What group of people is being described in this passage?

1. “I agree that these people are a matter of great concern to us. I fear that one day great troubles may occur. The ones who come here are usually the most stupid of their nation. Few understand our language. Their priests and religious leaders seem to have little influence over them. They are not used to freedom and do not know how to use it properly. It has been reported that young men do not believe they are true men until they have shown their manhood by beating their mothers. And now they are coming to our country in great numbers. Few of their children know English. They bring in much of their own reading from their homeland and print newspapers in their own language. In some parts of our state, ads, street signs, and even some legal documents are in their own language and allowed in courts. Unless the stream of these people can be turned away from our country to other countries, they will soon outnumber us so that we will not be able to save our language or our government. However, I am not in favor of keeping them out entirely. All that seems necessary is to distribute them more evenly among us and set up more schools that teach English. In this way, we will preserve the true heritage of our country.”

2. What group of people is being described in this passage? Who is making the speech? When was this speech made?

3. Benjamin Franklin made this speech He refers to early German immigrants

4. American Immigration Past and Present

5. Throughout its history, America has served as the destination point for a steady flow of immigrants.

6. Colonial America During the colonial era most immigrants came from northern European countries. German immigrants were among the first Europeans in North America. They helped establish England’s Jamestown settlement in 1608 and the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam--now New York--in 1620. Many European powers forced their subjects to follow an official state religion. Therefore, when William Penn toured Germany in 1677, spreading the word of a new kind of religious freedom in the American colonies, he found a receptive audience. Many Germans, especially Protestants, were persuaded to join him in his colony of Pennsylvania.

7. Forced Immigration The story of African immigration is unique among immigrant groups. Unlike other immigrants, most Africans came to North America against their will, caught up in the brutal system of slavery. However in every colony there was always a population of African Americans living in freedom. Some were freed slaves or the descendents of freed slaves, some had escaped, some had bought their own freedom, and some lived in territories or states that had abolished slavery.

8. Immigrants numbers declined with the onset of the Revolutionary War during the 1770s.

9. Immigration 1790-1820 Six years after the United States won the War of Independence, the first Census counted 3.9 million people. The English were the largest ethnic group. Nearly 20% were of African heritage. Census takers didn't count Native Americans. In 1790 Congress passed the first Naturalization Act, which stipulated that "… any alien, being a free white person, may be admitted to become a citizen of the United States...." In the early years of the republic, immigration was light. The War of 1812 between the United States and Britain slowed immigration even further. When the war ended, immigration from Great Britain, Ireland and Western Europe resumed at a record pace. Major port cities of this era - New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Charleston - were overwhelmed with newcomers.

11. 1820-1880 The Industrial Revolution has begun, the slave trade is nearing its end, and America is pushing westward. Thousands of immigrants find work on the trans-continental railroad, settling in towns along the way. Word of the California Gold Rush has spread around the world, drawing immigrants from both Asia and Europe. Although many new immigrants came in pursuit of a dream, nearly all the Irish immigrants from the 1840's and 1850's came to escape a nightmare - a devastating famine back home. The Great Hunger would leave 1.5 million dead, and just as many would flee to America.

12. As in the past, the immigrants of this period were welcome neighbors while the economy was strong. During the Civil War both the Union and Confederate armies relied on their strength. But during hard times, the immigrants were cast out and accused of stealing jobs from American workers. But it was the pro-immigrant voices of this era that would be most influential. The Republican platform of 1864 stated, "Foreign immigration which in the past has added so much to the wealth, resources, and increase of power to the nation … should be fostered and encouraged."

14. 1880-1930 After the Civil War, America's growing industrial economy required the addition of many more workers, and this need was filled once again by immigrants arriving from Europe. By the 1880's, steam power had shortened the journey to America dramatically and immigrants poured in from around the world. While earlier immigrants had come mainly from northern European countries such as England, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries, by the 1880s most new immigrants were arriving from southern and eastern European countries such as Italy, Poland and Russia. The door was wide open for Europeans.

15. The experience for Asian immigrants in this period was quite different. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, severely restricting immigration from China for the next 10 years, which was then extended to be indefinitely. This was the first major restriction on immigration to the United States. For the first time in American history, immigration into the United States was denied on the basis of race and class.

16. Why the Chinese? • Chinese immigration to America was influenced by both the "pull" of California's Gold Rush and the "push" created by China's impoverished conditions. • The Chinese did not find instant wealth. However, America's expansion to the West and the economic boom of the Gold Rush era did provide employment possibilities for the Chinese. They quickly became an inexpensive but formidable work force. • By the early 1870s, the Gold Rush was over. Tens of thousands of East Coast laborers faced an economy in decline and fierce competition for jobs. The Chinese, once welcomed for their work ethic and valuable contribution, were now blamed for lowering wages, employment opportunities, and working conditions of all laborers. • Long-held racial, cultural, and religious prejudices were unleashed on the so-called "heathen Chinee." Inclined to maintain the customs, rituals, beliefs, and lifestyle of their homeland, the Chinese were accused of being unable or unwilling to assimilate into American society.

17. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, American attitudes toward immigration began to shift. Nationalism and suspicion of all foreigners were on the rise, and immigrants' loyalties were often called into question. A series of laws were passed to limit the flow of immigrants. With the U.S. entry into World War I in 1919, immigration declined dramatically.

19. 1930-1965 The Great Depression has begun, leaving few with the means or incentive to come to the United States. Many recent immigrants return to their native lands, including hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, many against their will. The restrictive immigration policies of the 1920s persist. In the late 1930s, with the Second World War accelerating in Europe, a new kind of immigrant began to challenge the quota system, and the American conscience. A small number of refugees fleeing Nazi persecution arrived under the quota system, but most were turned away.

20. At the turn of the century a great 25 year surge of immigration began, in which more than 100,000 Japanese nationals arrived in the U.S., mostly in California. The Japanese were quite successful in their business endeavors and have produced at least one American-made millionaire. By the early years of the century, organized campaigns had already arisen to exclude Japanese immigrants from U.S. life. repeating many of the same slanders as had been used against Chinese immigrants in the decades before. By 1930, half of the Japanese in the United States U.S.-born second generation. These citizens were more likely to speak English than Japanese, more likely to practice Christianity than Buddhism, and more likely to prefer "American" food, sports, music, and social mores than those of Japanese tradition.

21. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the U.S. into the Second World War. Hours after the attack, U.S. security personnel began rounding up and arresting prominent Japanese Americans as security risks. By the end of the war in 1945, 125,000 people, half of them children, had spent time in what even Roosevelt admitted were concentration camps. This large-scale imprisonment of U.S. citizens solely on the basis of their ancestry was met with almost universal approval. No serious explanations were offered as to why no large-scale internment of German or Italian Americans ever took place. No Japanese American was ever convicted of any act of sabotage during World War II.

23. 1965-2000 By the early 1960s, calls for immigration reform were growing louder. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson signed the Hart-Cellar Act into law. Gone was the quota system favoring Western Europe, replaced by one offering hope to immigrants from all the continents. The face of America was truly about to change. Within 5 years, Asian immigration would more than quadruple. This trend was magnified even further by the surge in refugees from the war in South East Asia and Cuba, as a result of Cold War conflicts during the 70’s and 80’s. In 1978, the United States government set a single annual world quota of 290,000, and this ceiling was raised again in 1990 to 700,000.

24. In a policy that continues to this day, the government has given preferences to professionals like doctors, nurses, scientists, and hi-tech specialists, creating what is often called the "Brain Drain." Immigrants can enter the country by air, by sea, and by land routes through Canada and Mexico, making it easier than ever to enter the country illegally. In 1986, the government gave amnesty to more than 3 million aliens through the Immigration Reform Act. However, during the recession years of the early 90s, there was a resurgence of anti-immigrant feeling. Yet immigrants have arrived at a pace that at times has exceeded one million new arrivals per year, and have settled in all parts of the country

26. Compare the immigrants of 1930-1965 to the immigrants of 1965-2000. What differences do you see?

27. Immigration rates through the 1990s have soared, leaving today's generation with lingering questions: • Does America have a duty to keep its doors open to the world? • Can immigrants keep their own culture and language, and still be called Americans? The debates will certainly continue, as new immigrants arrive on our shores daily, bringing with them their own histories, traditions, and ideas, all of which broaden and enrich our sense of what it means to be an American.