The Nativist’s Response to Immigration

Immigrants have been seeking salvation or just new opportunities in America for hundreds of years. Even Americans originally started off as immigrants. They came to settle in this New World to seek opportunities. These types of immigrants were white, strong, leaders and felt they were superior. In the mid nineteenth century, the â€Å"new† immigrants were also welcomed. According to President Grant, these â€Å"new† immigrants were the weak, broken, and crippled people who had nowhere else to go. Grant thought these â€Å"new† immigrants would ruin the tone of the American life into a more vulgarized tone now that these immigrants are filling up the jails and asylums (Document 4). They mostly came from Southern and Eastern parts of Europe and were poor, ignorant, and illiterate. They were needed for working power and employers liked to use them because they were able to give them cheaper wages. Soon there was an economic boom when machines came to replace the workers. Resentment soon arose since job offers were scarce and immigrants received the jobs over the Americans. Certain groups of Americans opposed open immigration. Many of these people did not want new arrived immigrants to have the right to vote until they have lived in the United States for 21 years. These were often referred to as the Nativist groups. These Nativists were the old type of American immigrants who looked down on these new immigrants and wanted to shield America from them. Nativism did speak out against the Chinese immigration on the West Coast. Nativist arguments say that Chinese immigration would create race antagonism throughout the entire public. This means there will be hostility among the races so there would be separation among the country. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and prohibited the naturalization of the Chinese. The Chinese were once a great asset to America. They came over from China and helped build the railroads. After the railroads were finished, the Chinese were supposed to leave. Instead, they stayed in America for good. The Chinese immigrants now wished to assimilate their own culture and ideas with the American ideas. Americans, mostly Nativists, were extremely bothered by this because the Americans did not want the Chinese to bring their alien culture to America (Document 1). Other groups, who resented other races from assimilating, organized classes so the immigrants can learn the American language and way. They said immigrants should become citizens by learning the â€Å"American language. † They thought if the people that come to America and don’t learn the way of the Americans, then this country will soon be just like the old country, the country which they have already left (Document 3). Resentment over immigration still arose within the United States. Many writers began to blame immigrants for problems regularly occurring throughout time. E. A. Ross wrote that immigrants had a strong influence on American politics and government. He said that the simple minded foreigner is the tap-root to the main issue. The tap-root is the source of the problem. Ross said that once that simple minded foreigner unleashes his ideas, the foreigners get a stronger grip on the situation. They soon broaden and entrench their power by intimidation at the polls; they have ballot frauds, saloon influence, and much more. This will all start from one foreigner and will soon increase till the foreigners have a larger vote (Document 7). Other writers like Rev. Josiah Strong blamed certain â€Å"diseases† on immigrants. These were not actual diseases but more like problems in the country. He blamed immigrants on the lack of holiness in the Sabbath and how it is now a holiday. He also blames the liquor traffic on the immigrants too (Document 2). Whether the immigrants came to America or not, these problems would still be here. It’s human instinct to attack a different race or religion when a problem comes about. That is exactly what the Americans were doing to the immigrants. There was always a large amount of immigrants arriving into the United States. The greatest danger of unrestricted immigration is that the immigrants can overrun the master race and they can have more control then the Americans (Document 5). When a lower race mixes with a higher race in sufficient numbers, history proves that the lower race will prevail. If the Americans continue to let unrestricted amounts of immigrants enter the United States, their thoughts and believes would soon alienate the Americans and the Americans would soon become the strangers in their own country (Document 6). Once Americans began accepting that there is no way to completely stop the flow of immigrants into America, they began to find ways to limit the amount arriving. In 1921 the National Origins Act was put into effect. It looked at the immigration record to find a base year. They looked at the year that the fewest immigrants arrived and called that the base year. They used the base year as the quota for immigrant arrival. Illegal immigration continued and the immigration and Naturalization office spent a good deal of time tracking down and deporting illegal immigrants. Finally the immigration Act of 1985 was passed which said that an illegal immigrant who has been in America for at least five years, and who can prove it, can apply for citizenship and become an American citizen. As long as the flow of immigrants is carefully regulated then immigration should be no problem, maybe even beneficiary.