History of U.S. Immigration

Learning Targets
• I can define xenophobia.
• I can define nativism.
• I can list groups that have come to the U.S.
• I can analyze the reaction of Americans to immigration.
• I can list and describe immigration laws that have been enacted in our history.

Words to Know
• Xenophobia: Hatred of foreigners and immigrants
• Nativism: Keeping a society ethnically homogenous (i.e. not wanting immigrants)

“Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the
English, become a Colony of Aliens , who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.”
– Benjamin Franklin, “Observations Concerning the
Increase of Mankind” 1751

Franklin Quotes on Race
• “The Number of purely white People in the World is proportionably [sic] very small”
• “In Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French,
Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion”

Why did Franklin not want
Germans in the colonies?
Did his fears turn out to be true in the long run?

Ancestry with Largest Pop. in County

What group was
“not wanted” next?

Irish Immigrants

Irish Immigrants
• Nativists disliked Irish because they were
Catholic.
– Burned Catholic buildings
– Viewed Catholics as loyal to the Pope
– Saw Catholic youths “the majority of our criminals”

After the Irish, who next?

Chinese Immigrants
• Many Chinese worked to build the
Transcontinental Railroad.
– After, they were seen as a threat to American way of life.
• Discrimination for decades led to the
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 .
– Prevented Chinese immigration
– Did not allow legal Chinese residents to become naturalized citizens

After the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, focus shifted to…
Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907 limited Japanese immigration.

Anti-Japanese Discrimination
San Francisco Chronicle, March 9, 1905

Also…?

Italian Immigrants
• Mob in New Orleans lynched 11
Italians who had been acquitted.
• Teddy Roosevelt called the lynching “a rather good thing.”
– “sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins.”
• Lynch mob was never prosecuted.
– Leader becomes governor
– "just a little worse than the Negro, being if anything filthier in [their] habits..."

Immigration Act of 1924
• Created a quota system to favor “Anglo-
Saxons.”
• Based on 2% of ethnic population in 1890.
– In other words, people already here in large numbers in 1890 had an advantage.
• English
• Germans
• Irish
• Also excluded Asians…again.

Learning Targets
 I can define xenophobia.
 I can define nativism.
 I can list groups that have come to the U.S.
 I can analyze the reaction of Americans to immigration.
 I can list and describe immigration laws that have been enacted in our history.