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Immigration and American Identity

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America as Nation of Immigrants! “Give me your tired, your poor,! Your huddled masses yearning to

breathe free,! The wretched refuse of your teeming

shore,! Send these, the homeless, the tempest-

tost to me,! I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

! Emma LazarusA gift from France, the Statue of Liberty was erected in 1886.

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Welcoming the Uprooted

! Land of Freedom -politics

! Melting Pot - culture! Upward Mobility -

economics! Immigration as

modernization process -tradition-bound peasant to modern capitalist individuals

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Reevaluating Immigration

! Economic Opportunity vs. Stratification! Political Freedom vs. Discrimination! Cultural Assimilation vs. Diversity! Individual vs. family/kinship/community

networks

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Who are the Immigrants?

! 24 mill. From 1860-1920! Old Immigrants

! pre-1880, 85% from Western and Northern Europe

! New Immigrants! post-1880 80% from

Eastern and Southern Europe

! More New Immigrants! approx. 1 million

immigrants from Asia 1850-1934

! approx. 1 million from Latin America, mostly after 1910

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Why did they immigrate?Push Factors! economic motivations! global expansion of capitalism

! “The capitalist form of production, under which goods are produced for sale in order to make the largest profit possible and workers receive wages for selling their labor.”

" Sucheng Chan

! disruption of agricultural economy! “After 1850 the spread of

industrialization and commercialized agriculture let to further declines in the number of landholdings that could support families.”

! John Bodnar, The Transplanted

! core-periphery movement

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Political Upheaval and Persecution

! Pogroms in the Pale! Jewish family migration - settlement! only 3% return rate! 1.4 million in NYC’s Lower East Side by 1915

! Mexican Revolution 1910-11! 1900-1930 Mexican American population in

Southwest grew from 375,000 to 1,160,000

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Family Decision

! Male migratory wage-earners! Return migration approx. 50%

! Chain migration! Extended kinship network! Adopted/fictive kin

! Family reunification! Esp. women

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Pull Factors:Looking for Gold Mountain

! “‘America’ was in everybody’s mouth. Businessmen talked of it over their accounts; the market women made up their quarrels that they might discuss it from stall to stall; people who had relatives in the famous land went around reading their letters for the enlightenment of less fortunate folks….all talked of it, butscarcely anybody knew one true fact about this magic land.” ! Mary Antin, Russian Immigrant

! “Heroes were sitting right there in the room and telling what creatures they met on the road, what customs the non-Chinese follow….Nuggets cobbled the streets in California, the loose stones to be had for the stopping over and picking them up….In their hunger the men forgot that the gold streets had not been there when they’d gone to look for themselves.”

! From Chinamen, by Maxine Hong Kingston! Labor recruiters! Incorporation of America and the demand for labor 10

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Economic Opportunities?! Labor Market Segmentation

! Primary vs. Secondary Labor Market! Differences in jobs, working conditions, benefits, security,

wages, etc.

! Dual Wage Economy! “cheap labor” = same work, less pay

! transnational industrial reserve army ! “to weigh down white workers during periods of economic

expansion and to hold white labor in check during periods of overproduction”

! Old immigrants and native-born vs. New Immigrants! Men vs. Women! Whites vs. non-whites

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Implications of labor stratification! Economic benefits for

employers! Protectionism on behalf of labor

to protect wage scale and privileges

! anti-Immigration! KOL! AFL! Jobs for “Americans”

! But who are “Americans” and who deserves the better jobs?! Family wage for men not

necessarily higher wages for women

! Race = nationality

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Race and Citizenship! right of naturalization

and citizenship ! Naturalization law of

1790 specified that naturalized citizenship reserved for whites

! Revisions instituted for African Americans; Mexican Americans; and Native Americans

! political parties and labor unions

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Chinese Immigrants as Case Study

! 322,000 immigrated between 1852-1882

! played a key role in developing the economic and transportation infrastructure of the American West

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Mining

! “The Gold Rush”! 2/3 of Chinese American

population were involved in mining in 1860s

! Foreign Miners’ Tax (1852)! $3 monthly tax for every

foreign miner who did not desire to become a citizen

! Collected $5 million from Chinese, 25%-50% of California state revenue by 1870 16

Railroad construction

! 12,000 Chinese employed by Central Pacific Railroad (90% of work force in mid-1860s)

! Paid $31/month without board or lodgings (savings of 1/3)! 5,000 Chinese workers strike in 1870 for higher wages and

8-hour day

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Manufacturing

! 46% of labor force in San Francisco in four key industries

! boots and shoes! woolens! cigars and tobacco! sewing

! Consumer boycott and union labels

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Domestic Service and “women’s work”

! 72% of all laundry workers in California in 1870 were Chinese

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class hostility channeled into racial antagonism

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The Anti-Chinese Movement: “The Chinese Must Go!”

! Political Disfranchisementand Physical Violence! People v. Hall (1854 Ca.)

! Chinese ineligible to testify in court against whites

! Racial Segregation and Social Harassment

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Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

! 1st group to be designated for exclusion based on nationality and class

! Chinese laborers targeted for immigration exclusion

! all Chinese immigrants denied right to become naturalized citizens

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Why support from upper and middle classes?

! Social Darwinism

! “Scientific” basis for justifying racial hierarchy

! Eugenics ! Cultural/social vs.

economic motivations

! easier to racially scapegoat than to reform economic system

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Implications for future immigrants:Who else is not white?

!Definitely not white!African Americans and Jim Crow!Most Asian immigrants

! aliens ineligible for citizenship! Immigration

! Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1906-1907

! Land ownership! Alien Land Laws

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Ambiguously Raced:Social Construction of Race

! Mexican Americans ! Spanish or Indigenous peoples?

! South Asian “Indians” ! Bhagat Singh Thind case (1923)! “Caucasian” but not white

! Irish, Eastern and Southern Europeans! ethnic and religious differences viewed as racial

differences! Anglo-Saxon race! “No intelligent patriot…[can observe] the entrance…of

such vast masses of peasantry, degraded below our utmost concepts…without the gravest apprehension and alarm.” M.I.T. President Francis A. Walker

! I.Q. Testing and Progressive Education

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Gradations of non-white identity

! Ellis Island (1900) vs. Angel Island (1910)

! 2% rejection vs. 25% rejection rate

! Ellis Island processing rate – 5,000/day

! Angel Island -detention up to months

! 29 vs. 200-1,000 questions

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1924 Immigration Act

! Nationality Quota System (in place until 1965)! 2% of 1890 census! 164,000 total/year

! Targeted towards reducing Southern and Eastern European Immigration

! Cut of all immigration of “aliens ineligible for citizenship” i.e. Asian immigration! Exception of Filipinos – American “nationals”

! Immigration within Western Hemisphere exempted (e.g. Mexico, Canada)! labor needs

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Individual strategies for achieving acceptance

! Assimilation! education! popular culture

! upward mobility! What are the benefits, costs, and limitations of this strategy?! Options available only for particular groups

! 1922 Ozawa case - assimilated but not white! Biculturalism! Transnationalism

! continuing political, cultural, and financial connections with the homeland

! Gender! Is assimilation and wage force participation inherently liberating?

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Group Strategies

! Political and Labor Advocacy! Cross-Group Cooperation

! Industrial Workers of the World (1905)

! NAACP! Political Machines! Progressivism

! Reinforce Social Stratification ! AFL! Political machines! Progressivism

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Reevaluating Immigration

! Transplanted versus uprooted cultures! Family and kinship networks! Unequal incorporation into U.S. labor

market ! Unequal access to political rights! Social construction of race! Biculturalism and Transnationalism