American Immigration: A Student Companion (Oxford Student Companions to American History)

304 Pages·2001·31.72 MB·English

by  Roger Daniels

AMERICAN
IMMIGRATION
A Student Companion

OXFORD
Student Companions to American History
WILLIAM H. CHAFE, GENERAL EDITOR
AMERICAN
IMMIGRATION
A Student Companion
Roger Daniels
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford New York
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Copyright © 2001 by Roger Daniels
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
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permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Daniels, Roger.
American immigration: a student companion / Roger Daniels.
p. cm. - (Oxford student companions to American history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-511316-0
1. United States—Emigration and immigration—Encyclopedias.
2. Immigrants—United States—Encyclopedias. [1. United States—Emigration and immigration-
Encyclopedias. 2. Immigrants—United States—Encyclopedias.] I. Title. II. Series.
JV6465 .D257 2000
304.8'73'003—dc21
987654321
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Design: Sandy Kaufman
Layout: Valerie Sauers
Picture Research: Lisa Kirchner and Lisa Barnett
On the cover: (top left) banner in a 1985 parade in New York City; (top right) 2000 swearing-in ceremony for new
citizens; (bottom) the Statue of Liberty and boats in New York Harbor in an 1884 lithograph.
Frontispiece: California advertises for immigrants in a poster from 1870.
CONTENTS
6
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
7
INTRODUCTION:
A SHORT HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION
TO THE UNITED STATES
19
AMERICAN IMMIGRATION:
A STUDENT COMPANION
277
APPENDIX 1:
IMPORTANT DATES IN
AMERICAN IMMIGRATION HISTORY
281
APPENDIX 2:
IMMIGRATION, ETHNIC, AND
REFUGEE ORGANIZATONS
289
FURTHER READING, MUSEUMS,
AND WEBSITES
294
INDEX
6
HOW TO USE
THIS BOOK
The articles in this Companion are "Immigration, 1820-1996" indicates
I arranged alphabetically, so you can how many persons from Denmark were
look up the names of ethnic groups, recorded as entering the United States since
concepts, and laws that you want more 1820, which is when the government
information about. You can also use the began keeping those kinds of records. For
SEE ALSO list at the end of an article to earlier periods it is necessary to estimate.
find entries about related subjects. It may Many persons, even after 1820, were not
happen that you look up something that recorded. In addition, these records indi-
the Companion deals with under a differ- cate where a person came from, but not
ent article name. For example, if you look her or his ethnicity. A German person liv-
up the Central American people called ing in Denmark who came to the United
Garifuna, you will find the notice "Garifu- States on a Danish passport would be
na. SEE Hondurans." Under Hondurans recorded as Danish.
you will find a definition of Garifuna. "Major periods of immigration" indi-
This is not primarily a work about cates when the largest number of persons
individuals, but many names of famous came from Denmark.
persons are mentioned. You can look these "Major areas of settlement" indicates
names up in the index. where most Danes settled in the period of
You can use this Companion in a heaviest immigration.
number of ways. To get an overall view of Immigration law: Articles on legisla-
immigration, the introduction, "A Short tion such as the Chinese Exclusion Act,
History of Immigration to the United the Immigration Act of 1924, and the
States," is a good place to start. The indi- National Origins Act explain why each
vidual articles are much more focussed and law was passed, state its provisions, and
are described below. discuss it effects.
Ethnic groups: The articles on the vari- Concepts: This category of subjects
ous ethnic groups, large and small, are the describes how and in what ways such con-
most numerous. At the beginning of most cepts as Acculturation, Assimilation, and
such articles is a list of data. For example, Nativism have influenced immigration.
the information about Danes is as follows: Categories of immigrants: Articles
• 1990 Ancestry: 1,634,669 about certain categories of immigrants,
• Immigration, 1986-96: 6,773 such as Women, Children, Refugees, and
• Immigration, 1820-1996: 374,594 War brides, explain their role in the immi-
• Major periods of immigration: gration story.
1864-1924 Definitions: Particular aspects of the
• Major areas of settlement: Iowa, Wis- immigration process such as Circular
consin, Minnesota, Utah migration, Push, Pull, and Return migra-
"1990 Ancestry" indicates how many tion have their own entries, which define
people indicated on the 1990 census (the and explain these technical terms.
most recent data available) that at least one Immigration, ethnic, and refugee orga-
of their ancestors was Danish. Each person nizations: In Appendix 2 you will find a
could list two ancestors but not everyone list of organizations, public and private,
answered the question. Those who did from which information about immigra-
could choose two groups. Since the census tion and/or about certain ethnic groups
counts people of Asian ethnicity, entries may be obtained.
such as Koreans will have a "1990 Cen- Further reading, museums, and web-
sus" listing. For some religious groups sites: If you want to know more about a
there are "1990 Population" estimates. specific topic, you can use the FURTHER
The abbreviation "n.a." indicates that READING entries at the end of each arti-
those statistics are not available. cle as well as the guide to further research
"Immigration, 1986-96" indicates the at the end of the book. It lists general fur-
number coming in that 10-year period only. ther reading titles, websites, and museums.
7
INTRODUCTION:
A SHORT HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES
H
ow important has immigration
been in American history? One
leading historian of immigration,
Harvard's Oscar Handlin, wrote in 1951,
"Once I thought to write a history of the
immigrants in America. Then I discovered
that the immigrants were American history."
Of course, Handlin was clearly exag-
gerating, but he was not exaggerating by
very much. What he meant, at a time
when the history of immigration was not
highly thought of, was that it is not possi-
ble to understand American history with-
out understanding America's immigrants.
Except for some 2 million American
Indians, immigration in the past four cen-
turies has been responsible for the pres-
ence of the more than a quarter of a bil-
lion people who now populate the United
States. Immigrants and their descendants
are the authors of American diversity, of
what can be called the American mosaic.
They have created a culture that, despite
its largely European roots, is clearly not An 1 898 Judge magazine cover portrays immi-
European, any more than it is African, grants as a source of strength. The left eye refers
or Amerindian, or Asian, or Caribbean, to the annexation of Hawaii, which took place
earlier that year.
or Latino. Americans are, as the French
sojourner Michel-Guillaume Jean de experience. They are denying the vitaliza-
Crevecoeur noted in 1782, new persons, tion that has come from the constant
who, over time, have been transformed enrichment and reenforcement of Ameri-
by their new environment and ever can society by the muscles, brains, and
changing heredity. It is impossible to hearts that every generation of immi-
imagine what America would be like if no grants has brought with them to America.
immigrants had come; nor is it possible to The history of immigration to the Unit-
imagine what it would have been like had ed States can be divided most conveniently
only Europeans come, or only British, and into four distinct periods: the formative era,
so forth. The American people are a up to 1815; the so-called "long" 19th cen-
product of what they have been, and tury stretching from 1815 to 1924; the era
where they have come from, as well as of of restriction, 1924-1965; the era of
what has happened to them in the United renewed immigration, since 1965.
States. When nativists—opponents of
immigration—rant and rave about the The Formative Period (1565-1815)
dangers of being overrun by immigrants, During the formative period, which begins
or about losing control of our borders, or with the settlement of St. Augustine, Flori-
complain that immigrants and some of da, by Spanish in 1565 and ends with the
their children do not speak English well, conclusion of a series of wars between
they are denying the validity of an essen- Britain and France in which Americans
tial and enhancing part of the American took part, the overwhelming majority of
8
INTRODUCTION
immigrants came either from the British
Estimated Non-Native
Isles or from Africa. We must remember,
American Population in 1790
however, that the first permanent Euro-
pean settlements in what is now the United
English 49%
States were made by Spanish people at St.
African. American 16%
Augustine and in New Mexico in 1598,
Irish 7.6%
and that immigrants from other European
Germans 6.9%
countries, particularly France and Ger-
Scots 6.5%
many, were in almost every colony. Of the
Dutch 2,5%
roughly 1 million people who came in this
French 1.8%
period, more than half were not free. All of
Miscellaneous and
the 350,000 Africans came in chains, and
unassignftd 9,7%
perhaps half of the 650,000 Europeans
were indentured servants or convicts. Amedcan His|0iieal Association, Annual
Report, 1931
Most of the British who came were
from England, and most of them were outnumbered whites. This clustering of eth-
from the southern part of England. Smaller nic groups in certain regions and smaller
but still substantial numbers of Scots and areas, called enclaves or neighborhoods, is
Irish came, as did a yet smaller number of typical of the immigrant experience every-
Welsh. Even in modern times, immigration where in the modern world.
statistics are often incomplete or unreli- The United States Constitution,
able, and they were less reliable in the 17th which went into effect in 1789, required
and 18th centuries. The most useful esti- that a census be taken every 10 years, but
mates come from the first United States it said very little about immigration: in
census, taken in 1790, which found some fact, the word immigration does not
3.15 million white Americans and 750,000 appear anywhere in the document. But
African Americans. The 1790 census did the founding fathers clearly foresaw and
not count most Native Americans, and the encouraged continued immigration, as
census takers did not try to do so until three separate provisions testify. In Article
1880. Scholars have analyzed the informa- 1, Section 8, Congress was told to "estab-
tion contained in that first census and tried lish a uniform Rule of Naturalization."
to estimate the number and percentage of The following section provided that Con-
the population represented by each ethnic gress could not interfere with the African
group. The vast majority of the 3.9 million slave trade before 1808, and Article 2,
Americans had been born in what became Section 1 provided that the President—
the United States, as there had been rela- and by extension the Vice President—
tively little immigration between the begin- must be "a natural born Citizen." This
nings of the American Revolution in the left immigrants eligible for all other
mid-1770s and 1790. offices under the Constitution. From the
The distribution of the members of the beginning of the United States immigrants
different ethnic groups was uneven. Most of have filled these offices, serving in Con-
the German Americans lived in Pennsylva- gress, in the cabinet, and on the Supreme
nia, where they were about one-third of the Court. For example, the first secretary of
population. Similarly, most of the Dutch the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, was an
were in New York and adjoining states. By immigrant from the island of Nevis in the
region, New England was the most heavily West Indies and Madeline Albright, Secre-
English, while the South was home to most tary of State under Bill Clinton, was an
African Americans, who, in some districts, immigrant from Czechoslovakia.
9
INTRODUCTION*
In the second year of the American smaller. The table below shows the rate of
republic, 1790, Congress passed a natural- immigration per thousand pre-existing
ization statute that provided for the natu- inhabitants. Thus, for example, the rate
ralization of "free white persons." The for the 1850s is much higher than for the
law was intended to exclude Africans and 1890s even though 42 percent more peo-
indentured servants: later interpretation by ple came in the latter period. Immigration
the Supreme Court expanded the ban to was discouraged in the 1860s by the Civil
include Asians, but for much of the 19th War and in the 1870s and 1890s by hard
century some Chinese and Japanese were times in the United States.
naturalized. In 1798, Congress passed the This mass immigration was dominated
short-lived Aliens Act, which threatened to by Europeans, and, to a lesser degree, the
deport aliens who were involved in poli- descendants of European immigrants com-
tics, but no one was deported. ing from Canada. It also marked the begin-
Only two other laws passed in the first nings of large-scale immigration from Asia,
half of the 19th century affected immigra- largely of Chinese and Japanese. Historians
tion. In 1808, at the first legal opportunity, now believe that even though the interna-
Congress abolished the slave trade but not tional slave trade had been outlawed by
slavery, and in 1819 it ordered that incom- Congress in 1808, perhaps 50,000 illegal
ing immigrants be counted, but not those slaves were brought into the United States
leaving the United States. between then and 1865, mostly from
Caribbean islands. Toward the end of the
The "Long" 19th Century (1815-1924) 19th century, free Afro-Caribbeans began
Historians sometimes define centuries not to come to the United States.
by the calendar, but by events: for Ameri- In the years before the Civil War
can immigration two events define the (1861-65), immigration was dominated by
19th century more effectively than do the Irish and Germans. Even before the dreadful
"normal" dates, 1801-1900. The first
date, 1815, marks the end of a series of
wars between Britain and France and our
War of 1812 with Britain. The end of the
fighting signaled a renewal of immigration. 1820-1924 Immigration
The second, 1924, denotes the enactment
Rate of Immigration
of a "permanent" restrictive immigration
Immigration to the per Thousand
law by the United States. During that
United States of U.S. Population
"long" 19th century, more than 36 million
1820-30 ,.-"..... 151,824 1.2
people immigrated to the United States.
1831-40 .....». 599,125 .. 3.9
This is an absolute majority of all the
1841-50,..... 1,713,251 . .. 8.4
immigrants who have ever come. The
1851-60...... 2,598,214 .., 9.3
table on the right shows, by decade, how
1861-70...... 2,314,824 .6.4
many came after 1819 and the rate of
1871-80...... 2,812,191 6.2
immigration in relation to the total U.S.
1881-90,..... 5,246,613 ........... 9.2
population.
1891-1900.... 3,687,564 5.3
The mere numbers of immigrants do
19QMO...... 8,795,386 .......... 10.4
not tell the whole story. In the earlier part
1911-20...,-., 5,735,811 .. 5,7
of the "long" century of immigration, the
1921-24...... 2^44,599 5.3
relative impact of immigration was higher
TOTAL...... 35,999,402
than the table on the left seems to indi-
cate because the population was much
U.S. Bureau ol the Ceimis