Nativism In The US

4 Pages 1054 Words

All so called “Native Americans,” were once immigrants. There were two waves of immigration between the early 1800’s through the early 1900’s. The first wave of immigrants called the “old immigrants” came to America between 1890-1897. They were primarily from Northern Europe: Great Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia. The second wave of immigrants called the “new immigrants” came to America from 1897-1924. The “new immigrants” primarily came from Southern and Eastern Europe countries such as Poland, Russia, and Italy. Nativist parties, like the Know-Nothings and the Order of the Star Spangled Banner verbalized their distaste and disapproval of immigrants. Actions and regulations against immigration did not begin until near the end of the “old immigration” and the beginning of the “new immigration.” Nativists had many fears and concerns regarding immigrants. These concerns included being socially ill-suited to live with the older stock Americans, stealing jobs from the native wor!
k force, and bringing new, radical ideas to the country. These fears and concerns caused nativists to come up with schemes to keep immigrants out of the country. These strategies had a great impact on immigration in our country.
Nativists had many concerns regarding immigrants. They feared that immigrants would take the jobs of “native Americans” because they were willing to work for very low wages. When the native work force went on strike many workers feared that many immigrants would displace them in the workplace. Another concern was that immigrants were hard to “Americanize.” These people came to American with their own culture, traditions, and language; many of them didn’t even know English. Many nativists resented immigrants because they permeated the city and made it unsafe and dirty. Their slums were breeding grounds for disease and violence. Nativists regarded immigrants as an inferior class of people. One of the...