I. The US Population has changed dramatically in the last century and a half - both in terms of raw numbers and ethnic composition.

A. Founding - WASPs dominated - 1790
English   48%
African    19%
Germans      7%
Scots       7%
Scots-Irish     5%
Irish       3%
Dutch       3%
Native Am     2%
Fr, Swed.     2%
 

B. Citizenship – History of Exclusion for Racial/Ethnic Minorities
C.  First Naturalization Law 1790 - allowed only white people to be eligible for citizenship

D. 14th Amendment 1868 extended citizenship to African Americans - but Asians still excluded

1. 1909 decisions in US District Court first denied then granted Syrians eligiblity for naturalization - first denied on basis on country of origin in spite of fact that many Syrian Christians were blond/blue-eyed/white.)

2. 1923 Supreme Court reversed lower court rulings that Indians were white and therefore eligible for citizenship

a. revoked 60-70 naturalization certificates they had been granted, disqualified them for land ownership too because
state legislation (CA) said no one ineligible for citizenship could own land.

b. Indians became eligible for naturalized citizenship in 1946 under the Luce-Celler Bill (along with other Pacific Islanders from the "barred zone" est'd in 1917.

But allowed only 100 Indians to enter annually;

3. Native Americans finally granted US citizenship in 1924 under Indian Citizenship Act.

4. Armenians sued in Federal District Court in 1925 for right to citizenship - expert testimony that their language was IndoEuropean in origin.

 
5. But Filipinos still excluded under 1934 Supreme Court decision in spite of their Spanish heritage

Morrison et al. v. Californiia
“’White persons’ within the meaning of the statute are members of the Caucasian race, as Caucasian is defined in the understanding of the mass of men. The term excludes the Chinese, the Japanese, the Hindus, the American Indians and the Filipinos.”

Note:  Filipinos became eligible for citizenship under legislation passed in Jan. 1942 (WWII/brides)

6.  Chinese
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882
Renewed several times
Not allowed to emigrate til 1943 (quotas)

 
II. 1840s-1920 -first wave of massive immigration to the US. often recruited to be workers.

A. Irish - 1840s-50s - potato famine.
1851 alone 250,000 Irish to US between 1841 and 1920 = about 4 million.

Ireland ranks 5th on list of leading suppliers of US immigration 1820-1994 (p.531) 5 million

Many peasants, low levels of education.
Faced widespread discrimination from "nativists";
NINA - no Irish need apply - rooms, jobs, etc. discriminated ag. because Catholic

Labor activism - known for "militancy" the Molly Maguires".

Highest concentrations of Irish in MA (26%) RI, NH, DE (21%), OK, MO, AR (20%) WV (19%)

 
B. Germans -1850s especially escaping failed revolution of 1848.
1851-1920 = about 5 million.

Germany ranks first on list of leading suppliers of immigrants to US 1820-1994
About 7 million.

Today = 58 million Americans can claim some German ancestry - about 1/4 of Am pop.

Many middle class "burgher class" so many became shop owners, farmers in MW, as well as industrial laborers. also protestantism eased assimilation.

States with highest density: WI (54%); SD (51 %); NE (50°!0); IA (50%) MN (46%)
 
C. "White ethnics" 1870-1925. Southern, Central, Eastern Europe mostly poor peasants, unskilled laborer in US.

Exception Jews from C and E Europe/Russia - often better educated, skilled, opened shops, businesses.

1. 1896 turning point - first time immigrants from SCE Europe outnumbered those from NW Europe

2. pull factors: US industries expanding, better ships/passage fast and cheap $10 or less, already had family in us

3. push factors: peasantdom, class conflicts, military drafts by empires (Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Prussian), encouraged by European govts - overpop. poverty disease, famine, change from agrarian to industrial econ., political unrest, revolution.
4. Southern Europe: Italians, Portuguese, Greeks, Turks, Armenians

Central Europe: Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Austrians and Swiss

Eastern Europe: Byelorussians, Ukranians, Ruthenians, Lithuanians.

5. Most settled in large cities - worked in industry, lived in overcrowded, poor, disease and crime ridden ghettos tended to stick together in ethnic enclaves, worked at unskilled labor - children too - didn't go to school.

14 hr days/6 days a week.
no labor unions, injured worker compensation, health/safety standards
widely discriminated against by white "nativists"

 
6. Poles/Slavs - tended to concentrate in mining and industrial areas (Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh; coal fields and mines of IL, PA, OH)

a. Poles 3rd largest ethnic group in US.
12 million Americans Polish heritage = 4% US 1990 pop.

1 million in Chicago; highest concentrations in WI, MI, CN (10%), IL, NJ (8%); PA, NY (7%)

b. new wave of immigration - 80s/90s
80s - 83,000; expected to double in 90s if current trend continues

 
D. Immigration wave ended in 1921 - National Origins Quota Act
1. limited immigration to 3% of group's foreign born population in the US in 1920 - per year for 3 years.

example: if already about 500,000 Polish immigrants - each year only 15,000

Reduced number of immigrants from SCE Europe from

ave. of 780,000/yr. 1910-14

to only

155,000 annually 1921-24.

 
2. 1924 - passed Johnson-Reed Act –
2% rule.

3. 1929 - raised back to 3%.
after WWII exceptions made for displaced persons.

4. 1952-McCarran Walter Act –
1/6 of 1 % of 1920 foreign born pop.

Truman vetoed; but Congress overrode.
 

E. 1965 - Immigration Reform - Immigration and Nationality Act - ended national quota system; but initiated new one based on hemisphere of origin when it went into effect in 1968

new limits: each year 120,000 Western hemisphere, 170,000 Eastern hemisphere;
complicated preference system stressing job skills and close family kinship in US (explains why new immigrant pops from Asia tend to be higher skilled)

1976 added stipulation that no more than 20,000 per-country
(exceptions for political refugees)

1978 - worldwide 290,000 per year.
1980 - dropped to 270,000 not including those with family in US. (including family immigrations - averaged over 500,000 per year through 80s)
1990 - new ceiling set at 700,000 per year (including families);
1994 - dropped to 675,000.

In general - turn of century SCE Europe, end of 20th Century shift to Asia, Latin America, Carribean.

 
Ill. Contemporary Issues
A. Immigration reform –
CA Proposition 187 - prohibits children of illegal aliens from attending public schools; denies all medical care except in life threatening situations, no public assistance, food stamps, etc.

B.  Controversy over contributions/drain of immigrant population.

Business Week 1992 poll:
68% of respondents said immigration was bad for the country.

47% of blacks and 62% of nonblacks wanted fewer immigrants.

How can we reconcile the Melting Pot myth and the fact that the US is a nation of immigrants with its history and current anti-immigrant feelings and policies????

Booth vs. Clinton in Interracial America book

What arguments does Booth present against immigration?

Why does Clinton believe immigration is good for the U.S.?
 
1994 study by Jeffrey Passel - cost-benefit analysis of immigrants coming betwee 1970 and 1992 (both legal and illegal) - found they had aggregate

income of $300 billion (9% of total US income) and they paid >$70 billion in taxes; subtracted costs of social services to them and children including education.

Determined net surplus value of immigrant labor betwee $25 and 30 billion between 1970 and 92.
 

Although likely to keep growing through immigration, a lot of talk about making immigration more difficult. While immigrants keep coming in hope of pursuing the American Dream - many are exploited