Immigraton Laws Essay Research Paper Immigraton LawsThe

Immigraton Laws Essay, Research Paper

Immigraton Laws

The first immigrants to the territory now the United States were from Western

Europe. The first great migration began early in the 19th century when large

numbers of Europeans left their homelands to escape the economic hardships

resulting from the transformation of industry by the factory system and the

simultaneous shift from small-scale to large-scale farming. At the same time,

conflict, political oppression, and religious persecution caused a great many

Europeans to seek freedom and security in the U.S.

The century following 1820 may be divided into three periods of immigration to

the U.S. During the first period, from 1820 to 1860, most of the immigrants came

from Great Britain, Ireland, and western Germany. In the second period, from

1860 to 1890, those countries continued to supply a majority of the immigrants;

the Scandinavian nations provided a substantial minority. Afterwards the

proportion of immigrants from northern and Western Europe declined rapidly. In

the final period, from 1890 to 1910, fewer than one-third of the immigrants came

from these areas. The majority of the immigrants were natives of Southern and

Eastern Europe, with immigrants from Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Russia

constituting more than half of the total. Until World War I, immigration had

generally increased in volume every year. From 1905 to 1914 an average of more

than a million immigrants entered the U.S. every year. With the start of the war,

the volume declined sharply, and the annual average from 1915 to 1918 was little

more than 250,000. In 1921 the number again rose; 800,000 immigrants were

admitted. Thereafter the number declined in response to new conditions in Europe

and to the limitations established by U.S. law.

The first measure restricting immigration enacted by Congress was a law in 1862

banning American vessels from transporting Chinese immigrants to the U.S.; 20

years later Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act excluding Chinese

immigrants.(Immigration) In 1875, 1882, and 1892, acts passed by Congress

provided for the examination of immigrants and for the exclusion from the U.S.

of convicts, polygamists, prostitutes, persons suffering from contagious

diseases, and persons liable to become public charges. The Alien Contract Labor

Laws of 1885, 1887, 1888, and 1891 prohibited the immigration to the U.S. of

persons entering the country to work under contracts made before their arrival;

professional actors, artists, singers, lecturers, educators, ministers, and

personal and domestic servants were exempt from this provision.(Immigration)

Immigrant skilled laborers, under these laws, were permitted to enter the U.S.

to work in new industries. A diplomatic agreement made in 1907 by the U.S. and

Japan provided that the Japanese government would not issue passports to

Japanese laborers intending to enter the U.S.; under the terms of this agreement,

the U.S. government refrained until 1924 from enacting laws excluding Japanese

aliens.

In 1917 Congress passed an immigration law that enlarged the classes of aliens

excludable from the U.S.; its basic provisions were, with some changes, retained

in later revisions of the immigration law. It imposed a literacy test and

included an Asiatic Barred Zone to shut out Asians. Aliens unable to meet

minimum mental, moral, physical, and economic standards were excluded, as were

anarchists and other so-called “subversives”. The Anarchist Act of 1918 expanded

the provisions for the exclusion of subversive aliens.(Immigration)

After World War I, a marked increase in racism and the growth of isolationist

sentiment in the U.S. led to demands for further restrictive legislation. In

1921 a congressional statute provided for a quota system for immigrants, whereby

the number of aliens of any nationality admitted to the U.S. in a year could not

exceed 3 percent of the number of foreign-born residents of that nationality

living in the U.S. in 1910. The law applied to nations of Europe, the Middle

East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Asian Russia, and certain islands in the

Atlantic and Pacific.

In 1924, the basic immigration quotas were changed; the new law provided for

annual immigration quotas for all countries from which immigranta might be

admitted. Quotas were based on the desirability of various nationalities; aliens

from northern and Western Europe were considered more desirable than those from

southern and Eastern Europe. Immigrants who fulfilled lawful residence

requirements were exempt from quotas, as were alien wives, children, and some

husbands of U.S. citizens.

In 1941 Congress passed an act providing for the denial of visas to aliens whose

presence in the U.S. would endanger public safety. Immigration legislation

passed after 1941 included repealing the laws ba

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