| Submitted by: | dafantom1 |
| Date: | 10 / 22 / 2008 |
| Category: | World History |
| Words | Pages: | 980 | 4 |
| Views: | 184 |
Running Head: AMERICA
America and Immigration
America and Immigration
America is a land of immigrants, all with different cultures and religions, which they were determined to hold onto. In the early twentieth century, America saw a surging tide of immigrants and native-born newcomers engulf cities in the U.S., thus becoming an urban nation. The first settlers in the U.S. originated from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Germany and from 1820 onwards, the stream of immigrants into the US was relatively constant. However, by 1920 the population of America was divided between the original settlers from Britain and Germany and the new immigrants, who were migrating from Southern and Eastern Europe. These immigrants were not as gratefully received as they had limited skills, were unwavering from their own cultures and did not want to integrate into society.
This social mix of the new world birthed the progressive movement. Progressives were to reform the growing cities social ills, like smoking, alcohol abuse and prostitution. Since the main source of urban growth came from immigration, many Americans believed immigrants were the foundation of the cities problems. Natives also feared the different religions, morals and values that immigrants had would taint the “white Protestant” society they knew. Natives also believed immigrants took jobs away from native-born Americans. These ideas led to many progressives wanting to restrict immigration. Alleged scientific expertise called eugenics were used to validate the progressives desire to restrict immigration. For example, in 1916, The Passing of the Great Race author, Madison Grant, used bogus data to denounce immigrants (Boyer, 446 & Higham, 147). In addition to the progressive movement, the patriotic enthusiasm of World War I increased many Americans hostility toward aliens also. The wartime spirit of “100 percent Americanism” led to racial acts of violence, such as the Red Scare during...
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