Us Immigration 1880-1925

From the years 1880 to 1925, there was a rapid growth of immigrants coming into the United States. Many foreigners came to the United States in hope of striking it rich. The Immigrants saw the United States as a way to make a better life for themselves, and this started to cause problems. This is when the United States government took actions to control immigration. In the early 1880’s, immigration was gladly welcomed, but as time progressed, government saw it as a growing problem. After America’s Reconstruction era, immigrants from southern and eastern Europe began pouring into the United States in order to start a new life for themselves. The United States government welcomed these immigrants with open arms. Compared to their home country, the United States offered more freedoms to the immigrants. (Doc. A) When the immigrants would make a good sum of money, they would move back to their native country and take some American values with them. (Doc. B) These immigrants were known as “birds of passage”. Many American didn’t like this going on. Nativism grew throughout the 1890’s. American workers jobs were in jeopardy due to the amount of cheaper labor that businesses could get by hiring immigrants. (Doc A) These people were known to have xenophobia; a fright of people from other countries. In 1892, the National People’s Party claims that current immigration laws failed to protect American workers. (Doc. C) This was the beginning of attempts to get immigration limited. Over time, the federal American government began taking more action in immigration policies. In 1882, the federal government established the Chinese Exclusion Act. The American and Japanese governments worked together to discourage the emigration of the Japanese laboring class. (Doc. D) The federal government also closed off the flow of immigrants from Europe with the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. (Doc. H) What this did was limit the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any