Nativists Response to Immigration

The Nativist’s Response to Immigration Immigrants have been seeking salvation or just new opportunities in America for hundreds of years. Even Americans originally started off as immigrants. They came to settle in this New World to seek opportunities. These types of immigrants were white, strong, leaders and felt they were superior. In the mid nineteenth century, the “new” immigrants were also welcomed. According to President Grant, these “new” immigrants were the weak, broken, and crippled people who had nowhere else to go. Grant thought these “new” immigrants would ruin the tone of the American life into a more vulgarized tone now that these immigrants are filling up the jails and asylums (Document 4). They mostly came from Southern and Eastern parts of Europe and were poor, ignorant, and illiterate. They were needed for working power and employers liked to use them because they were able to give them cheaper wages. Soon there was an economic boom when machines came to replace the workers. Resentment soon arose since job offers were scarce and immigrants received the jobs over the Americans. Certain groups of Americans opposed open immigration. Many of these people did not want new arrived immigrants to have the right to vote until they have lived in the United States for 21 years. These were often referred to as the Nativist groups. These Nativists were the old type of American immigrants who looked down on these new immigrants and wanted to shield America from them. Nativism did speak out against the Chinese immigration on the West Coast. Nativist arguments say that Chinese immigration would create race antagonism throughout the entire public. This means there will be hostility among the races so there would be separation among the country. In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and prohibited the naturalization of the Chinese. The Chinese were once a great asset to America. They came over from