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America: Home of Immigrants
Loading ...Given the short history of America, looking back on it shouldn’t be so difficult, especially when it comes to immigration. Yet that isn’t necessarily the case.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
-The Statue of Liberty
America is a nation of immigrants. For nearly 17000 (yes, 17000!) years, this continent welcomed the footsteps of travelers the world over. As populations expanded, myriad civilizations and cultures have called the Americas their home away from home.
Several millenniums later, the United States of America’s experiment in democracy brought forth an experiment in cross cultural acceptance and understanding. With every generation, a new batch of foreigners were enticed by the opportunities America had to offer and decided to risk their established existences (however meager) for the promise of a chance at more. For over 225 years, the US has represented opportunity, and though migrants didn’t find gold paved roads, they found a chance to throw caution to the wind and attempt what was virtually impossible in their homelands, the pursuit of happiness. Though debates rage on regarding American policy and influence in the world, let there be no mistake–America is quite revered across the globe, and the spirit of this pursuit lives on in the immigrants of today. With almost a population of 300 million people, and a looming threat of terrorism, however, porous borders prove a major concern for current citizenry.
History
Immigration issues are nothing new. As a nation that has been expanding westward since its foundation, the promise of more has lured prospective citizens from the world over. By the end of the American colonial period, the census found nearly 3.9 million Americans, many of which were 5th generation residents. The immigrant population was estimated at 300,000 to 400,000. From Wikipedia: “After 1820, immigration gradually increased. For the first time, federal records, including ship passenger lists, were kept for immigration. Total immigration for one year in 1820 was 8,385, gradually building to 23,322 by 1830 with 143,000 total immigrating during the intervening decade. From 1831 to 1840, immigration increased greatly, to 599,000 total, as 207,000 Irish, even before the famine of 1845-49, started to emigrate in large numbers as Britain eased travel restrictions.” These eased restrictions and the relative ease by which immigrants could find their way to the US created a boon of immigrants , those most harshly hit by social and/or economic conditions in their homelands. And these immigrants were not always welcomed with open arms.
Irish Catholics
With a wave of Catholics–particularly Irish–entering the US, the population boom prompted a major backlash by the so-called “natives” of their time. This backlash-turned-movement was referred to as Nativism, and with it came secret societies of nativist Americans who were anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and anti-Irish.
The sentiment became so inflammatory, that mobs and some secret societies actively harassed, and sometimes killed, Irish Catholics. But this anti-immigrant sentiment did not wane until late in the 19th century, arguably when German immigrant populations exploded prior to WWI, and after the Civil War, when the Irish were able to distinguish themselves, after a few generations, from Black slaves.
Chinese
America’s westward expansion necessitated labor, and lots of it. Many Irish in the northeast found themselves moving westward working on transcontinental railroads. Throngs of Chinese , working on the railroads and as gold prospectors, have came to the US for a stable life, as America sought more sources of cheap labor. Resentment by poorer White Americans began mounting, and it was directed to both Irish and Chinese immigrants, because of perceived job shortages. This “yellow peril” caused the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banning immigration from China, and it eventually led to all east Asians, reaching its pinnacle during World War II.
Today
Ultimately, the immigration debate has historically been grounded in a fear of loss of jobs for Americans to immigrants. Today, the situation is nominally, yet substantively different. Along with the standard debates that rage on regarding immigration, there is a national security layer that does not go unnoticed. In fact, it is now a major rationale for many of the shakier aspects of the immigration debate. Players like Lou Dobbs and Tom Tancredo make the immigration debate a cornerstone of their politics. But examining immigration from a historical perspective allows us to temper our emotional responses, and gives us a realization that these moments of social instability are normal, especially for a nation that promises so much to so many.
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