Immigration in American history – a new perspective

1. Immigration in American history – a new perspective Opening Centrality of immigration in American history Changing paradigms Changing immigration patterns America as a nation defines its membership: The anti-Chinese movement citizenship Immigration and citizenship policies sources

2. Immigration and citizenship policies and other events 1 • 1607 -- Founding of Jamestown, Virginia by English colonists. • 1620 -- Voyage of the Mayflower, carrying Pilgrims to the New World. • 1790 – First naturalization act: only free white men could be naturalized.

3. Immigration and citizenship policies and other events 2 • 1846-47 -- Irish potato famine, causing large-scale Irish emigration. • 1848 -- Gold discovery in California, starting the Gold Rush. Chinese • immigrants (first Asians) were also about to arrive. • Revolution in Germany, sending many immigrants to the United • States. • 1854 – People vs Hall (text), a California Supreme Court case, which rules that no Chinese could give testimony against white people in the court of law. • 1868 – The 14th Amendment • Impact (section 1); • Limitations: Chinese • 1868 – The Burlingame Treaty between the United State and China • Citizenship issue was murky; • Both Chinese and U.S. governments recognized the right of the Chinese to emigrate; • The treaty acknowledged the right of the Chinese to emigrate; • 1875 -- The Page Act, restricting the entry of Chinese women. • 1880 – Anti-miscegenation laws in California: • prohibiting marriage between a white person and "a Negro, mulatto, or Mongolian.“ • (Colonial origin: Maryland in 1661); in many states, the law stayed in the books until recently; racism – nazism. • 1882 -- The first Chinese exclusion act (discussion) • 1886 -- Statue of Liberty dedicated, and at the same time the efforts to • restrict immigration increased. • 1892 -- Replacing Castle Garden, Ellis Island (photographs) opened and remained as immigration reception center until 1954. During those years, it received about 12 million immigration from Europe. • 1898 -- Wong Kim Ark v. United States. The U.S. Supreme Court declared • that anyone born in the United States was an American citizen, and • should not be denied the rights thereof. The case extended (and • confirmed) the right established in the 14th amendment (1868) to • the Chinese.

4. Immigration and citizenship policies and other events 3 • 1907 -- Immigration Commission created • 1907-08 -- The Gentlemen’s Agreement between the United States and • Japan, ending Japanese labor immigration. But certain people, such • as wives and children of those already in America could continue to • arrive. • 1910 -- January 21, The detention center on Angel Island (Timeline) (video) was put in use--until November 4, 1940. • 1913 -- Alien land act passed in California. • 1917 -- Literacy test established as a way to restrict general • immigration, especially immigration from southern and eastern • Europe. Creation of a “Barred Zone” in order to exclude Asian • immigrants. • 1922 -- The Cable Act, making it difficult for female U.S. citizens to • marry non-citizen Asian immigrant men. Those who did would lose • their citizenship. • 1922 – The “good character” case: Takao Ozawa v. United States. The Supreme Court turned down • the Japanese-born immigrant’s application for naturalization. • 1923 – The “I am Caucasian” case: Redefining the meaning of whiteness -- United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind. The Supreme Court decided that although Thind was an Aryan (white), he could not be naturalized. • 1923 -- Numerous U.S. Supreme Court cases upholding the Alien Land Acts • in California and elsewhere. • 1924 -- The Johnson-Reed Act (known also as the National Origins Act /the Japanese Exclusion Act). • A racist quota system established: favoring western and northern European countries (immigration numbers 1920s); exclusion of all those who were ineligible for citizenship. • 1934 -- The Tydings-McDuffie Act, ending Filipino immigration. • 1942 -- Incarceration of Japanese Americans. • 1943 -- Repeal of the Chinese exclusion acts. Chinese gained the right to naturalization and an annual quota of 105.

5. Immigration and citizenship policies and other events 4 • 1946 -- The War Bride Act, admitting foreign-born wives of U.S. service • men. • 1948 -- The Displaced Persons Act (modified two years later), intended to • allow 400,000 Europeans to enter the U.S as refugees in four years. • 1952 -- McCarran-Walter Act, preserving the quota system by creating • the Asia-Pacific Triangle; allowing Asian immigrants to be • naturalized. • 1960 -- Cuban refugees were paroled into the United States after the • revolution led by Castro in 1959. • 1965 -- The Immigration Reform Act, abolishing the quota system, setting • a ceiling for both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. • 1975 -- The fall of Saigon and the beginning of Vietnamese and other • southeastern

6. 1790 naturalization act • Act of March 26, 1790 (1 Stat 103-104) (Excerpts) That any alien, being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof, on application to any common law court of record, in any one of the States wherein he shall have resided for the term of one year at least, and making proof to the satisfaction of such court, that he is a person of good character, and taking the oath or affirmation prescribed by law, to support the Constitution of the United States, which oath or affirmation such court shall administer; and the clerk of such court shall record such application, and the proceedings thereon; and thereupon such person shall be considered as a citizen of the United States. And the children of such persons so naturalized, dwelling within the United States, being under the age of twenty-one years at the time of such naturalization, shall also be considered as citizens of the United States. And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens: Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident in the United States: . . .

7. Foreign languages in the US 1990 • Population 5 years and older 230,445,777 • Only English 198,600,798 • non-English 31,844,979 • Total percent of non-English 13.8 • French (and Creoles) 1,930,404 • Spanish (and Creole) 17,345,064 • German 1,547,987 • Chinese 1,319,462 • Italian 1,308,648 • Tagalog 843,251 • Polish 723,483 • Korean 626,478 • Indo European 578,076 • Indic 555,126 • Vietnamese 507,069 • Portuguese (and Creole) 430,610 • Japanese 427,657 • Greek 388,260 • Arabic 355,150 • Native American 331,758 • Other Slavic 270,863 • Russian 241,798 • Germanic 232,461 • Yididish 213,064 • Scandinavian 198,904 • South Slavic 170,449 • Hungarian 147,902 • Unspecified 1,023,614

8. Language 2005 • Total population 5 years old and over 268,110,961 • Speak only English 216,176,111 • Spanish or Spanish Creole 32,184,293 • Chinese 2,300,467 • French (including Patois, Cajun) 1,383,432 • French Creole 548,986 • Tagalog 1,376,632 • Vietnamese 1,142,328 • German 1,120,256 • Korean 983,954 • Russian 812,404 • Italian 802,436 • Arabic 686,986 • Portuguese or Portuguese Creole 661,990 • Polish 607,585 • African languages 581,947 • Hindi 462,371 • Japanese 457,836 • Persian 325,892 • Greek 323,770 • Urdu 303,423 • Serbo-Croatian 270,800 • Other Native North American languages 207,430 • Armenian 202,550 • Mon-Khmer, Cambodian 189,053 • Hmong 173,696 • Navajo 173,100 • Laotian 152,304 • Thai 129,943 • Hebrew 189,798 • Yiddish 137,147 • Hungarian 99,201

9. Sources • North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories : • http://solomon.imld.alexanderstreet.com/ • Center for immigration studies: • http://www.cis.org/ • Search Immigration & Emigration Records: • http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/default.aspx?rt=40 • Ellis Island: http://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm; http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/ellis_island.asp • 1790 Naturalization Act: • http://www.indiana.edu/~kdhist/H105-documents-web/week08/naturalization1790.html • Chinese exclusion act: • http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/chinex.htm • We the people: Asians in the United States: • http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/censr-17.pdf • Angel Island: • http://www.angelisland.org/; http://www.aiisf.org/; • Angel Island Poetry: • http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/angel/angel.htm • Video: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW6f96SgknY • Burlingame Treaty: • http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb4m3nb03h/?order=2&brand=calisphere

10. Opening • the future of the historical profession is in the hands of middle/high school history teachers.

11. Centrality of immigration in US history • "Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history“ --Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted: The Epic Story of Great Migrations that Made the American People (1951.) • A Nation of Immigrants by JFK (1964)

12. Centrality of immigration in American history • Two quotes • Studying immigration helps us better understand topics specified in California Content Standards, such as industrialization, urbanization, food, ethnicity, food, etc. • It also helps us comprehend fundamental changes in American society. • It helps us better understand political, socioeconomic and cultural changes in America: • The immigrants are changed by the New World; and they have also changed America. • It reveals the global connections in American life: immigration and trade. • We are at a historic moment

13. Fundamental changes in society • Of particular importance is the change in the character and nature of American society. • Who are included and excluded? Who should have the essential rights as an American? -- essentially, these are questions about citizenship. • Citizenship is not just a legal concept but is also defined in terms of class, gender, and race. • For a long time, Asians were regarded as non-American. The meaning of American-ness has changed profoundly over time.

14. Changing paradigms in the study of immigration history • Every generation writes its own history. • Assimilation theory – for a long time the most powerful and most influential model for understanding immigrant life. • Third-generation theory • From The Uprooted to The Transplanted(By John Bodnar, 1985). • Another important for the revision of history: the demand by the descendants of newer immigrants.

15. Assimilation theory • Robert Park (1864-1944); • Chicago School of Sociology • assimilation is inevitable and it has four progressive and irreversible stages: contact, competition, accommodation, and assimilation. • Influenced Chinese American scholars: Paul Siu; Rose Hum Lee

16. misassumptions of the assimilation theory • There is a fixed, never-changing norm of being American. • It is based on European immigrant experiences in the early 20 century. • It focuses on the American setting. • It believed that assimilation brings upward social mobility, assuming that everyone starts from the bottom. • A tool used to judged the immigrants: the good one assimilated and the bad ones do not. • It is the ultimate goal of the immigrants, and it is inevitable. • The immigrants were seen as a problem – socioeconomically and culturally.

17. Third generation theory • Marcus L. Hansen (1892-1938): • The first generation: the society regards them as a problem; looked down upon them; survival. • The second generation: pressure to assimilate at school: constantly criticized and mocked; • tension in the family; • Eager to forget: 100% Americanized. • ( “Nothing is more Yankee that a Yankeeized person of foreign descent.”) • The third generation: more confident and eager to re-remember. “that which the son wishes to forget the grandson wishes to remember.”

18. The Uprooted: Discontinuity from homeland and traditions Forced escape from hardships at home. Exclusively focused on European immigrants The Transplanted: Continued connections with the Old World – family ties and cultural traditions, etc. Part of capitalism development locally and globally. As a calculated response by families and individuals in response to such developments. Broader coverage of different immigrant groups, especially the new immigrants. Some coverage of Asian immigrants. comparison

19. Changing immigration patterns • Shifting waves of immigration • The saga continues • The number of Asian Americans • The Asian American experience challenges old assumptions

20. Shifting waves of immigration • During the 17th and 18th centuries, most immigrants came from Western and Northern Europe. • In the mid-19th century, large numbers of Irish immigrants arrived. So did Chinese immigrants – the first large wave of immigrants from Asia. But it was soon banned. • Beginning from the late 19th century, Southern and Eastern Europe became the primary source of immigrants.

21. Earlier Immigration Waves • During “The century of immigration” (1820 to 1924), nearly 36,000,000 immigrants came to the U.S. • Peak decade: 1900-1910, 8,800,000 arrived • 1910 one of every seven was born outside the United States • During the 18th & 19th centuries, 20% of the businessmen, 20% of the scholars/scientists & 46% of the musicians were first generationimmigrants.

22. New immigration patterns • The post-1965 period belongs to the third world: • 1981 - 1990, over 7,338,000 immigrated to U.S., only 9.6% of them were European. 38% of them are Asians.

23. Changing immigration patterns (post-1965)

24. Immigration numbers 1831-2005

25. 1 of every 8 people is an immigrant • one in eight U.S. residents is an immigrants today. • In 1970 it was one in 21; • in 1980 it was one in 16; • in 1990 it was one in 13. • Since 2000, 10.3 million immigrants have arrived — the highest seven-year period of immigration in U.S. history. More than half of post-2000 arrivals (5.6 million) are estimated to be illegal aliens. • The largest increases in immigrants were in California, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Arizona, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

26. Chinese and other Asians

27. The Asian American experience challenges old assumptions • 1. “The immigrant children will assimilate and be accepted automatically into American society.” For a long time, Asian Americans were viewed outsiders. Unlike other groups, who became “white” over time, American-born Asians continued to face discrimination. [Here, I should discuss the notion of whiteness.] • 2. “Everyone starts at the bottom.” A significant number of Asian immigrants came with middle class resources – money or education. In terms of their income and material wealth, they can join the middle class in a short period of time. • Many Asians came to America by way of higher education – they came as students, mostly graduate students. An overwhelming majority of them study in the technical fields – mathematics, engineering, sciences, and business. • The hi-tech revolution that started to transform the American economy in the late 1990s, provided additional opportunities for such Asian Americans. • 3. “Race relations in the U.S. are simply between blacks and whites.” The growing presence of Asians and Latinos helps us understand the complex nature of the issue of race in America. There have been Chinese in the south since the late 19th century. Back in the early 20th century, they were sometime classified as white and sometimes as black. • 4. “The immigrant experience is to be understood only in the context of American society.” The Asian American experience has been characterized by transnationalism. Like many other before them, they continue to maintain strong ties to their ancestral lands, facilitating socioeconomic and cultural interactions between the United States and these lands. • 5. “Immigrants are passive recipients of American influence.” They are also changing American culture : food language, etc.

28. Citizenship • membership in a national community • How to acquire citizenship: • jus sanguinis (by blood); • jus solis (by birth place) • Naturalization; • marriage • Variations: dual citizenship • Citizenship is also defined by other factors in different periods: • Race; • Gender; • Informally: • Language; • Class: social status; • Ramifications: • Political; • Social; • Economic.

29. The anti-Chinese movement • It was one of the most powerful political movements in American history. • The prominent role of the working class, especially the Irish (called an “inferior race” on the East Coast”). • Anti-Chinese movement = “Whiteness” • Anti-Chinese sentiments were universally shared by all social classes. • The fundamental question: Who deserves to be a member of this fast-growing and expanding nation?

30. Immigration Statistics, 1920-1926 Year Total Entering U.S. Country of Origin GB Eastern Europe Italy • 1920 430,001 38,471 3,913 95,145 • 1921 805,228 51,142 32,793 222,260 • 1922 309,556 25,153 12,244 40,319 • 1923 522,919 45,759 16,082 46,674 • 1924 706,896 59,490 13,173 56,246 • 1925 294,314 27,172 1,566 6,203 • 1926 304,488 25,528 1,596 8,253

31. Burlingame Treaty

32. The “Caucasian” case (text) • “In the endeavor to ascertain the meaning of the statute we must not fail to keep in mind that it does not employ the word 'Caucasian,' but the words 'white persons,' and these are words of common speech and not of scientific origin. The word 'Caucasian' . . . the use of it in its scientific probably wholly unfamiliar to the original framers of the statute in 1790. When we employ it, we do so as an aid to the ascertainment of the legislative intent and not as an invariable substitute for the statutory words. Indeed, as used in the science of ethnology, the connotation of the word is by no means clear, and the use of it in its scientific sense as an equivalent [261 U.S. 204, 209]   for the words of the statute, other considerations aside, would simply mean the substitution of one perplexity for another. But in this country, during the last half century especially, the word by common usage has acquired a popular meaning, not clearly defined to be sure, but sufficiently so to enable us to say that its popular as distinguished from its scientific application is of appreciably narrower scope. It is in the popular sense of the word, therefore, that we employ is as an aid to the construction of the statute, for it would be obviously illogical to convert words of common speech used in a statute into words of scientific terminology when neither the latter nor the science for whose purposes they were coined was within the contemplation of the framers of the statute or of the people for whom it was framed. The words of the statute are to be interpreted in accordance with the understanding of the common man from whose vocabulary they were taken. “

33. Development of the Immigration control machine • Racial ideology and justification of racist immigration policies: Dictionary of races (1911); • Under 1882 law, The secretary of the treasury was given general supervisory authority over enforcement of immigration laws and regulations; • From 1891 to 1903, the Bureau of Immigration’s duties were expanded; • In 1903, the Department of Commerce and Labor was set up and the bureau was transferred to its supervision; • In 1906, the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) was created • In 1914, the BIN was transferred to U.S. Department of Labor as two divisions; • In 1924, the visa system created; • In 1924 the U.S. Border Patrol was also established with 450 people (initial target: Chinese). • In 1933, the Bureau of Naturalization and the Bureau of Immigration • were consolidated to form the Immigration and Naturalization Service. • In 1940, the agency was transferred to the Department of Justice; • In 2003, it went to Department of Homeland Security – now called U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

34. 14th Amendment • Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

35. Anti-Miscegenation laws in CA Federal and State jurisdiction 1850 – extending an East Coast tradition. Colonial origin: Maryland in 1661; in many states, the law stayed in the books until recently; racism – Nazism. 1880: the Chinese became the primary target: No marriage license to be issued to any white person who wanted to marry a "Mongolian“ or "a Negro, or mulatto.” The Asians became a target in 1905.

36. 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act • Immigration restriction: First comprehensive law to restrict immigration; first law to do so on the basis of race. • Race: terminating Chinese immigration for ten years (extended afterwards), and declaring Chinese immigrants ineligible for citizenship. • Class: ban on labor immigration