Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life - Essay Example

New immigration History and political science The influx of immigrants from southern Europe, Russia, Africa and Asia in 1880s is New immigration. Europeans and British settled on the East Coast around 1600 then later Africans were brought as slaves. Immigrants’ population then sometimes become high and also consequently drops primarily from Europe. Advent of cheap air travel and end of numerical restrictions in 1965 resulted to increased immigration from Latin America as well as Asia. Immigration and immigration policy are an integral part of the American Policy from the early years of American Republic. United States immigration has been witnessed from Latin America, Canada and also East Asia and due to Americans mindset that time; the immigrants were viewed as sojourners. Asians migrated to America many years ago because of galleon trade. American merchants traded with China through Canton port in 19th Century. The Chinese immigrants comprised of 10% population of California and 25% that of Idaho due to attraction from railway construction, mining and fishing industries. Japanese concentrated in farming in California, and their immigration to the United States evolved in 1880s. They lived in ethnic Clusters. Diplomacy of immigration was really concerned with the consequences of keeping some people out and therefore, diplomatic establishment was made in 1924 partially to facilitate immigration. Immigrants from the Mediterranean Italian: Before 1850, the Italians immigrants from Mediterranean were widely disbursed but in a small population. Most of them were from Central and Northern Italy largely concentrating in New Orleans. After 1880, most of the Italians from Wales currently referred to as the Mezzogiorno of northwest Europe entered US through New York concentrating in New England, Chicago and Mid-Atlantic states. Greeks: Greeks who had strong ties with Greece brought their Orthodox Churches to America in 1890s although more than half returned to Greece. They created ethnic niches in the restaurant business. Arabs and Armenians: The Armenian population was larger around Turkish Genocide time in 1915 and only 2 mosques were built before 1930 by the small Muslim population. Most of these immigrants were Syrians and Lebanese. Immigrants from Eastern Europe The Poles: more than 26 ethnic groups settled in cities of N.E and Great lakes e.g. Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago. These were especially Europeans peasants. Most of the immigrants were laborers Roman Catholics, but there were no Poland in the year 1795 to 1919. Eastern European Jews Before 1880, 250000 Jews fled to US because of religious persecution, most German descent and 50,000 from East Europe. By 1924, 4 million Jews had fled to US 3 million of Eastern European descent. Most of them were young between 14 to 40 years who had needle trade skills large percentage being women. Their rate of return was very low. This led to Crossing Delancey whereby school and learning was emphasized as well as the formation of business and entrance in entertainment. The Hungarians The Hungarians were many mostly young but without skills. They took many manual labor jobs, and their return rate was very high. Chinese and Japanese immigration In 1852, Chinese immigration to California boomed while emigration from Japan was under strict government policies until 1868 when the Japanese government lessened the restrictions. Japanese laborers were recruited by the American entrepreneurs. Japanese immigrants who were in family groups mostly wanted to reside in America permanently. They adapted Americas clothing styles and norms as well as joining Presbyterian and Methodist churches. Growth of Japanese population in California was suspected to be an entering wedge by Japan. Then in 1905, Japanese and Korean Exclusion League established four policies namely: • Allowing Chinese Exclusion Act to include Koreans and Japanese. • Initiation of campaigns to inform the President and the Congress of the menace. • Initiation of Pressure in the School Board to separate white children and Japanese. • Extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act to include Koreans and the Japanese. The exclusion law had some loopholes because the Chinese were not denied entry as long as through paternal lineage you proved citizenship. Chinese came to work in U.S via transcontinental railroad. Officials in United States noticed these people were not intending to leave, and tried to control their immigration with the intention of cutting it off altogether. They relied on United States immigration law. Chinese laborers were prohibited from freely immigrating in United States by the Chinese Exclusion Act. Some revisions were made in 1880 to the United States allowing Chinese immigration. Renewal of the Act was made in 1892. Although initial intention of the Act was to last for a decade, it was made permanent in 1902. In 1943, there was repetition of the Act by the Magnuson Act. Japanese were brought to Hawaii as laborers and later came when the flow control of new immigrants was proved to be easier than with the Chinese. Chinese and Japanese were denied United States Citizenship and through their children they were able to set up farms, buy land and carry out businesses, but in 1920s under the United States law, they were excluded from legal immigration (Daniels 1990). Those who had true fathers became paper sons and paper daughters. The adoption of 1907 Agreement Act resulted to rise of picture brides and paper sons. Picture brides These were women who joined their husbands they knew through exchange of pictures by mail and probably by letters. Marriages were conveniently made through photographs at a distance. Paper sons These were children carrying false identification Papers. They posed as family members of Chinese people already living in United States with intention of getting admittance to US. Shtetls The immigrants lived in ethnic enclaves referred as shtetls of Europe since they were like ghettos of New York. These were basically small villages and towns in Eastern Europe mainly inhabited by large population of Jewish population exclusively or depending on complexity of their political and social life Mezzogiorno This is a region in Mediterranean earlier called Wales from where large waves of Italians migrated from after 1880. William P. Dillingham William P. Dillingham was an immigration expert and Republican Senator from Vermont who introduced immigration quotas which completely excluded immigration from Asia. The quotas provided immigration visas 2% of the population each nationality in US hence facilitating immigrants’ entrance. Work cited Roger Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life New York: Harper Collins, 1990. Read More