the conflict is because of the differing views in culture. The child wants to fit in with his or her society; therefore, they prefer the American culture. However, their parents want to educate their child about their roots; therefore prefers their own culture. The parents will do anything in order to prevent their child from fully assimilating into the American culture, such as taking them to Saturday school to teach them their native language or only feeding their child their native food. This method of isolating their child from the American culture will eventually cause the child to feel as though they are being isolated from