The Immigrant The Immigrant Experience: Experience:

Truly and Open Truly and Open Door Policy?Door Policy?

Cover SlideCover Slide

Caribbean immigrants at Ellis IslandProud and confident on arrival from their homeland of Guadeloupe, these women perhaps were unprepared for the double disadvantage they faced as both blacks and foreigners. (William Williams Papers, Manuscripts & Archives Division, The New York Public Library)

Reactions to Reactions to ImmigrationImmigration

• nativismnativisma policy of favoring a policy of favoring native-born individuals native-born individuals over foreign-born onesover foreign-born ones

• eugenicseugenics an effort to control the an effort to control the human race by breedinghuman race by breeding

resulted in legal forced resulted in legal forced sterilization of sterilization of undesirables undesirables

Poster in six languages to encourage immigrant educationThis 1917 poster used the languages most common to the new immigrants--Slovene, Italian, Polish, Hungarian, and Yiddish--as well as English to invite newcomers to free classes where they could learn "the language of America" and "citizenship."

Responses to NativismResponses to Nativism

• immigrant mutual aid immigrant mutual aid societiessocieties

• ethnic newspapers, ethnic newspapers, social & athletic groups, social & athletic groups, and theatre groupsand theatre groups

• political efforts to political efforts to oppose progressive oppose progressive reforms on child labor, reforms on child labor, political machines, and political machines, and temperancetemperance

San Francisco Chinese grocery store(The Bancroft Library, University of California)

Limits on Limits on ImmigrationImmigration

• Chinese Chinese immigration limited immigration limited (1882)(1882)

• radical ideas radical ideas dangerous to the dangerous to the public welfare public welfare prohibited (1903)prohibited (1903)

• immigrants over 16 immigrants over 16 required to pass a required to pass a literacy testliteracy test