socy2100populationsociety.docVIP

SOCY2100 Population SocietyExam 2 preparation, Spring 2008Selected overheads Themes in U.S. Immigration History [These are lecture notes. The actual lecture may have strayed a bit from the notes.] 1. Desire for homogeneity a. Religious exclusions among colonists b. Earliest naturalization law – free and white c. National origins quota system (1921 – 1965) 1. Also reflected other themes: national security d. Often expressed as desire to maintain the current culture e. Related to nativism f. Related to “immigrant quality” theme 1. Racism (a). Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) (b). Gentleman’s Agreement (1907) 2. Desire for laborers/economic development a. Indentured servitude in colonial days b. Slavery in colonial days (legal slave immigration ended 1808) c. Gold rush 1850s 1. Largely internal (probably) d. Transcontinental railroad (pbs) 1. Central Pacific mostly Chinese (up to 80%) and Irish immigrants a. In 1868, 12,000 Chinese 1. Chinese ate and drank healthier 2. Union Pacific – demobilized Civil War vets, Irish immigrants e. Midwestern land boom starting in 1870s f. All through the Gilded Age, demand for industrial labor g. Demand for domestic (household) servants, including women h. Need for farm labor in WW II (bracero program) i. Need for farm labor since WW II j. Illegal immigration is at the level it is because the immigrants can find work 1. Even serious “law and order” farmers and other business people often find themselves employing such workers [cf. NPR interviews] 3. Nativism a. “America for the Americans” b. 1850s Know-Nothings (Schaefer 8th:109) 1. Ideas later picked up by Ku Klux Klan and others in 1860s c. Protect labor market 1. 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act (Schaefer 8th :114) d. Anti-bilingual programs e. Differs from desire for homogeneity in that it tends to be opposed to all immigration, not just people unlike us f. Related to anti-humanitarianism 4. Desire for natio