Why did attitudes towards
immigration change?
Melting pot America
What is argument?
• ARGUMENT Up to 10 marks can be awarded
• 0-1 marks The style is narrative and descriptive There is little or no
clear attempt to answer the question.
• 2-3 marks The style is mainly narrative and descriptive. There are
some brief attempts to answer the question.
• 4-5 marks The style demonstrates some analysis, though there may
still be some narrative. There is use of evidence to answer the
question.
• 6-7 marks The style is analytical, with the evidence used to develop
and support a line of argument. The line of argument is focused
directly on the question.
• 8-10 marks The evidence is integrated into a sustained analysis. The
argument is sustained and balanced, with some awareness of
alternative interpretations and/or historical debate.
Full marks intro & conclusion:
• The introduction clearly sets the issue in its
wider context, indicates relevant factors and
demonstrates a solid line of argument.
• There is a coherent development directly
focused on the question.
• The conclusion is balanced, summarising the
arguments and coming to an overall
judgement directly related to the question.
CONTEXT
• USA had an Open Door Policy until the 1920s when new
legislation was passed to restrict entry. 1921 –
Emergency Immigration Law, 1924 – National Origins
Act. Both put a quota on how many could enter the
country. Perhaps triggered by a peak in immigration
levels in 1900-1910 – almost 9million! Favour shown
towards ‘Old Immigrants’
Evaluation questions – isolated factor
• 2011: To what extent was racism the main
reason for changing attitudes towards
immigration in the 1920s?
• 2009: To what extent was the increase in
hostility towards immigrants in the USA during
the 1920s due to fear of revolution?
The question is asking you to judge
whether this factor is the main
cause of stricter immigration in the
1920s or if there are other causes.
You must then RANK these causes in order of importance in your essay
and ARGUE why they are important or not as important as the isolated
factor.
Why did attitudes towards
immigration change?
Social fears
Isolationism &
WWI
Anti-Immigration
attitudes before
1920
Religious fears
Economic fears
Fear of
Communism/
Revolution
RACISM
• The cultural differences displayed in language, clothing,
religion led to ill-informed racism.
• Californian laws against Asian immigrants were clearly
racist in outlook.
• Old V New immigrants - WASP America worried.
• New immigrants were not familiar with democracy so
were perceived as a political threat.
• New immigrants looked different.
• Rebirth of KKK appealing to 100% Americanism.
– New immigrants were believed to be inferior people and
threatened ‘traditional values’.
– Anti Immigration legislation of 1920s strongly biased
against ‘new’ immigrants from southern and eastern
Europe.
POLITICAL FEARS - Communism
• Americans were fiercely proud of their capitalist
and democratic ideals. Immigrants associated
with anarchy.
• Context of Russian Revolution – terrified
Capitalist America would succumb to revolution –
the ‘Red Scare’ based on speculation and
paranoia.
– However, fears realised with Palmer Raids August
1919 – 6000 ‘foreign radicals’ arrested in 1920, 600
deported and forced to sign confessions.
– Most immigrants were more concerned with adjusting
to new home rather than organising subversion.
Attitudes before 1920s
• Racism and legal restriction of immigrants had
occurred before the 1920s.
– 1884 The Immigration Restriction League founded in
Boston – US will be swamped by ‘lesser breeds’
– 1882 Federal Immigration Act restricted lunatics,
paupers and convicts – a concern of burden on society
or threat to law & order
– 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act – evidently a racially
exclusive law to exclude.
– Arguably, this proves that restrictive attitudes to
immigration existed long before 1920s, the numbers
and type were broadened in the 1920s. An
undercurrent of prejudice and racism was already in
existence.
WWI/Isolationism
• WWI acted as a catalyst – US propaganda demonised
the Germans, encouraged patriotism -> resulted in
Xenophobia
– German language stopped in schools
– Sauerkraut became Liberty Cabbage
• WWI encouraged racial and national stereotyping.
Stereotyped associations became apparent –
suspected communist if you were Russian
• Isolationist stance had been taken by the government
and people who regretted their involvement in
European affairs -> Protect our ethnicity, curb
immigration of ‘aliens’. Wilson declared that USA
should not be involved in a ‘European civil war’ hence
their reluctance to join League of Nations.
100% Americanism – Nativism arguments
• Nativists are those born in America
• Nativists view New wave as : illiterate and unskilled
escaping from civil war, poverty and persecution – their
diversity was a threat
• Cultural clothing made them stand out – they looked out
of place in modern America
• Many malnourished with deformities
• Most congregated in urban areas
• Pseudo-scientific racism: prejudice evident
– Saturday Evening Post Kenneth Roberts Polish Jews “human
parasites” “good for nothing mongrels of central and eastern
Europe
Prejudice amongst middle class for job competition –
mistrust – not a majority view but a dangerous influence
SOCIAL FEARS
• Rising crime rates blamed on immigrants in
ghettoes. Fears that they were not integrating.
• However, no greater instances than nativist
neighbourhoods
• Charities recognised that crime was often out
of desperation to provide for families in
abhorrent living conditions
– Sacco and Vanzetti – electric chair in 1927 accused
of murder and armed robbery – very little
evidence besides anarchist links
– Fanned the fires of prejudice in rural communities
ECONOMIC FEARS
• Fears that immigrants would increase job
competition after WWI boom declined.
• Trade Unions felt that Italian immigrants were
‘strike breakers’ – they even called for a
literacy test! Debated 32 times in Congress.
– Greatly increased resentment towards
immigrants. However many immigrants did the
low paid, unskilled jobs that Nativist Americans
didn't want!
RELIGIOUS FEARS
• Hostility towards Catholic and Jewish
immigrants
– Polish Jews “human parasites”
Racism/Political
Congressman James McClintic, Democrat
Oklahoma: “I say the class of immigrants coming
to the shores
of the United States at this time are not the kind
of people we want as citizens in this country.”
Racism/Political
Nicolas Vanzetti was tried in Massachusetts twice,
first for bank robbery and then for murder. In the
first trial, Webster Thayer, who was the judge in
both cases, told the jury: “This man, although he
may not have actually committed the crime . . ., is
nevertheless morally culpable, because he is the
enemy of our existing institutions.”
• Throughout the History of the United States, there had
been an ‘open door’ policy which had let in immigrants
from around the world almost without question. American
industrial expansion had been made possible by the ready
availability of cheap labour in the form of huge numbers of
migrants from the 1860s onwards.
In the 1920s, the USA ended the open door policy, and the
effect of the 1921 and 1924 Immigration Acts was to
restrict the number of immigrants from each country into
the USA. These measures virtually stopped mass
immigration to the United States until the 1960s. The
reasons the US Government brought in the measures will be
discussed under three headings: social, political, and
influences from outside the USA.