Immigration: Face of America HTY-110
rebcca 1
particularly in later years, belonged to non-English-speaking races. This natural bar to assimi- lation, however, was soon overcome by them, while the racial identity of their children was almost entirely lost and forgotten.
On the other hand, the new immigration has been largely a movement of unskilled labor- ing men who have come, in large part temporarily, from the less progressive and advanced countries of Europe in response to the call for industrial workers in the eastern and middle western States. They have almost entirely avoided agricultural pursuits, and in cities and industrial communities have congregated together in sections apart from native Americans and the older immigrants to such an extent that assimilation has been slow as compared to that of the earlier non-English-speaking races.
The new immigration as a class is far less intelligent than the old, approximately one-third of all those over 14 years of age when admitted being illiterate. Racially they are for the most part essentially unlike the British, German, and other peoples who came during the period prior to 1880, and generally speaking they are actuated in coming, by different ideals, for the old immigration came to be a part of the country, while the new, in a large measure, comes with the intention of profiting, in a pecuniary way, by the superior advantages of the new world and then returning to the old country.
The old immigration movement, which in earlier days was the subject of much discussion and the cause of no little apprehension among the people of the country, long ago became
Strong anti-Chinese feeling across the United States, especially in the West, was stoked during
periods of economic depression, culminating in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882.
Then and later, the irony of the United States, champion of freedom and opportunity, discriminat-
ing against Asians was not lost on observers at home or abroad, as shown in this cartoon by L. M.
Glackens published in the Jan. 3, 1912, Puck magazine. Library of Congress, Prints and Photo-
graphs Division, LC-USZC2-1043.
Chapter 3 • The Great Wave of Immigration from 1880 to 1920
49
Co py
ri gh t © 2 00 9. G re en wo od P ub li sh in g Gr ou p. A ll r ig ht s re se rv ed . Ma y no t be r ep ro du ce d in a ny f or m wi th ou t pe rm is si on f ro
m th e pu bl is he r, e xc ep t fa ir u se s pe rm it te d un de r U. S. o r
ap pl
ic ab le c op yr ig ht l aw .
EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 5/17/2015 2:54 AM via SAINT LEO UNIV AN: 280845 ; Kalaitzidis, Akis, Felsen, David, Cieslik, Thomas.; Immigration : A Documentary and Reference Guide Account: stleocol