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10
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Teaching Activity
Objectives
<ul><li>
<p>Students will analyze debates over immigration in the early twentieth century to understand the tension between the need for labor and anxiety over immigrants' political and cultural qualifications for citizenship. </p>
</li>
</ul>
Materials
782, 649, 781, 1707
Historical Context
<p>As the 20th century began, millions of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe poured into Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and other U.S. cities. In New York, the nation's largest city, more than half of the population was foreign-born. Many immigrants came in search of economic opportunity, fleeing depressed economies, high land prices or prejudices in their old countries. </p>
<p>Immigrant labor powered the rapid industrialization of the late 19th and early 20th century. Employers were eager to hire the new immigrants and happy to pay them less than most American-born workers would accept. Many politicians wooed new voters with favors and jobs in exchange for votes; consequently, political machines exercised great power in urban areas with large immigrant populations. </p>
<p>Other native-born Americans, however, were wary and often hostile towards new immigrants. They worried that cheap labor undercut their own economic security. They feared their diminished political power. And they were often prejudiced against the darker complexions and unfamiliar religions--the great majority of "new" immigrants were Catholic or Jewish--of the newcomers. Â </p>
<p>Debates for and against immigration played out for decades, finally culminating in a nativist push to restrict immigration from southern and eastern Europe. U.S. Congress passed quota laws in 1921 and 1924 that remained in place until 1965. Â </p>
Lesson Plan Text
<p><strong>Step 1:</strong> (Optional: The teacher may want to introduce the topic by reviewing current immigration debates and push/pull factors for immigrants, documented and undocumented, to the United States today.) Pass out copies of the cartoon analysis worksheet and the cartoon. Also project the cartoon on overhead or Smartboard. Ask a volunteer to read the description of the cartoon out loud and the title/caption. Ask for volunteers to read each of the quotes from the cartoon (typed out on the worksheet in Part I) from each of the various characters: contractor, politician, etc.</p>
<p><strong>Step 2:</strong> Allow students to work individually or in pairs to complete Part II of the worksheet by analyzing the cartoon. After students have had time to complete the worksheet, lead a share-out and discussion of the cartoon, making sure that everyone understands its content. Before moving to Step 3, review the key points:</p>
<ul><li>
<p>In the early twentieth century, people did not agree about whether immigration was good or bad for the United States.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In the early twentieth century, people were unsure whether or not new immigrants were "fit" for citizenship. </p>
</li>
</ul><p><strong>Step 3:</strong> <span style="font-weight:normal;">Now pass out the two written documents, the anti-immigration pamphlet and the speech from President Cleveland. Ask students to underline or highlight specific arguments for and against immigration in each document. (The teacher may vary this portion by giving half the students one document and half the other, or by reading both documents aloud with students as they highlight arguments.) Ask students to share out what pro and con arguments they found. After reading the documents, discuss:</span></p>
<ul><li>
<p>Given that there were so many objections to immigration at the time, why do you think it took legislators until 1924 to restrict immigration?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>How was the immigration debate of the 1900s different than the immigration debate today (especially considering today's idea of "illegal" or "legal" immigrants)? Â </p>
</li>
</ul><p><strong>Step 4:</strong> <span style="font-weight:normal;">After reading and discussing the documents, ask students to individually respond to the question on the back of the worksheet (Part III): Given that there were so many objections to immigration at the time, why do you think it took the U.S. Congress until 1924 to restrict immigration from Europe?</span></p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Title
A name given to the resource
Immigration Debates in the Era of "Open Gates"
Description
An account of the resource
In this activity students analyze a political cartoon, a presidential speech and an anti-immigration pamphlet from the early 20th century. After analyzing the documents, students write about why the United States passed immigration quotas in the 1920s.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2008.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
<div><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.</div>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Immigration and Migration
Immigration Quota Laws
Italian Immigration
Jewish Immigration
Lessons in Looking
Using Political Cartoons
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https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/files/original/immigrantquotas_a2913462ad.png
9786a99458e9991641b80eb267d86eee
Omeka Image File
The metadata element set that was included in the `files_images` table in previous versions of Omeka. These elements are common to all image files.
Bit Depth
8
Height
658
Width
781
Quantitative Data
Statistics, Census Data
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Quantitative Data
Title
A name given to the resource
Table of the Quota System Targeting Specific Immigrant Groups
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
In the years after World War I, Congress passed the Quota Act of 1921, followed by the Immigration Act of 1924, also known as the Johnson-Reed Act. The 1924 Act established a quota for the total number of immigrants allowed per annum at 165,000— less than 20 percent of the pre-World War I average— and based ceilings on the numbers of immigrants from particular nations on the percentage of that nationality as recorded in the 1890 census. The latter provision was clearly aimed at limiting immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, which mostly occurred after that date, as well as upholding an effective ban on immigration from Asia. The following table shows the quota allowed for each nation under the new system.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
American Social History Project adapted from <em>Statistical Abstract of the United States</em> (Washington, D.C. Government Printing Office, 1929), 100.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2008
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Modern America (1914-1929)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Immigration and Migration
Immigration Quota Laws
-
Timeline
Text
Any textual data included in the document.
<p><strong>1790 Naturalization Act</strong></p>
<p>* Passed by the first U.S. Congress</p>
<p>* Provided that any “free white person” residing in the U.S. for two years was eligible for citizenship</p>
<p>* Required that naturalized citizens “be of good character” and willing to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States</p>
<p>* Granted citizenship to children (under age 21) of naturalized citizens </p>
<p><br /><strong>1868 Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution</strong></p>
<p>* Passed during Reconstruction, it provides that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States”</p>
<p><br /><strong>1870 Naturalization Act</strong></p>
<p>* Initially proposed to expand eligibility for naturalized citizenship to all “persons”</p>
<p>* Majority of Congressmen insist that it should exclude Asians, so the wording is changed to “white persons and persons of African descent”</p>
<p>* Overturned in an 1898 Supreme Court case, <em>Wong Kim Ark v. United States</em>. Wong, a Chinese American (born in San Francisco) was denied re-entry to the United States after an 1895 trip. He sued, claiming his right to citizenship under the 14th Amendment, and the U.S. government argued that U.S.-born Chinese were not citizens because their parents, as Chinese in the U.S., were not eligible to become naturalized citizens. The Supreme Court ruled that all persons born in the U.S. are citizens.</p>
<p><br /><strong>1875 Page Law </strong></p>
<p>* Bars entry of Chinese and Japanese prostitutes, felons, and contract laborers (also known as “coolies”)</p>
<p><br /><strong>1882 Chinese Exclusion Act</strong></p>
<p>* Merchants, teachers, diplomats, students, and travelers are exempt from the law</p>
<p>* Laborers who were already in the U.S. were allowed to leave and re-enter, but they had to get a “Certificate of Registration” when they left so that they could get back in. </p>
<p>* In 1888, Congress revokes all “Certificates of Registration,” stranding any Chinese who left the U.S. intending to return</p>
<p>* Prevents Chinese from becoming naturalized citizens </p>
<p><br /><strong>1882 “Head Tax” Enacted for Arriving Immigrants</strong></p>
<p>* Intended to finance enforcement of federal immigration laws</p>
<p>* Begins at fifty cents per person; rises to eight dollars per person by 1917</p>
<p><br /><strong>1891 Immigration Act of 1891</strong></p>
<p>* Denies entry to immigrants judged to be mentally defective, mentally ill, poor or “likely to become a public charge,” sick with contagious diseases, criminals, and polygamists </p>
<p>* Establishes Bureau of Immigration under the Department of the Treasury to administer immigration laws</p>
<p><br /><strong>1892 Geary Act</strong></p>
<p>* Renews 1882 Exclusion Act</p>
<p>* Requires that all Chinese in the U.S. register with the federal government</p>
<p>* In 1902, Congress makes 1882 Exclusion Act permanent</p>
<p><br /><strong>1917 Immigration Act of 1917</strong></p>
<p>* Establishes a “barred zone,” denying entrance to immigrants from much of eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands</p>
<p>* Denies entry to all immigrants over the age of sixteen who are illiterate in their native languages </p>
<p>* Congress had previously (1895, 1897, 1913, 1915) passed laws requiring immigrants to be literate but three different presidents (Cleveland, Taft, and Wilson) had vetoed them; the 1917 version passed over Wilson’s veto.</p>
<p><br /><strong>1924 Johnson-Reed Act </strong></p>
<p>* Imposes a total quota on immigration of 165,000—less than 20 percent of the pre-World War I average </p>
<p>* Creates national quotas based on the percentage of each nationality recorded in the 1890 census—a blatant effort to limit immigration from southern and eastern Europe, which mostly occurred after that date</p>
<p>* Stipulates that aliens ineligible for U.S. citizenship were not permitted to enter the United States, thus barring all Asians from entry to the U.S.</p>
<p><br /><strong>1943 Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act</strong></p>
<p>* Congress repeals immigration laws excluding the Chinese, but extremely low quotas remain</p>
<p>* Grants Chinese the right to become citizens</p>
<p><br /><strong>1952 Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter Act)</strong></p>
<p>* Ends total exclusion of racial and national groups from immigration and naturalization</p>
<p>* Preserves national origins quota system from 1924</p>
<p><br /><strong>1965 Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act)</strong></p>
<p>* National origins quotas are replaced by hemispheric limits (170,000 visas per year from countries in the eastern hemisphere, 120,000 visas per year from countries in the western hemisphere) </p>
<p>* Unlimited number of visas granted to reunite families </p>
<p><br /><strong>1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (Simpson-Mazzoli Act)</strong></p>
<p>* Grants amnesty to undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before January 1, 1982 and had resided the U.S. continuously</p>
<p>* Makes it illegal to knowingly hire or recruit undocumented immigrants and requires employers to attest to their employees’ immigration status</p>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Timeline
Title
A name given to the resource
Timeline of Selected Federal Immigration Laws in the U.S., 1790-1986
Language
A language of the resource
English
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
Description
An account of the resource
This timeline traces federal immigration laws from the first Naturalization Act in 1790 through the 1986 law that addressed undocumented workers.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2008.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Copyright American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
<div><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.</div>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1790 - 1986
Subject
The topic of the resource
Immigration and Migration
Constitution and Government
Immigration Quota Laws