6th Annual Judith Ramaley Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship
|
Poster #89 Increasing Anti-Immigrant Sentiments & How Immigrants Formed Their Identities: 1880-1930s Brittany Rice Faculty Mentor: Matthew Lindaman Immigration reform in the United States became more restrictive not only in response to the increasing numbers of immigrants but also due to the increasing anti-immigrant attitude of the American public. This paper argues that the nativist movement and immigration policy reforms in the late 1800s up to the Second World War, caused immigrants to seek comfort and find their identities in labor and fraternal societies, socialist groups, and through religion and athletic clubs. The Chinese Exclusion Act, enacted in 1882, is claimed to be, by many scholars, as the point in which immigration reform in the United States became increasingly restrictive. There were numerous acts that followed that targeted restricting specific kinds of people, such anarchists, illiterates, even took away citizenship from women who married foreigners. This all led up to the Immigration Act of 1924, deemed to be the most restrictive act up until the point, which reduced the quota of entry by immigrants from specific areas. Membership in labor unions and socialist groups was common for immigrants, and communication between members often was conducted in their original language, such as Finnish, Italian, and Greek, through pamphlets and newspapers. Some scholars have contended that many skilled workers who had immigrated before 1890 were already familiar with industrial capitalism in their homelands, and this allowed them to be more comfortable and experienced with respect to going on strike and protesting. However, the “new immigrants” were not as ignorant about “advanced forms of labor activity” as many assumed, giving strength to the argument that joining labor unions was common among all kinds of ethnicities, regardless of their skill level. Some authors have also concluded that membership in socialist groups was especially common among Finnish immigrants, in comparison to other ethnic groups. In regards to religion, some scholars have argued that for many immigrants there was a social basis of religious organization. Athletic clubs, such as Sokol, were also brought over from other countries and became popular in the United States among immigrants. |
|