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Race and Immigration Restriction. Immigration Waves in US History. antebellum, 1840-1860—largely northern European, especially England, Ireland and Germany—approx. 4.5 million
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Immigration Waves in US History • antebellum, 1840-1860—largely northern European, especially England, Ireland and Germany—approx. 4.5 million • late 19th-early 20th century, 1900-1920—largely Southern and Eastern European, including Polish and Russian Jews, Italian, Greek—approx. 14.5 million • also Asian immigrants in the late 19th-early 20th century, in much fewer numbers (for example, Chinese immigrants built US railroads)
Immigration Waves > photograph of “immigrants” returning to Europe, 1907
Immigration Waves > Construction of Racial Difference What is this man’s ethnic background?
Naturalization Law and Race in US History • 1790 - Congress limits naturalization to white persons • 1870 - Congress adds African Americans (naturalization limited to “free white persons” and “persons of African descent”) • 1952 - racial prerequisite for naturalization eliminated
Naturalization Law and Race > Cartoon on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
Naturalization Law and Race > U.S. v Bhagat Singh Thind, 1923
Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act) • Based ceilings on the number of immigrants from any particular nation on 2 percent of each nationality recorded in the 1890 census • Was directed against immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe who arrived in large numbers after 1890 • Barred all immigrants ineligible for citizenship on racial grounds, including all south and east Asians (including Indians, Japanese, and Chinese)
Immigration Act of 1924 > Annual Immigration Quotas • Germany - 51,227 • Great Britain - 34,007 • Ireland - 28,567 • Italy - 3,845 • Hungary - 473 • Greece - 100 • Egypt - 100
Immigration Act of 1924 > Map of Europe, Literary Digest, 1924
Immigration Act of 1924 > Mae Ngai’s article • What is the main argument of the article? • Does the author present sufficient evidence to support her argument? • What author’s insights did you find the most original and useful? • In what ways do you think the author might have done things differently? • Ngai says that the law “constructed race.” What does she mean? • What role statistics and the Census played in the development of this legislation?