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Eugenics, Citizenship, and Immigration

Eugenics, Citizenship, and Immigration. “ T here is an irreconcilable resistance to amalgamation and social equality that cannot be ignored. ” -Representative Clarence F. Lea, 1924. Immigration. Peaked during the Progressive Era (1890-1914)

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Eugenics, Citizenship, and Immigration

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  1. Eugenics, Citizenship, and Immigration “There is an irreconcilable resistance to amalgamation and social equality that cannot be ignored.” -Representative Clarence F. Lea, 1924

  2. Immigration • Peaked during the Progressive Era (1890-1914) • Before 1890: immigration primarily from Northwestern Europe (Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Holland) • 1890-1914: South and Eastern Europe (Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, Greece, Romania, Turkey) • Majority were non-Protestant, spoke unfamiliar languages

  3. How Immigrants Were Viewed • Competition for jobs, housing, and public services • Threatened prosperous Americans by crowding the largest cities • Bred “crime and disease;” caused social problems instead of being the victims of them

  4. Definition of Citizenship • After the Civil War, “whites” and “persons of African descent” were eligible for citizenship • In some cases, everyone not black was considered white, but • Takao Ozawa, a Japanese immigrant, was denied citizenship by the Supreme Court in 1922 because he was “white” but not “Caucasian” • The Supreme Court also denied citizenship from Singh Thind, a Hindu, because he was “Caucasian” but not “white”

  5. Eugenicists’ Goals • Stop the decline of American intelligence • “insure a…progressive upward evolution” • Define citizenship based on race • Stop the immigration of Eastern Europeans and others “polluting” America • Prevent the immigration of anyone who “might prove costly to society”

  6. Supporters of Immigration Restriction • Boston-based Immigration Restriction League; pushed for immigrants to pass a literacy test • President Calvin Coolidge; “Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely a defensive action.” —1924

  7. Direct Causes of Restriction • “Outbreaks of smallpox, typhus and cholera in New York” increase scrutiny of immigrants • Fear of spies and the openness of borders creates anxiety during WWI • A statement by Leon Kamaiky that essentially said 3 million Polish Jews would come to America if given the means

  8. Strategies of Eugenicists • Used “graphs, pedigree charts, and the results of hundreds of IQ tests” to provide shocking scientific evidence • Use graphics, such as pictures from Ellis Island • Call immigrants degrading names, such as “Carriers of the Germ Plasm of the Future American Population” • A Study of American Intelligence by Carl Brigham, which provided a “scientific rationale”

  9. Harry Laughlin • Used statistics, charts, graphics, etc. from the ERO to present the immigration problem to the House Committee on Immigration • Appointed Expert Eugenics Agent by the committee • Influenced Representatives to oppose immigration

  10. Challengers to the Eugenicists • Herbert Spencer Jennings • Testified before Congress about Laughlin’s flawed statistics; testimony cut short • Ignored in favor of Laughlin’s “lurid findings” • Representative Adolph J. Sabath • Argued for assimilation in a Congressional debate • Dr. Frederick Lam • Worked to convince officials that liver fluke, a common disease among Chinese immigrants, was noncommunicable

  11. Immigration Policies • Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 • Scale the number of immigrants down by allowing only 2% of each group’s population in the US according to the census of 1890 • Reduced quota of Southern and Eastern Europeans from 45% to 15% • Coolidge rallied support with his slogan “America must remain American” • Deportation of foreigners with ailments, even non-communicable diseases

  12. Immigration from Asia and Africa is essentially cut off Source of immigrants returns to former areas Ends the era of the most immigration in history Effects of These Policies

  13. Modern Repercussions • Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 replaces the racism of the 1924 act • New system “gives preferences to refugees…people with relatives in the United States, and workers with needed skills • Only 16% of foreign-born people now come from Europe

  14. Sources • “The Self Made Man” • Harry Laughlin • Pie Charts • Immigrant Picture • Social Origins of Eugenics • Race and Membership in American History: The Eugenics Movement

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