Consequences of Nativism From the Mid-19th Century through the Early 1920s

As a student of culture in all its forms, the writing below was my response to the questions in blue that were given to me for a course on immigration at Metro.

Discuss the causes and consequences of nativism from the mid-nineteenth century through the early 1920s.  What objections did established American groups have to different groups of immigrants at different times during this period?  How did nativists seek to restrict the presence and influence of newcomers in the United States through social, economic, and political action?  Describe legislation—and the factors that inspired such laws—approved to restrict immigration from the 1880s through the 1920s.

Nativism ran strong through the mid-nineteenth century through the early 1920s. Immigrants ran into much criticism from established American groups. Nativists tried to restrict both the presence and influence of immigrants in every area of life that they could. Many laws were created during this time in the hopes to reduce immigration. This was an era when established groups in America came head to head with immigrants and immigrants paid the price. This period was a time when things were getting worse for immigrants in many different was and the Nativist movement helped to stress the differences between “Americans” and immigrants.

            Nativism had always been around, but it started to get worse around the election of 1824 (Daniels, 266). Nativism was linked to “some specific danger, real or imagined” about the incoming immigrant groups and showed the “general fears or uneasiness in American society” (Daniels, 265).One of the many reasons for these anti-immigrant feelings was economic based. Immigrants were viewed as being willing to take less wages then other workers (Daniels, 275). This caused fear and hatred in American (established) workers and helped give rise to anti-immigrant sentiments. These anti-immigrant actions came in three main waves: anti-Catholic, anti-Asian, and anti-all immigrants (Daniels, 265). With each wave the immigrants felt the consequences of the organized nativists in many different ways that were fueled by the objections of established “American” groups.

            Established American groups had objections against not only different immigrant groups, but these objections also changed through time. This could be seen in the waves that the nativists focused on.  The first wave was anti-Catholic focused, with Irish and German Catholics (and Catholics as a whole) being “seen as an internal threat, as subversive not only of republican principles but of the republic itself” (Daniels, 267). The next wave was Anti-Asian focused with the Chinese being the focus of most of the issues. For the Chinese, one of the objections that people had was that they had an “invisible government” (in the form of the Six Companies) that they could potentially use to subvert the American government (Daniels, 245). Then there was the anti-all immigrants wave that allowed all types of racism. One example of this is the issues that people had against immigrants that were “likely to become a public charge” and included the blind, people with physical and mental issues, and criminals (Daniels, 274). The Nativists were able to use these objections and others to try and restrict the presence and influence of immigrants.

            Restrictions of presence and influence focused on key areas like social, economic, and political action. For Catholics a social action against them was the mass violence that seemed to be acceptable to the general population that took the form of fires and direct assaults on people (Daniels, 267-268). This restricted the presence of Catholics because when they ventured outside they had to be afraid of violence like people throwing stones at them (Daniels, 268).  One example of an economic impact is that some eastern states, like New York and Massachusetts, started to charge head taxes on incoming peoples (Daniels, 269). These taxes would be repealed by the Supreme Court, but it was an attempt by states to get money back that they felt were being used on “destitute immigrants (Daniels, 269). The Nativists even formed political organizations to try and put checks on immigration. One such group was The Native American Association that “opposed foreign-born officeholders and voters” (Daniels, 269). These restrictions became formalized in the legislations that the government started to pass.

            The legislations that the government passed many times fell into line with the previous anti-immigrant waves that the Nativists supported. At the end of the Era of Good Feeling, one of the first legislations passed against immigrants was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (Daniels, 271).  Even though it at first had loop holes built into it that allowed transient workers to get a federal certificate to get back into the country,  that even got stopped in 1888 (Daniels, 272). 1917 had the first real restriction of all immigrants (Daniels, 278). This legislation was focused on the quality of the immigrants that would be allowed into the country by requiring adult literacy (Daniels, 278). Some of the Nativists wanted tougher requirements that focused on knowledge of English, but at least that never made it into the legislation (Daniels, 278). Literacy required at least some access to education and the reason why many immigrants were coming to America was to finally be able to get access to things like education (Daniels, 278-279). This legislation just made it harder for people who needed to come over to improve their lives. In the last part of this period came the release of the Immigration Act of 1924 and had two main phases which were to toughen measures already in place while expanding into new areas (Daniels, 282-283). The first phase reduced the previous allowed “quotas from 3 to 2 percent” (Daniels, 282-283). The second phase focused on peoples’ origins and included a part that now barred the Japanese and made them “aliens ineligible to citizenship” (Daniels, 283). This act also made it easier to be deported for a variety of reasons (Daniels, 283). This act was designed to target all immigrants and started to close the doors on most immigrants.

            Nativism helped to shape the experiences of immigrants during mid-nineteenth century through the early 1920s. Established Americans had many objections about the different immigrant groups that varied from political to economic and were real or not. Nativists found ways to restrict immigrants including social, economic and political actions. Some of these actions were even formalized in the legislations that the American government passed. This period stressed the differences between established Americans/Nativists and immigrants with the outcomes being worse for immigrants.

Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A Story of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, Second Edition (ISBN 9780060505776)