Immigration, Social_Issues, College Term Papers.com


		Data Bases
		• Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism?

		Links
		• Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com

		Free Essays
		• Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers

Search Lots of Essays

Back to Subjects - Social Issues

immigration

immigration During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many American nativist groups opposed free unrestricted immigration. Although racism is a main reason, there were many others. Economic, political, social and moral standards seemed to be threatened by these newcomers. The immigrants were unfamiliar of the language and customs that we take for granted in our everyday lives. The fear that gripped the nation was why people reacted so strongly against immigrants. The people feared change might distort the course of our prospering country. We did not want to become what those immigrants were fleeing. Many economic changes were changing the pace of our nation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There were changes being made in how business was being taken care of and how the workers were being treated. Strikes and riots were a constant concern to factory owners. They felt they could not afford to risk their enterprise to demonstrations of dissatisfaction by their workers. By the owners standards, their workers were being paid quite well. However, an immigrant would be willing to twice as much work for half the wages. Millions of immigrants came to America looking for work. This made many Americans apprehensive at the thought of immigrants taking over their jobs. With so many immigrants, who were thought of as untrained, dirty, uncultivated and an inconvenience, factory owners feared that they would be unable to control such kind of unfamiliar people. These immigrants stuck together, almost like animals, nativasts thought. Living in ethnic communities, and working in groups with one another. Separately they were seen as weak and unworthy of any basic human care. However, when they were together, they were generalized and stereotyped. against any immigration economic support whatsoever. This was not a single view, but a reflection of how the entire nativast nation felt. Many political changes were also being made during this abstract time period. Immigrants were new to our elaborate and tangled web of politics. In fact many nativast Americans didn’t understand our political system all to well. Many people had the conception that immigrants were too half-witted to follow American politics. After all they were not even born here. Immigrants tended to vote in blocks together. In document 7, according to magazine writer, E.A. Ross thought that foreigners were underhanded and corrupt. They polluted everything “good” about our “pure and honest” political system. Ross gives a clear exaggeration on how the foreigners managed to change the outcome of an election. From intimidation at the polls, ballot frauds, vote purchases, and saloon influence. Also the support of the vicious and criminal. This is clearly a stretch on the reality of the situation. He contradicts himself at the end by saying its root is the “simple minded foreigner”. With all this criminal masterminding to change an election outcome, its foundation are immigrants who do not completely understand our political system. Thats fails to make any sense to me whatsoever. Most immigrants wanted a better future for their families and that was all. Social changes played a huge role in the nativast campaign against immigrants. Many changes were occurring in our social atmosphere. The immigrants were the easiest victim to chose. They were part of a significant transformation of our country. We thought that our entire civilization was at stake. Nativast’s public standard of living would deteriorate by allowing these people to continue to enter and run the country. This can be seen in document 1. The American Federation of Labor wrote to congress, that it was no longer a racial, labor, or political standpoint. It was the basic establishment of the country. Our civilization was at stake. However, it was not falling apart, it was just metamorphosing into something different. Naivasts could not understand this. These changes in society were blamed on the foreigners. This is seem in document 2. It was an excerpt from “Our Country” by Rev. Josiah Strong. Nativasts held a strong resentment for the changes being made in religion and other social habits, such as drinking. The crime rate was changing and the easiest one to blame were the immigrants. They were a disease that polluted our civilization’s standards. Immigrants tended to flock among one another in large numbers. They had their own religious beliefs, and were hated them for this. Religion is not something that should be held against one for having. As it gains popularity, others see it as their strength and our own weakness. This is what angered so many Nativists. As for liquor, Americans were always known for their huge drinking habits. However no one made it an issue of concern until the immigrants began to move to America and continued their personal drinking habits In a desperate attempt to control the changes being made in America, immigrants were encouraged to forget their old country language and adapt the English language as their own. In document 3, an advertisement is shown that is supposed to encourage immigrants to learn English. The advertiser gently assures that if immigrants learn English, their lives will be much better off. However, they don’t do this out of concern but to try to keep the country from change. The ad threatens the immigrants that if they don’t learn English that our country will become what they fled in the first place. Americans did this because they did not want outsiders to be running our country. Nativasts feared that immigrants would dominate them and the country. Most of the Nation was showing more and more aggression towards the immigrants. In document 4, an excerpt from the popular book ”The passing of the Great Race” by Madison Grant, clearly shows how American nativasts were angry at the social changes being made at this time. Nativasts felt as though the decline of social purity was to blame upon the immigrants. They stained our clean land. Immigrants were human garbage that failed to even get recognition in their old country, and then they come here to spread their disease. This is what the nativasts believed. Jails were full, because immigrants were violent animals. Insane asylums were full because, immigrants were not as capable of equal mentality. Almshouses, were full of immigrants because they were lazy, leaching people who wouldn’t get jobs. This may sound harsh, but this is how nativasts felt. Immigrants were seem and treated like breathing debris that could stepped on without a second thought. However when so many people set so many obstacles against you, it I hard to overcome them and become successful. Immigrants were part of the changes in society, that is true, but they did not cause the change. Civilizations evolve and most people just could not come to terms with that unless they had something to blame. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1123