Immigration has been and continues to be a source of conflict since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, when the United States received its first major wave of immigrants from central, south and eastern Europe, to the now enduring conflict of illegal immigrants from Mexico. The biggest questions that remains is: how drastic was the immigration of the 1880's to 1920's, why were so many urban factory workers unhappy with this new wave, and what measures were taken to fix this "problem?"
Before the Civil War, as Masaryk University puts it,
immigrants known as “old” immigrants came in waves of around 150,000 per year. When the Civil War approached, however, the government rolled back any restrictions they had on immigrants, allowing “new” immigration to begin. While pre-Civil War immigration consisted of mainly immigrants from North and Western Europe, the 1870s-1920s consisted of immigration from mainly Central, Eastern, and Southern immigration, the main countries being Ireland and Germany. In addition, immigration came in waves of almost 3,000,000 million per year. It was at this point, with Ellis Island, that the United States was truly seen as the land of opportunity, an idea that many argue is not as omnipresent today.
So, what’s the big fus? Why did so many U.S. citizen care that immigrants were coming just to have a better opportunity for a life? According to Scholastic, the main problem
consisted of the quality of immigrants that immigrated to the United States, and the quantity at which they came that, eventually leading to economic issues. Scholastic emphasized that it wasn’t necessarily racism or anti-catholicism that were the problems (though they were largely present as repeatedly pointed out by JSTOR, ABC-Clio, and History.com), they were mainly secondary to the fears of losing jobs to the unskilled workers that were the new immigrants. Unlike the old immigrants with whom many did not have a problem, the new ones were seen by many urban unskilled workers to be more of a burden on the society. For example, the Germans were known to arrive in the U.S. not to create something new, but to reestablish something old. They were simply not providing their country with any advantage, they argued. U.S. citizens were clearly not shy about sharing their opinion about immigration. In a public newspaper from 1906, one author expressed that "immigration lowers wages" and that it's just a "war cry for restriction". These ideas puzzles me because taking a look at Figure 2, there is an inverse correlation between the number of immigrants present in the United States and the unemployment rate in the United States. If these workers really believed that their jobs were being taken, then why when the United States government attempted to suppress immigration rate, creating more job openings, would there be a higher unemployment?
The second issue with new immigration beyond the quality of the newcomers was the industrialization of urban cities that occurred. During this time, the United States was transitioning from an agrarian economy relying on farming to relying on industry full of factories and skyscrapers. In turn, this naturally increased the stresses, violence, and insecurities of the already present American factory workers. The way many factory workers laid out their business strategy where each worker does only a small portion of the work needed to create each item, allowed the workers to be unskilled. In turn, the job was given to the ones who were willing to be paid the least. Enter the new immigrants - those who are hungry and willing to do anything to gain a better life. Naturally, these new immigrants, who started to move into the urban cities, were willing to take the smaller wages if means that are able to have work in the U.S. It was this competition, as Masaryk University stated that caused the most fear among urban American factory workers.
I can understand their frustration, I really do. But I do not understand the restrictions that government put up. Restrictions like the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882, according History.com, where Chinese laborers were completely banned from entering the United States and the Literacy Act of 1917 where immigrants, according to
Marionbrady.com, were required to meet a quota of reading in English seemed too "Big Brother"-like. Just like today, that time period consisted of an incredibly amount of growth in new technologies, population, and innovations. To say that the “old” is better than the “new” in any instance is an attempt to live in the past and continue to be feared for what’s in the future. For those who are in this instance, they deserve to be left behind. The world is not going to wait until they figure out how to cope with new situations. One must be prepared for the future. One must encourage the future. But you cannot fight the future. It is inevitable. Be a part of it, or be left behind. We are back in this cycle of mass immigration; this time from Mexico. And, again, we have those who are trying to put a stop to immigrants coming countries that are seen to be inferior in order to keep unskilled jobs like coal mining in the country. What these people don’t know is that this is not going to last. Just like those urban factory workers in the 1880s, these people advocating for strict immigration policy do not understand the inevitable future to come - the reality. We do not need to keep these unskilled jobs; we should be empowering the growth of skilled labor.
Admittedly, I may have overstepped my boundary. But I can’t help to think about immigration as a whole. To say some people are more deserving to be in this country than others just because of where they are born is just outright baffling. My parents are both immigrants, one of whom was born in India. India is admittedly not the best place in the world. Some may consider it to be a “sh*t hole” country, but obviously this does not mean that my parent was this type of person. I think about the idea of putting restrictions on countries like 3rd world countries, and I think of my parents. What would have happened if there were restrictions coming from India. I probably wouldn’t even be alive.
Sources:
Scholastic - Outlined the major problems that new immigration caused for urban factory workers
JSTOR * - Outlined reasons why American urban factory workers were made at new immigration
(different ideas than those presented in Scholastic)
abc-clio.com * - Further comfirmed ideas brought by JSTOR about Anti-Catholicism.
Masaryk University * - Provided the most detailed explanations about the problems new immigration
caused, expanding off the ideas presented in scholastic
Marionbrady.com - Specified various immigration restrictions enacted by the government
History.com - Further emphasized ideas brought by JSTOR and ABC-Clio enforcing how prominent
the animosity between new immigrants and citizens were
chroniclingamerica.loc.gov + - A primary source newspaper indicating how open people were about there opinion of immigration. They simply were not afraid to voice their opinion. Used to backup ideas of hostility between citizens and immigrants
* = Scholarly
+ = Newspaper
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