TABLE OF CONTENTS The Immigration Laws Were Bad for America
- Marcus Knedler
Political cartoon : Putting a Lid On It [p.2]
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Values Brought by Immigrants in the 1920s
- Cole Hansen Page 3 (Front cover design, table of contents)
What’s Wrong With The Immigrant Quota Laws [p. 4]
- William Gleason Political cartoon : Immigration Quota Laws. pg. 5
- Dominick Shover Page 6
The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan
Political cartoon: Cleaning out the nest [pg 7]
No More Nativism [p. 8]
- Quinton Batie
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The Immigration Quota Laws Were Bad for America By: Marcus Knedler What would you do if your dream of a better life was shattered because of your ethnicity? This is what happened to certain people who wanted to enter America but couldn't due to the bias of the quota laws. The lawmakers who made the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 favored Northern Europeans over Southern, Eastern and Western Europeans because of how different they were from America’s nativists. The bias of this law was unfair because it targeted certain countries over others, instead of treating them equally. Then in 1924 lawmakers created the National Origins Act that showed even more preference towards Northern Europeans based on immigration percentages from 1890. The people that made this law were targeting different kinds of people on the misconception that they were dirty and would bring down America. But, in reality those people worked very hard to get to America. They sold everything they had for a chance of having a better life. The resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan was one of the reasons that the immigration laws were created. The KKK wanted to keep immigrants that were different from themselves. The KKK would do unspeakable things to anyone that did not go along with their beliefs. And little to no one could stop them because of their power they had in the government. Once the law was passed, America was no longer a melting pot. The diversity of America made it more interesting and is important because it mixes together different ideas. New ideas help create new products and services. In summary the quota laws were bad because they were biased against certain countries, fueled prejudices, and didn’t align with our founding values.
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They also added more diversity to the population. Most of the immigrants arriving in the 1920s were young, working class Southern and Eastern Europeans looking for jobs and education opportunities, many of whom also did not speak English, though. The clash of these new immigrants with the nativists was in part mainly of two reasons, though; religions (and other traditions) in the regions ranged from Catholicism to Orthodox Jewish. The
Values Brought by Immigrants in the 1920s America Were Good
second reason was because of a fear of socialism in a time called the “Red Scare�, as in respect to the RSFSR and the rest of Eastern Europe in the 1920s. It was economically justifiable (historically) to
In the 1920s, immigrants helped the United States become the flourishing country it is today. There was significant room for socioeconomic change for America in the 1920s. Due to the massive influx of immigrants, industrialization boomed in America as they flooded major cities for jobs. The jobs these immigrants found would strengthen the United States military by producing better; as well as a larger amount of weapons. Such jobs would strengthen the economy, also: by producing a greater variety of products. Innovation in those products and services opened new markets altogether, like the home appliance market, (e.g: refrigerators, radio, automobiles) which encouraged American consumerism. Through the
have a bias against these immigrants in the 1920s. A significant amount of American economists and employees complained about the excess of unskilled, low-paying work carried over by immigrants. These workers would often be paid very small amounts of money, around 8 USD weekly, and this pay was widely accepted by the Eastern European populus, as it was more than most would ever hope to earn back in their countries of origin. Simply put, even though the immigrants contributed to some loss, it would eventually have been made up for by the huge positive effect they had on America.
recession in 1921 to the great depression of 1930, the gross national product (GNP) of the United States was growing by an astounding 4.2% yearly, and forty percent of automobiles being made and sold were Ford Model T’s.
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What’s Wrong With The Immigrant Quota Laws By William Gleason
It is obvious that the new Immigrant Quota Law is bad for America. Not only did it damage America’s economy, but it was horrible and cruel to the countless immigrants wishing to enter the U.S. In 1920, after WW1, around 430,000 immigrants entered the U.S. each year. A year later, that number almost doubled. This rising flow of immigrants rekindled the flames of nativism in America. Many nativists believed the immigrants thought with Old World terms, theories, and animosities, and that they would never be 100% American. Fear of immigrant radicalism had even outweighed the cheap labor immigrants provided. In response to the anti-immigrant pressure, Congress passed the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, which limited the maximum number of immigrants allowed into the U.S. to 375,000 per year, and introduced the Quota System, setting the maximum percent of the population that can be made up of immigrants at 3%. Three years later, Congress passed another law, bringing it down to 164,000 a year, and a 2% population quota, in addition to banning immigration from Asia. But, unsatisfied, nativists persuaded Congress to drop it once more, to 150,000 immigrants a year in 1929. This spelled severely grave news for America, as immigration dropped to less than a quarter of what it had once been. Without the immigrants from around the world to fill jobs, prices started to go up. The immigrants had provided very cheap labor, and without them, production costs were raised, which, in a domino effect, raised the prices of products across the U.S.Though it is true that with fewer immigrants, the violence against them decreased, it still did economical damage sufficient to outweigh that fact. Furthermore, not only was this terrible for America’s future, the hopes of immigrants to start new lives had been shattered, and their dreams had been crushed. For example, when the Japanese government learned that immigration to America from Asia hadn’t been reduced, but banned altogether, they declared a national day of mourning, because of how great a tragedy this was for their country. Indeed, this horrible choice made by our country to pass the quota laws resulted in a worse economy in America, and ruined the chances of immigrants to start new lives in the U.S. Fortunately, however, America did eventually redeem itself by -
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Immigration inspired the rise of the Ku Klux Klan By Dominick Shover White hoods. Concealed faces. Burning crosses. These were just a few of the intimidation tactics used by the Ku Klux Klan. The Ku Klux Klan targeted African Americans, immigrants, Jews, Catholics, and anyone with values that Klan members saw as “un-American.” The fear of new immigrants inspired the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.
Immigration inspired the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and laws about immigration. That is how immigration inspired the rise of the kkk.
More immigrants coming into the United States led to more anti-immigrant feelings and the rise of the Klu Klux Klan. Immigration numbers were doubling after World War I. Many nativists feared that the latest immigrants would never become “100 percent American.” They worried that immigrants were taking American jobs and land. Anti-immigrant feelings played a role in passing legislation that would reduce immigration into the United States. Those who feared immigrants wanted to reduce or eliminate the number of immigrants coming to the United States. Congress passed a series of immigration laws in the 1920s that would nearly eliminate the number of immigrants coming from southern and eastern Europe. The fear of new immigrants led to nativism and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Nativism is the policy of favoring native born Americans over those of immigrants. Klan members wanted an old way of American life. The Ku Klux Klan offered Americans an opportunity to return some of the older customs and traditions that existed before the 1920s.
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No More Nativism Who are the nativists, and are their goals good or bad for America? By: Quinton Batie The Nativists goals were not good for the U.S. Nativist believed the interest of native born americans were more important that immigrants. Nativist were upset that immigrants were taking up the american jobs and americans were struggling to find jobs. Nativist believed immigrants would never be 100% american. One reason why nativist goals were not good for the united states because it would limit immigration. Nativist wanted laws passed that would limit the number immigrants coming to the united states. One example was the quota system: if immigrants stop coming to the United States, then there will not be enough workers for jobs in the United States.
Nativist goals led to the rise of the KKK, also known as the “Ku Klux Klan” portrayed itself as a “defender of american values”. The Ku Klux Klan discriminated against African Americans, immigrants and the Jews. In conclusion nativist had goals to reduce the number of immigrants coming into the United States and they also thought they were bad for the united states, and their goals also led to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.
Above: Ku Klux Klan members march to protest immigration on the streets of Washington D.C.
Left: Nativists wanted immigrants to move out of local neighborhoods.
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