Discuss the impact of immigration and ethnic changes in the United States from t

Question

Discuss the impact of immigration and ethnic changes in the United States from the post-Civil War era through the 1920s. What groups of immigrants inspired concern from established Americans in the late 1800s, and what legal obstacles were placed to slow their influx? What barriers resricted the influence of recently-freed African Americans, and how did World War I begin to changes their opportunities? Describe resurgent nativism during and sfter World War I, and how it led to severe restrictions on immigration in the 1920s.

Explanation / Answer

The Union victory in the Civil War in 1865 may have given some 4 million slaves their freedom, but the process of rebuilding the South during the Reconstruction period (1865-1877) introduced a new set of significant challenges. Under the administration of President Andrew Johnson in 1865 and 1866, new southern state legislatures passed restrictive “black codes” to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and other African Americans. Outrage in the North over these codes eroded support for the approach known as Presidential Reconstruction and led to the triumph of the more radical wing of the Republican Party. During Radical Reconstruction, which began in 1867, newly enfranchised blacks gained a voice in government for the first time in American history, winning election to southern state legislatures and even to the U.S. Congress. In less than a decade, however, reactionary forces–including the Ku Klux Klan–would reverse the changes wrought by Radical Reconstruction in a violent backlash that restored white supremacy in the South.

Many Americans have multiple identities that reflect complex ancestral origins, tribal and communal associations, and varied ideological outlooks on race and culture. In general, people do not change their ethnicities as a matter of fashion, but they may emphasize different aspects depending on the circumstances. For instance, a person who identifies as Mexican among relatives might identify as Hispanic at work and as American when overseas. A person of mixed heritage might be Native American in one context, but white in another. These possibilities exist in census data, just as they do in informal conversations and settings, because of the opportunities for varied responses to different census questions about race and ethnicity.
America was a multiethnic and multicultural society from the outset. The original American colonies were formed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as frontier societies composed of multiple founding populations .First among these were the indigenous peoples of North America, who were gradually displaced or absorbed by the more numerous European settlers and indentured servants from various parts of the world. Africans were imported primarily as slave labor from the Caribbean and West Africa, although some arrived as indentured servants on terms similar to whites. In the middle decades of the seventeenth century, some blacks became free settlers, but by the close of the seventeenth century, slavery and African heritage became nearly synonymous .With unbalanced sex ratios in frontier settings, large populations of mixed ancestry soon emerged, particularly in Southern colonies (Davis 1991). While some unions were the result of intermarriage or consensual liaisons, there was also widespread sexual exploitation of black women by white slave owners .
Nativism is the political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants. However, this is currently more commonly described as an anti-immigrant position.Between 1860 and 1915 another wave of European immigrants entered the United States. Many came from Russia, Austria and Italy and a large portion of this new group were Jewish. Although immigrant labor continued to be needed, there were strong anti-immigrant feelings toward this new growing population. Congress decided that immigrants should be required to pass a medical exam and have no criminal record in order to immigrate to the United States. The 1891 Act barred people having any contagious diseases or history of crime. In 1903, people in the United States were also fearful of European radicals entering the country and so the government added anarchists and subversives to the 1891 Act.
Fear was so widespread that Congress and President Theodore Roosevelt decided to establish the Dillingham Commission to report the effects of immigration on the country. The results concluded that the United States was not benefiting from immigration because the immigrants were inferior to United States citizens. The Commission recommended that the United States no longer accept immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe and furthermore all immigrants were to pass a literacy test. In 1917, under the Wilson administration, Congress passed the first comprehensive immigration act which included a literacy test requirement. In 1924 the National Origins Act was passed putting a quota system on the number of immigrants who entered the United States. The law effectively stopped anymore large flows of European immigration.
At the end of cold war anti immigrants
sentiments began again, specifically in California. The state suffered a prolonged recession in which many people were left without jobs. This lead to a large anti-immigrant movement since California had the largest immigrant population. In 1994 California passed Proposition 187 which banned undocumented children from attending public schools and denied them public health services. Portions of this law were struck down by the courts, but it caused the President and Congress to focus on enforcement. Border control was enforced by the building fences and the hiring of border agents.
In September of 1996 the Clinton administration passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The bill intended to make deportations easier and focused on immigrants with criminal convictions. It also penalized employers who hired undocumented workers. That same year Congress passed the 1996 Welfare Bill which put up barriers to undocumented immigrants from receiving any public benefits and any legal immigrant from receiving food stamps. That year a large group of naturalized immigrants went out to vote and raise their voice. The following year Congress returned some but not all of the benefits to legal permanent residents.
The history of immigration policy demonstrates a clear pattern of policy decisions catered towards the need of the economy followed by fear of the stranger. During the years when the economy was rapidly moving and cheap labor was necessary to fill a particular industry, immigrants were welcomed into the United States with open arms. The surge of immigrants followed by the decline of the economy fueled fear in Americans and politicians who then closed up borders and threw out immigrants. Our policy decisions have not been long term solutions. We need an immigration system that is practical and reasonable around all aspects of immigration in the United States and addresses future waves of immigrants entering the United States.

Nativism in World War I had much in common with xenophobia during the Quasi-War. The chief assertion of American nationalism, termed "100 percent Americanism" after U.S. intervention, attested to the realization of cultural and social diversity amidst crisis. First-and second-generation immigrants comprised one-third of America's population—a point made more problematic by the loss of confidence by Progressive reformers. Hence, the preparedness campaign during the period of neutrality (1914–1917) focused primarily on German immigrants. Well-organized, prosperous, and self-consciously retaining old-world customs, German Americans mobilized following the outbreak of war to block munitions shipments to belligerents and counter sensational "Hun" propaganda stories emanating from London. In January 1915 the German-American Alliance met in New York, demonstrating a great show of unity—and outraging American nativists.

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