Immigration and Politics of Post-Bellum America
SHOW NEW YORK DOCUMENTARY —
Immigration has been divided into two historic periods:
I. Old Immigrants: 1820-1880
A. 10mil immigrants
1. Irish
a. 5.5 mil–mostly single men and women
b. the world they left behind:
–potato famine 1845-55 in which 1million died from hunger
–damaged by processes of modernization
—ill equipped for copping with industrialization–unskilled/domestic workers
—viewed their immigration as exile/banishment–blamed the British
–during the famine years Ireland continued to export grain and cattle to British
markets that could have fed half the people of Ireland.
—retained organizations that sought for Irish independence
2. German
a. arrived in family units
b. 5.3 mil by 1924
c. arrived with money, skills–became artisen, farmer, shopkeepers
3. Chinese and Japanese
a. 322,000 arrived between 1850-1882
b. nearly all males between 14-35–Coolie–bonded laborer or in Chinese bitter
labor.
—Before 1875: 13 to 1: After 1875 21-27 to one.
c. railroad construction –worked 6-8yrs. and returned to China
–The 12, 000 Chinese workers were obscured from the photos celebrating the
completion of the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory Point, UT in May 10, 1869.
d. First immigrant group to be excluded from entry to US–Chinese Exclusion Act
1882.
—widespread racist belief that they could never assimilate in to American life
e. cheap Chinese labor was a threat to American workers
–1885-1924 200,000 left for Hawaii and 180,000 for America.
f. Sugar plantation workers primarily in Hawaii
g. Gentlemen’s agreement of 1908 allowed for Japanese immigration of women
and families.
—plantation owners created a diverse workforce in order to create divisions
among the workers and keep down the number of strikes.
4. Mexicans
a. ongoing struggles between Mexican residents of the South West and AngloAmericans
1821--- Mexican Independence from Spain
1836-45—Rebellion against dictatorship of Gen. Antonio Lopez Santa Anna
—The Alamo 1836
—Creation of the Republic of Texas—“The Lone Star State”
1845–Texas is admitted to the union setting off Mexican American War
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SEE SLIDE
1848—Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Gained Calif.; NV, New Mexico, AZ, UT, and the Rio Grande became border of
TX.
b. built railroads in Los Angeles/agricultural workers
c. ongoing back and forth migration between SW and Mexico
d. Border culture–continuity rather than alienation characterized Mexican
immigration. Within the Mexican community in El Paso were separated by some class differences but
they also were connected by a common language and certain Mexican traditions.
II. New Migration—1880-1924
A. 27 mil. white immigrants entered the US
1. two thirds came from central/eastern/southern Europe
–parts of Europe that were underdeveloped and politically regressive
2. Most were drawn to the industrial sector and filled unskilled labor
B. Jews
1. Most has been written about them and their flight from religious persecution in Russia
2. public schools acted as the agent of Americanization
3. consumer society radically assimilated women and undermined traditional gender roles
4. Inter-generational stresses were considerable
5. Neighborhoods became a point of contact with other cultures
6. Religious and communal organizations became means of maintaining cultural
traditions
C. Italians
1. 4mil came from 1899-1924 alone
2. Rooted in provincial identity—not necessarily Italian national identity
3. American assimilation involved a simultaneous recognition of their Italian heritage
4. Strain between Italian/Irish Catholics –religious folk traditions drastically diff.
5. Repatriation was common 1.5 mil returned
III. Experience of Immigration
A. Reasons they came:
1. Seeking new life because of economic opportunities, poverty or harsh living conditions
in the homeland-–Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Southern Italy, Japan
–rapid rise in European population
DOCUMENT: Swedish Girl
2. Seeking political or religious asylum—Irish, Russian Jews
—Revolutions in Mexico
—Jewish pogroms in Russia resulting from over population and a series of
economic woes–Jews were forced out of Russia or exterminated. Russian government restricted Jews to
ghettos, deprived them of education and economic opportunities and kept them in poverty through taxes
and regulations.
DOCUMENT: Mary Antin
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3. Seeking temporary labor market–Chinese, Italian
B. Differences of experience could determine opportunities in America
1. Economically
2. Family connections already in America
–Japanese Picture Brides after 1900
DOCUMENT: Japanese Picture Bride
3. Gender differences
—family responsibilities
—wages and economic opportunities
—quality of education
4. Racial differences —Chinese
DOCUMENTS: Angel Island
C. The Trip itself
DOCUMENT: Golda Meir
1. Depended on economic status
2. Gender differences
While the needs of industrialism demanded a new source of cheap labor the response to new immigrants
was ambiguous at best and violently antagonistic in opposition to it and the problems associated with the
tremendous numbers of newcomers to American shores.
III. Receptions of immigrants by native white Americans.
A. Nativism–those groups who favored native born culture/interests over immigrants
John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925
1. American Protective Association in 1893 and their “True American” campaign begun
in 1894
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2, Major ideological outlines of American Nativism
--established by the Civil War.
--"anti-Catholic, anti-radical, and Anglo Saxon traditions .
B. Nativism defined: Alien intruders in the promise land
1. Irish bore the brunt of the first attack before the Civil War
2. thought that certain people could NOT be assimilated because of:
—religion–anti-catholic /Semitism
--Anti-Catholic traditions go back to the Reformation
--Catholic traditions appeared to not harmonize with American concept of
inidividual freedom.
---Anti-Catholic thought saw "American liberty and European popery as
irreconcilable."
---Anti-Catholic nativsm was submerged with the Civil War.
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—radical politics–socialism/communism
---Anti-radicalism was a fear of foreign radicals
—race—non-Anglo-Saxon–like Japanese/Chinese and eventually Mexican
---These first two nativist themes described what America was not.
----By Anglo-Saxon before the Civil War, Americans were appealing to
their English Anglo-Saxon origins.
Natives saw immigrants as the symbol of force of freedom vs. the huddled poor.
One was attractive the other negative.
Thus nationalities were rated on a scale between these two extremes
---those on the low end were more "remote in culture and race" such as the
Chinese
----British/Canadian peoples who barely were noticed in their arrival.
---In between were the Germans, Scandavians with the Irish
---Jewish were seen with distrust due to their connections to an "alien faith"
Higham locates the most active elements of nationalist ferment among those Americans who were among
the "in-between" class of petty businessmen, nonunionized workers, and white-collar folk and who had
"few resources to resist the loss of homogeneity."
The Strike of 1886 leading to the Haymarket riot ---"opened an era of massive and recurrent discontent."
The three historic traditions of American nativism--"European religion, radicals and races” which had
been submerged during the Civil War came to life. (53)
C. Nativist Restrictive Legislation of incoming immigrants: The Legal Solutions
1. 1883 Chinese Exclusion
2. 1891—excluded contagious diseases, mental disorders and established Ellis Island as a
clearing house
3. 1903–certain political radicals
4. 1904-1917 13 separate acts closed bit by bit the immigration flow.
5. 1917 –codification of 33 types of aliens to be denied entrance–eg.
feebleminded/psychopathic/political radicals. A literacy test.
6. 1921–quota system annual immigration could not exceed 3% of the total population of
that ethnic group already in the US in 1910.
7. 1924–1965--National Origins Act banned immigration from East Asia entirely–
—quota from 3-2% and based on 1890 immigration.
—total was reduced to 150,000 in 1927.
D. Social restrictions: Organized Anti-Catholicism and Semitism
1. Anti-Catholicism
1890s anti-Catholic redoubled its energy because of increasing Catholic trends:
--multiplying churches in North /West
--contributed to Democratic victories and advantaged Irish politicians
--elections of 1890/92 seen by Protestant xenophobes as "further Roman aggression."
--National League for the Protection of American Institutions or in Cook Co. Committee
of One Hundred
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--fraternal orders
--secret political societies
2. APA in 1894 worked for mandatory public school system, for immigration restriction,
for a slower more rigid system of naturalization." (83)
3. Organized Anti-Semitism
Jews posed both an internal and external threat. Internally they were believed to be aggressive in their
acquisition of wealth and posed a threat to American economic and business institutions. Externally they
were without a country and therefore an "international " people. Gold was becoming the economic
standard--did Jews have a loyalty to any one government? Were they part of a plot to rule the world
themselves?
Opposed to the Nativists were various proponents of assimilation–those who believed that under the right
conditions that immigrants could be assimilated into the American nation.
IV. The Assimilation reception of immigrants and their arguments?
A. Defined in the theme of the Melting Pot.
1. Restrictive/progressive ideal
2. imposed Anglo-conformity on immigrants
3. urged to cast off their old world cultures and embrace Americanism
4. capable of leveling differences of ethnicity/religion
5. could transcend differences of class between and within immigrant populations
B. Cultural Pluralism: The Theme of a salad bowl or symphony
1. the liberal ideal of assimilation
2. term coined by Horace M. Kallen in 1915 when pressure of assimilation was hardened
into a brand of 100% Americanism
3. metaphor of the salad bowl/symphony
4. distinct differences but in unity to make up the whole or achieve harmony
C. How has Americanization been understood through the years?
According to historian Gary Gerstle historians through the years have made a long retreat from
Hector St. John De Crevecoeur who published Letters from an American Farmer in 1892 on what it
means to become an American:
—Crevecoeur described how all nations were “being forged into a new race”
The four myths are associated with this “Immigrant paradigm”
1. Europeans wanted to shed their Old World ways
2.Americanization was quick and easy
3. Americanization melted immigrants into one single race, culture nation unvarying
across time and space
4. Americanization was experienced as emancipation from servitude, deference, poverty,
and other Old World restraints.
Contra the Immigrant paradigm
1. Historians writing in the 1940s-50s such as Oscar Handlin disproved that all
Americans melted into a single pot and the process was alienating rather than
emancipatory.
–Handlin was born into a Jewish immigrant family and experienced the intolerant 1920s
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firsthand. At Harvard in the 1930s he had to contend with university Anti-Semitism but eventually
became one of the first Jewish professors
—The Irish as Handlin’s treatment of Boston immigrants in 1941 saw their experience
from Ireland as dysfunctional and the only hope of redemption was to cast off their old world. In addition
their immigrant experience caused them to retain their ethnic group consciousness. Even tho they adjusted
to American milieu they were far from assimilated or emancipated because in Boston they remained
subordinate in Boston’s social system.
—Ten year later his work The Uprooted held view of Americanization that was even
bleaker. The Irish while individualists and hearty folk they could not escape the loneliness and isolation
and remained forever alien in their new home. Handlin viewed America as a nation of separated men.
2. New Historians of Immigration: 1960s-70s
–Labor historian Herbert Gutman, Italian immigration historian, Rudolph Vecoli and
Frank Thistlewaite viewed Americanization as exploitive rather than alienating—and forced on
newcomers rather than embraced by those who sought to retain their old world cultures.
3. Post-1980s historians continued to pose the question of volition: Were groups free to
fashion their own American identity?
—Lawrence Fuchs and Wener Sollers argued that the US was generally a pluralistic
society where different groups could construct ethnic identity.
—Others like Lizabeth Cohen using the immigrant communities of Chicago in the 1930s
and Irving Howe studying the Jewish experience argued that class and gender constrained the process.
4. Gender informs works of Hasia Diner and Janet Nolan describing distinctive ways that
Irish women migrated, worked and assimilated.
5. Most creative work on immigration and the immigrant experience is what has been
defined as studies in “Whiteness”–David Roediger and Noel Ignatiev have argued that Irish assimilation
was based on their embrace of whiteness precluding any interracial alliances among the most
disadvantaged member of the labor force.
D. Questions to be raised in assessing assimilation?
1. Role of Religion
2. poverty and social mobility
3. pattern of migration and settlement
4. interaction of newcomers and first generation
5. hegemony of middle class –both inside and outside
6. potential for radical challenge to that hegemony
7. race/gender
8. Is becoming an American the only focus—scholars have raised questions about dual or
divided identities—due to migration and geographical mobility life in US is one pole among many
receiving countries.
E. Groups denied assimilation
1. Latinos and Asians
2. Mexican American labor quickly declined in 1930s when half million were repatriated
voluntarily or by force.
–subject to Jim Crow segregation
–Chicanos and waves of New Mexican immigrants pose problems between determining
who is citizen and who is alien.
—both share a transnational identity–but new Mexican immigrant presence has
become the cause of discrimination against older Chicano groups and thus an obstacle to assimilation.
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F. Citizenship no guarantees
1. Blacks, Mexicans and Japanese have been denied civil/political rights
2. demonstrate the limits of tolerance and assimilation in 20thc.
EXAMPLES OF IMMIGRATIONS THAT DO NOT FIT THE “IMMIGRATION PARADIGM”
MEXICAN IMMIGRATION: BORDER CULTURE OR BI-national culture
Garcia, Mario T. "Border Culture." in From a Different Shore. Ed. Ronald Takaki (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1994).
I. Differed from European: “Cultural Continuity and Change”
A. Not uprooting
Mexican immigration differed from "uprooting" experience characterized by Oscar
Handlin in the European migration. Mexian immigration reflected a "cultural" continuity rather than
alienation. Mexican Americans included educated and sophisticated political refugees and a mass of poor
immigrants that comprised enclaves connected by a "common language and certain Mexican traditions."
1. Gradual Aculteration
"The immigrants' adjustment to new working conditions, especially in urban areas, their relationship with
more Americanized Mexican Americans, and the impact of certain gringo institutions such as schools
introduced a gradual acculturation."
2. Continuous culture
"Cultural continuity as well as cultural change, the two in time developing a Mexican border culture, can
be detected in the family, recreational activities, religion, and voluntary association."
3. Resistant to Assimilation
The Mexican family was most resistant to American assimilation. Immigration to jobs on the railroad or
in agriculture meant that families ---both husdand, wife, and extended family members traveled together.
In 1900 predominately women did not work outside the home. Thus, by 1920 as women were more and
more becoming wage-workers affected family patterns and challenged traditional male-dominated
Mexican family structure.
Mexicans retained popular customs that would aid them in their transition to a new American setting.
eg. folklore, songs, birthday celebrations, saints' days, baptisms, weddings, and funerals in the traditional
style. In addition a strong tradition of herbal medicine continued among Mexican Americans and
immigrants. Mexican's continued to cook the food of the family's traditions. Outside the home they
created their own entertainment establishments as well as embracing certain American pastimes such as
baseball.
4. Importance of mass media/culture
acculturating influences included American films and mass culture. By exposing Mexicans to material
and cultural values the films helped them understand a certain amount of English.
5. Role of the church
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---Catholic Church helped in their adjustment.
--RC controlled by the Irish began establishing separate facilities for Mexican
members
--parishes in the barrios but they were not staffed by Mexican priests but by
Italian or American clergy.
---The church became an agent of Americanization especially among families,
many of them political refugees, who could afford to send their children to Catholic schools.
---religious beliefs and customs were transferred across the border through the
reestablishment of religious societies as well as the re-enactment of native Mexican religious celebrations.
----In this way religion contributed to the continuity of culture and helped create
a sense of community in the barrios.
In El Paso the RC pursued a bi-cultural approach to its ministry. The Sisters of Loretto emphasized
Americanization in their curriculum for their parochial schools and attempted to change what they
believed to be Mexican bad cultural habits. Likewise the Sacred Heart Aacademy for girls presented
programs displaying both the talents of young Mexicans and the influences of American middle-class
culture in a 1895 student muscial and drama. THe local El Paso newspaper was impressed with the
Catholic Church and its work among Mexicans and concluded rather condescendedly: "there is an
effecient and practical movement on foot to educate the Catholic youths and young girls of El Paso and
teach them how to become good citizens and dutiable daughters and faithful wives."
Yet because Sacred Heart Academy was open to both middle-class or upper-class girls from both Catholic
and non-Catholic backgrounds their cirriculum was more academic and sophisticated than that of the
parochial school. Besides American customs, both Spanish and Mexican cultural traditions were part of
the curriculum as well as American and Mexican history. "In 1919 graduating girls of Sacred Heart, the
Italian priest of the parish encouraged them to adopt the best of other cultures but to never forget who
they were:Young Catholic Mexican girls, who were obliged to follow Christ and as Mexicans to conserve
the beautiful customs and traditions of la raza."
The St. Ignatious Church foster the creation of various religious groups or sodalities which fostered piety
and devotion to various saints. They also assisted in promoting the more popular religious celebrations
such as The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Corpus Chrisi which contributed to creating a sense of
community identity through its extensive processions through the Mexican neighborhoods in which
thousands participated.
While retaining various cultural folk and religious traditions, Mexicans have been impacted by
industrialization and urbanization like other immigrant groups and have been forced to find ways to
adjust. Organizations such as schools and churches as well as fraternal organizations have aided in that
process of Americanization while providing cultural security and continuity.
B. Obstacles to total assimilation
However, Mexicans never became fully integrated in large part to the gulf between the purely American
culture and the purely Mexican culture.
1. Economic discrimination and segregation along the borders made it difficult to
assimilate. Employers were particularly concerned that Mexican labor remain cheap.
2. Unlike European immigration, Mexican immigration had continued and not slowed
down in the 1920s.
3. Mexicans believed they would return to their homeland and thus felt no immediate
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pressure to assimilate
4. Because it was right next door a dialectical relationship emerged: one revealing
contrasting attractions and pressures between both cultures.
--eg. The Annual Sept. 16 celebration proved to be the most important Mexican cultural event as
well as indicating the degree of cooperation that could occur between different Mexican societies, class,
and groups. At first supported by the Mexican Newspaper El Monitor, it later criticized the planning
group for negating their Mexican heritage. The paper was critical of the blending of cultural events that
would be represented in the fiesta. For the editors of El Moniter, Mexican blood was thicker than any
attachments to America or American culture. Nevertheless the celebration was a combination of Mexican
music, processions, religious celebration, and patriotic speeches telling the history of Mexican
independence, praising the fathers of Mexican independence as well as singing the Mexican national
anthem and the American national anthem ending with a parade through downtown El Paso that would
consist of both Mexican and American units.
---the Sept. 16 event reflects the "pull of both cultures" ---the material aspects of American
culture while intellectually and emotionally tied to Mexico.
ITALIAN IMMIGRATION: A TRANSNATIONAL EXAMPLE
Donna Gabaccia, "Is Everywhere Nowhere? Nomads, Nations and the Immigrant Paradigm of United
States History."
I. Transnational immigration
A. Italian Immigration
Gabaccia's project, "The Italians Everywhere" tells the story of Italian migration of 27mil workers
1. ---the largest migration system of the modern world. It represented 10% of the
migration 1830-1930
2. --a century in which 10% of the world was moving across national borders.
B. Uniqueness of Italian experience
1. Language
Italian migration had some unique problems
---first Italians before 1920 were illiterate---they spoke no Italian---the Tuscan dialect of
Italy's intellectuals was not adopted as a national language until after 1920. Most had familial, local,
regional or religious but not national identities.
2. Family ties vs. national ties
--Identity was formed around family ties, local, or Chatolic, Scicilian, or Sambucari.
3. America was not the only destination
---Only one third of the largest group in 1914 came to the US. Half of these were
considered sojourners because they returned home. ]
---Others went to Argentina and Brazil as well as elsewhere in Europe.
4. Italian nationalism became more pronounced after 1910 to 1960 and particularly with
the rise of Mussolini. Both before and after WWII Italian migrants were considered “true Italians”
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whether they were living in Italy or abroad.
II. Transnationalism used to critique American immigration myths.
A. Dispels ideas of the American exceptional immigrant experience.
1. US as first world’s democracy, open frontier, strong industrialism
2. US attractive to humble settlers seeking freedom from abroad
3. Incorporation as key to American character–we are a nation of immigrants
4. The critics of immigrant paradigm have been students of US racial minorities
B. How the Immigrant paradigm gets the facts wrong in Italian migration.
1. The US was not the most attractive to Italians
–only one third came but only after 1890 and it tapered off after 1914 due to
discriminatory immigration policies.
2. Nor was the US the most promising of working opportunities
—three quarters were working in seasonal and unskilled working conditions.
—women and children were in the garment industry or cigar trades
—Argentina/Brazil–migrants were semi-skilled, tradesmen, petty merchants, white-collar
workers. Independent farmers were better represented rather than in the US.
3.US attracted only the migrants from the poorest parts of Italy–where illiteracy and
unemployment were high and already scorned within Italy and Europe for their poverty.
4. Permanent settlement was not an advantageous choice
—wages stretched further in Italy
–the 1000 lire men could save in three years in the US was equal to two or three times a
peasant annual salary in Italy and was sufficient to buy a house. Permanent settlement only became
possible when children and women worked outside the home. Even in the 20c. however, women were
more likely to immigrate to Argentina.
–returners: 40percent before 1920 and after 83per cent while return rates dropped in
Europe and SA.
HOW THE IMMIGRATION OF ASIAN— CHINESE CONTRADICTS THE IMMIGRANT
PARADIGM.
Erika Lee: “Enforcing the Borders: Chinese Exclusion along the US Borders with Canada and Mexico,
1882-1924.”
I. Chinese illegal immigration
A. Post 1882
1. 17,300 came between 1882-1920.
2. Prior immigration was encouraged the first time a group was barred from entry
3. Chinese immigration was defined as criminal–provided for the deportation
4. Chinese took advantage of loop holes
5. Their illegal immigration became the target of government scrutiny.
B, Back Door through Canada
1. Canada’s law 1885 more lax—$50 pre person
2. Secondary immigration
3. 300-2000 per year after 1890
4. Smuggling networks of opium and contraband
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C. Back door through Mexico
1. Mexico encouraging migration because of industrial needs for modernization during
Diaz rule 1876-1911.
2. There was anti-Chinese hostilities but never restriction of immigration
3. 80% who came to Mexico reached the US border. 1-2000 per yr. migrated illegally to
US during the Diaz term.
4. Entry was usually through El Paso–“hot bed for smuggling Chinese”
5. Open secret – done with the knowledge or concealed knowledge of Mexican police
D. World in motion–shifting identities
1. disguised to “pass”
2. traded one racial uniform for another.
3. Multiracial relationships made Chinese illegal immigration possible and profitable
II. Discourse of Chinese illegal immigration
A. Contra Immigrant paradigm
1. Not a “huddled mass” – John Chinaman –similar to Jim Crow
2. 1880 San Francisco illustrated journal Wasp —“And They Still Come” played on fears
of Chinese immigration
3. Exaggerated racial features–Chinese men represent a “cultural anomaly” that is “both
sexually and racially threatening and ambiguous.”
B. Image of John Chinaman
1. “racialized caricature as alien coolies”
2. “impenetrable, shrewd, intelligent tricksters.”
3. inhuman conditions they were subjected to be seen as racial inferiority
4. “Sensationalist accounts used existing racial stereotypes to explain why Chinese
crossed the border ignoring the US laws as the cause for the illegal immigration to begin with.”
C. Racially distinguished from other illegal immigration
1. several thousand European immigrants entered through the same back door
2. illegal European was not considered a threat to American nation
3. seen as “forlorn” “unfortunate victims of unscrupulous agents in Europe.
4. Threat seen as racialized “invasion”\
-- “threatening national sovereignty” \
---“casting blame on the entire race”
D. Contrasted from that of Mexican immigration
1. Compare 17,000 to 1.4 mil between 1882-1920.
2. Restriction of European/Chinese immigration made Mexico the logical choice for a
steady/ cheap labor pool.
3. Illegal Chinese were treated in a dehumanized way
4. Illegal gave the anti-Chinese arguments for legitimacy of exclusion laws–conflated
chinese/illegal
III. Immigration restriction and US expansion 1890-1920.
A. The language of national sovereignty
1. US immigration law equated threats by Chinese immigration to national sovereignty
2. curb a foreign menace and protect its citizens
B. Enforcement within the US empire: Hawaii and Philippines
1. Restricted movement of Chinese within the “empire” after 1898.
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2. 1902 prohibited Chinese immigration to Philippines
3. a central aspect of American imperialism
4. “White-man’s Burden was both uplift and protection of citizens from foreign menace.
C. Enforcement outside and thereby extending American imperialism – Canada
1. pressure Canada to pass Chinese Exclusion laws
2. 1894 US Immigration began to extend control to Canadian ports
–an agreement with transportation/steamship lines/railroads to inspect in Canada those
bound for US.
3. 1903 agreement with the Canadian Pacific Railway was a stricter attempt to ferret out
Chinese coming to US Through Canada.
–handed over to US guard directly all Chinese passengers seeking admission to US.
—1923 Canada finally enacted a Chinese immigration law like the US
—repealed in 1947
D. Border control along Mexican border
1. Rather than diplomacy–southern border used policing
—transnational surveillance
—patrols at the border
—raids, arrests and deportation
2. Secret service Squad charged with watching Chinese in Mexico in 1907
—1907-09 2500 arrested for illegal entry.
3. Interior raids, arrests, and deportations –Chinese catchers
Conclusions:
1. US/Canadian/Mexican borders transformed immigration policy, the border region and
American border enforcement.
2. Racialization to of political discourse and immigration policy ==ideological, legal, and
political definitions of national membership and national identity.
3. 1970s Mexican illegal immigration response from US officials /public “echo” sentiments and
responses from Chinese immigration.
eg. metaphors for war
eg. $2bil /per year and 9400 agents vs. 80 inspectors in 1900.
4. In wake of Trade Center –transnational immigration policies and border control are pushed to
the forefront of US and international policy
–several of the terrorists came into US through Canada–leading to present day politicians
to criticize lax Canadian immigration policies as was done in 1890.
—Similarly Arabs/Muslims are being viewed as terrorists, illegals, unassimilatable
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