Immigration,
1865-1924
Freedom, Coercion, and
the Immigrant Experience
Major Issues/Questions
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Myths and realities of immigration
Why did immigrants come? Stay?
Attitudes towards immigrants in wider
society?
Freedom or coercion once here?
Assimilation or ghettoization?
Immigrant community-building
Forms of collective power and resistance
In-between people: immigrants and U.S.
racial system
Immigration Figures, 1821-1940
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1821-1830 – 143,439 immigrants arrived
1831-1840 – 599,125
1841-1850 – 1,713,251
1851-1860 – 2,598,214
1861-1870 – 2,314,825
1871-1880 – 2,812,191
1881-1890 – 5,246,613
1891-1900 – 3,687,564
New Immigrants
1901-1910 – 8,795,386
1911-1920 – 5,735,811
1921-1930 – 4,107,209
1931-1940 – 532,431 – --------why the drop off?
New Immigrants
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Majority of immigrants after 1890 came from new
areas: southern and eastern Europe
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2 million EE Jews from 1881-1920
2 million Italians from 1910-1920
Different in many ways from previous immigrants:
religions, languages, cultures, labor skills
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Jewish and Catholic
Non-English speaking
Unskilled or peasant laborers
Why Did They Come?
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Myth of Freedom – (powerful belief assumed
to be true regardless of facts) – that
immigrants came for freedom AND got it
once here
For these groups, political or social freedoms
were paramount:
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Liberal Revolutionaries of 1848 from Germany
Jews fleeing persecution, pogroms in Russia
Radicals – democrats and socialists
Economic Reasons
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Myth: typical story of immigrants: unknowing, w/o
purpose, travel by sea, end up on U.S. coast
Realities: most immigrants came for economic
reasons
Made conscious decision, not “tossed” to U.S.
Had belief in individual social mobility
Pushed by bad economic circ. at home
Pulled by economic growth in U.S.
Immigration followed business cycles: rose during
booms, fell during busts – strategic
Economic Reasons
(continued)
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Most wanted to save $ and return home to buy land
– high percentage actually went back, so did not
give up attachment to home quickly or easily
U.S. was only one alternative, among many
Chain migration: from one village in Europe to
neighborhood in U.S. city – much more controlled
and purposeful than usually depicted
Men came first, then women (1899-1910, 75% of
SEE immigrants were adult men)
Community-building: Freedom of
Association vs. External Forces
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Formed tight ethnic neighborhoods/
communities
Formed ethnic-based organizations: mutual
aid societies, fraternities, clubs, unions
Fought for national-language churches
Politically active and engaged
Used political machines to gain services and
political influence, measure of power
All of these examples show agency –
freedom to form bonds, but also resistance to
external coercion
External Forces (Coercion?)
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Forces beyond immigrants’ control
Limited job options – place in new industries = lowskilled, low-paid
Competition with other groups for jobs
Limited housing and neighborhood options
English language pressures even though no formal
U.S. language
Religious pressures – how to maintain former beliefs
in new society
Lack of government assistance
Anti-immigrant forces
Immigrants = In-between People
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Where did immigrants fit into American society?: up
in the air where they would fit racially, religiously, in
workplaces, their loyalty to country
Social Darwinism and racial hierarchy – immigrants
challenged racial hierarchy and system – in-between
levels
Eugenics movement
Not-quite-white, but not black – didn’t quite fit
Customs, religion, language, work, appearance held
against them
Associated with radicalism, anarchism, communism
European-ness an advantage
Similar to earlier Irish experience
Fears about immigrant
assimilation Will immigrants melt?
New Immigrants assumed to be radicals, anarchists, and trouble-makers
Madison Grant “The Passing
of the Great Race”
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“We Americans must realize that the altruistic
ideals which have controlled our social
development during the past century, and the
maudlin sentimentalism that has made
America ‘an asylum for the oppressed,’ are
sweeping the nation toward a racial abyss.
Madison Grant, continued
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“If the Melting Pot is allowed to boil without
control, and we continue to follow our
national motto and deliberately blind
ourselves to all ‘distinctions of race, creed, or
color,’ the type of native American of Colonial
descent will become as extinct as the
Athenian of the age of Pericles, and the
Viking of the days of Rollo” (Immigration
Docs, pg. 141)
Eugenicists believed that a
person’s intelligence correlated
with the measured size of the
skull = brain size.
Anglo-Saxons supposedly had
larger skulls and brains, thus
they must be more intelligent.
In reality, average skull and
brain size are the same across
ethnic lines.
Chart on “Inventiveness
by Racial Stock in the
United States 1927”
Who’s the most
Inventive? – French,
Swedish, Dutch,
Danish…
The least = Polish,
Belgian, Latin Am.,
African
Winners of the Fitter Family Contest, Kansas State Fair, 1920
Eugenics Movement
focused on urban
immigrant communities, neighborhoods,
and tenements as
“degenerate” and
criminal
States with Eugenic Sterilization Laws, 1935
Power of Racial Ideology
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During late-19th and early 20th-c., racial
hierarchies were intensifying, not weakening
Jim Crow, lynchings, blacks lost ground in
south
Status of new immigrants was up in the air,
had to choose
Fed. actions cemented hierarchy: cut off
Chinese immigration, Japanese, and New
Immigrants
Those Europeans in U.S. had choice to make
Late-19th-century
racial hierarchy –
not much difference
between Italians and
Chinese
Efforts to Limit Immigration
and Naturalization
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1870 Naturalization Act limits American citizenship to
"white persons and persons of African descent," barring
Asians from U.S. citizenship
1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
1907 Expatriation Act declares that an American woman
who marries a foreign national loses her citizenship
1907 Gentleman’s Agreement cuts off Japanese
immigration to continental U.S. (only Hawaii allowed)
1923 In the landmark case of United States v. Bhaghat
Singh Thind, the Supreme Court rules that Indians from
the Asian subcontinent could not become naturalized
U.S. citizens
Efforts to Limit Immigration
(continued)
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Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 cut
immigration to 2% of 1890 pop. – Why?
Immigration Figures
Average Annual Inflow of
Immigrants
Other Immigrants
(New Immigrants)
Immigrants from Northern
and Western Europe
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1907-1914 = 176,983
Quotas under 1921
Act 198,082
Quotas under 1924 Act =
140,999
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1907-1914 = 685,531
Quotas under 1921 Act =
158,367
Quotas under 1924 Act =
20,847
New Immigrants –
Choosing Whiteness
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Started with “black” jobs, but allowed to move up
Eventual access to whiteness (politics, unions,
social mobility, armed forces)
Had a choice to make: become white, embrace
“Americanism,” leave, or fight system
Many chose “Americanization” strategy: English
language, exclude blacks and newer immigrants,
nationalism and patriotism
Forced to choose: unite with or exclude others:
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During wars
In institutions – unions, politics
Neighborhoods
Patronizing, but at least
they are allowed to join.
Major Themes & Conclusions
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New Immigration
Myths and Realities: Some Freedom, but also
Forces of Coercion
Immigrants fit into new industrial labor
hierarchy – unskilled labor caste
Racial ideology a major force on immigrants
In-between people
Had to choose where to fit
Result: access to social mobility and political
rights for immigrants; hardening racial
prejudice and discrimination against blacks
Question
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What does The Godfather tell us about the
immigrant experience?
(Relate film to history)