Importance of Immigration in the Development of the U.S. Culture - Article Example

Importance of Immigration in the Development of the U.S. Culture The present anti-immigrant fervor in the U.S. is reminiscent of past immigration debates. Now, such as then, the hysteria and false information proved to be unfounded. Immigrants built this country into what it is today and this trend continues despite the racist motivated anti-immigrant passions seen all too often. During the early part of the 20th Century, the U.S. experienced a surge of immigration where more than 25 million people came to America, again mostly from Europe but a majority of this wave consisted of people from the Southern and Eastern regions of the continent such as Italy and Poland. The immigrants had jobs and could build their new life and America benefited because this endless source of labor streaming into Ellis Island made it the most industrialized and economically successful country in the world. At the time this influx represented approximately 25 percent of the total U.S. population as opposed to the current migration, mostly from Mexico which is much les than that. The panic of the previous century Americans could be understood if not justified as opposed to the current hysteria displayed by many legal citizens. During the turn of the 20th century, the fear of immigrants reached a fever pitch. The roots of this new racism were from ‘old world’ anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic mind-sets. The ideology that grew from immigrant racism is the belief that the Western and Northern European Anglo-Saxon heritage was a superior ‘race’ to Eastern and Southern Europeans. (Higham, 1988) These widespread beliefs had an effect on immigration policy in the U.S. which, in the early 1900’s, moved to limit the numbers and types of people allowed to immigrate. The anti-foreigner sentiment crossed all segments of society, from the Protestant farmers in the furthest reaches of the rural regions to Ivy League elitists. A Harvard-educated man formed the Immigration Restriction League in 1894 which made recommendations to the government. They advocated testing the literacy of refugees as a prerequisite to entering the country or gaining citizenship. This was intended to slow the number of immigrants from Eastern and Southern European which had been, “sending an alarming number of illiterates, paupers, criminals, and madmen who endangered American character and citizenship.” (Hirschman, 2006) As many millions of people were immigrating to America, the country seemed to be becoming increasingly congested. Urban areas were teeming with destitute, unskilled immigrants who accepted lower than the prevailing wages thus it was alleged they were undercutting everyone else’s wages. The broad perception was that the cities, where the majority of the new Eastern and Southern European immigrants became established, were places to be feared. Its people were viewed with disdain, considered dangerous and were suspected of harboring radical thoughts. Though this was a prevalent opinion, it was not shared by all. For example, Jane Addams was a reformer who worked to improve the conditions of the city slums but most others held the viewpoint of Henry Adams, an intellectual and descendant of two U.S. presidents who often articulated and was well known for his ‘nativist’ anti-immigrant and anti-Semitism stance. (Baltzell, 1964) Many Americans, known as nativists, concluded that the rate of immigration, especially from Eastern European counntries, should either be greatly reduced or halted altogether. “The myth of the melting pot has been discredited,” said Representative Albert Johnson, (R) who was one of many congressmen concerned about America’s ‘open-door’ policy. “The day of unalloyed welcome to all peoples, the day of indiscriminate acceptance of all races, has definitely ended.” (Crossen, 2006). Congress did pass a national origins quota system in the early 1920’s. It was represented as fair because it allowed access to a similar mixture of ‘races’ already present within the country. However, they purposely used the 1900 census when less of a percentage of Eastern and Southern Europeans inhabited America. A Scientific Monthly magazine article written in 1922 by a professor at Harvard University expressed the anti-immigration perception. “If we want the American race to continue to be predominantly Anglo-Saxon-Germanic, of the same stock as that which originally settled the United States…; if we want our future immigration to be chiefly of more kindred peoples… easily assimilable, literate, of a high-grade intelligence, then the simplest way to accomplish this purpose is to base the percentage limitation upon an earlier census than that of 1910… before southern and eastern Europe had become the controlling element in our immigration.” (Crossen, 2006). Enacting the quota system resulted in drastically reducing immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe and all but excluded persons from African and Asian countries. (Hirschman, 2006). This was not the first legislation enacted designed to control immigration based on race. Forty years earlier, in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act put a symbolic ‘whites only’ sign on the West coast. The fear of foreigners among the white Anglo-Saxon protestant population escalated to violent actions and resulted in the tremendous growth of ‘white-supremist’ organizations from 1890 to 1920, all resolved to stop the ‘undesirable’ European immigrants. During this time, the ‘real’ Americans were thought to only comprise Protestants of Northern and Western European descent. “The immigration restrictions of the 1920’s were calibrated to preserving the historic ‘national origins’ of the American population” (Higham, 1988). Ironically, the Native Americans were not part of this ‘real’ American equation. The Eastern European contingent of immigrants to the U.S. from 1890 to 1920 was predominantly Polish made up of peasants along with unemployed mine and factory workers. Upon arriving in America, the Poles generally secured employment in low-paid, unskilled industrial jobs. They built churches, established schools, newspapers and various other organizations within their own community. These Polish communities offered assistance and were comforting to migrants who were in a new cultural environment because the community shared the same heritage and language. Living within these communal surroundings also acted as a buffer to outside acts of discrimination and degradation. (Grocholska, 1999) The predominantly peasant Eastern Europeans were one of the most poverty-stricken immigrant groups that entered the U.S. Few were able to ever move far from the city in which they first arrived or onward from the low-skilled manual labor jobs they secured upon arrival. “After arriving at Ellis Island or to the port at Baltimore, many Eastern Europeans stayed in cities to work in dangerous industrial jobs or moved to mining communities in Pennsylvania to work in dangerous mining positions.” (Daniels, 1990) Though the jobs were hard and the pay very low, the conditions were better than what they were in Eastern Europe. Still, the standard of living for these immigrants was abysmal by any standard. Many were motivated by a desire to make money in the U.S. then return to their homeland and enjoy a higher standard of living there. Unfortunately for most, this dream never materialized. (Golden, 1994) Southern European immigrants from Italy came from great cultural centers of the world. Some were celebrated intellectuals with a far-reaching understanding and appreciation of culture but the majority of Italian immigrants were not of this classification. The largest wave of Italian immigrants to the U.S. came between 1890 and 1920. Most of this group (about 90 percent) originated from Sicily, the far southern part of Italy. They had strong family bonds, were known as hard-workers and deeply mistrusted institutions such as the government, labor unions and businesses in general. Italian immigrants “did not see their salvation in politics or government – rather, they saw government and politics as something to be avoided; the intelligent position was to keep your head down, to keep quiet, to escape notice by the people who ran the major institutions of society.” (Barone, 2003) Their mistrust of institutions extended to the school system. The immigrant children often dropped out of school and entered the job market, many times a job within the ‘underworld’ to help their family financially. Though these Southern European immigrants came from the world’s cultural center, they had hardly any impact on America’s cultural institutions. Of the more than 25 million people that immigrated to the U.S. between 1890 and the 1920, approximately 10 percent were Jewish. For the same reasons Polish and Italian immigrants settled in neighborhoods labeled ‘Little Warsaw’ or ‘Little Italy,’ Jewish immigrants grouped together as well to form tight-knit communities. They established cultural organizations and theaters in addition to schools and synagogues. However, the Jews that stayed in the city, unlike the Polish and Italian immigrants, adapted well to the American lifestyle. They joined or formed businesses, political parties, labor unions, etc. while integrating their ‘old world’ culture into to the American culture. Jews that traveled west remained relatively isolated within their groups. Much the same as the non-Jewish Eastern European immigrants, Jews were ostracized by the ‘real’ Americans. “Jews faced anti-Semitism during this time and were attacked in popular literature with negative stereotypes about their honesty, loyalty, business practices, and religion.” (“Coming to America.” 2003). Largely because of strict immigration laws introduced in the early 1920’s, mass influxes of refugees ended at that time. The children of this last ‘great wave’ have had immense political, social and economic influences on American life. The majority of the Eastern and Southern Europeans were Jewish or Catholic. These two groups have overwhelmingly voted with the Democratic Party. Protestants are the Republican Parties base supporters. (Hamilton, 1972). Massive social, economic and cultural reform initiatives such as President Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930’s and President Johnson’s Great Society of the 1960’s would not have been possible if not for the great waves of Eastern and Southern European migration. (Hirschman, 2006). Immigrants from this period and those descended from them have been very influential in the area of creative arts over the past century. They dominated the entertainment industry during the first half of the 1900’s accounting for many of the top actors, writers, producers and directors in the American movie industry. “The majority of Hollywood film directors who have won two or more Academy Awards were either immigrants or the children of immigrants.” (Buhle, 2004). These children of Eastern and Southern Europeans also became well known Broadway playwrights and composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Ira and George Gershwin, Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern. (Buhle, 2004). The public and political hysteria spawning racism, misinformation and fear that accompanied the massive immigration of Eastern and southern Europeans during the years of 1890 to 1920 proved to be unfounded. “Based on standard measures of socioeconomic achievement, residential location, and intermarriage, the children and grandchildren of the ‘new immigrants’ of the early 20th century have almost completely assimilated into American society.” (Alba, Nee, 2003) This immigration hysteria is a familiar issue to present-day Americans. All of the same language, educational, economic and cultural barriers of immigration that concerned ‘real’ Americans who relegated Eastern and Southern European immigrants to second-class status nearly a century ago are being invoked today by those fearful of another mass immigration, this time from south of the U.S. border. If the Protestant, Western European descendants of the early 1900’s could see the nation as it is now, they might inform those who fear immigration today that America was and continues to be built by immigrants and their descendents who quickly assimilate into the culture and add greatly to the social, political and economic experiment that is America. References Alba, Richard and Victor Nee. (2003). Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Baltzell, E. Digby. (1964). The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy and Caste in America. New York: Vintage Books. Barone, Michael. (March 29, 2003). “The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of the Global Age: Italian Cultural Identity and Migration.” The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change. Series IV, West Europe, Vol. 5. Buhle, Paul. (2004). From the Lower East Side to Hollywood. London: Verso. “Coming to America.” (2003). Teacher Materials. National Museum of American Jewish History. Crossen, Cynthia. (January 11, 2006). “US Immigration Evolved as the Nation Grew and Changed.” The Wall Street Journal. Daniels, Roger. (1990). Coming to America: A History of Ethnicity and Immigration in American Life. New York: Harper Collins. Golden, Hilda. (1994). Immigrant and Native Families: The Impact of Immigration and the Demographic Transformation of Western Massachusetts, 1850-1900. New York: University Press of America, pp. 75, 85-87. Grocholska, Julitta. (1999). “Polish Immigration to the US.” Polonia Today. Anglopol Corporation. Hamilton, Richard F. (1972). Class and Politics in the United States. New York: John Wiley. Higham, John. (1988, orig. pub. 1955). Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860–1925. (2nd Ed.). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Hirschman, Charles. (November 2005). “Immigration and the American Century.” Demography Vol. 42, pp. 595-620. Hirschman, Charles. (July 28, 2006). “The Impact of Immigration on American Society: Looking Backward to the Future.” Border Battles: The US Immigration Debates. Social Science Research Council. Most, Andrea. (2004). Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Read More