Immigration Restriction How and why did attitudes toward immigration and immigrants change in America?

Immigration Restriction

How and why

did attitudes

toward immigration

and immigrants change in America?

Nativism defined…

Policy of favoring the interests of native-

born people over the interests of immigrants.

Assimilation defined

• The process of giving up a part of your heritage (“old” culture) to become more a part of the “new” culture

SWAT Analysis

Let’s take a SWAT…What SYMBOLS are in the cartoon?What WORDS should we notice?What ACTION is taking place?What is the TOPIC of the cartoon?

Thanks, to Mrs. Hirsch in East House

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Immigration Statistics

FYI

• The images here may make you feel uncomfortable, as they present stereotypes and prejudices about immigrants and immigration.

• If you feel uncomfortable…good. It means that you do not like to encounter stereotypes and prejudices and discrimination.

An interesting question: how long will it be before the Rats own the garden and the Man gets out?

Source: Life, June 1893

Columbia’s Unwelcome Guests

1885

Think:

• What symbols did the artists use to represent immigrants?

• What does the artist’s choice of symbols tell us about the artist’s opinion or point of view about immigrants?

Cartoon artists created images that communicated very negative

stereotypes about immigrant groups. They often showed immigrants to be…

• Lazy• Dangerous• Dirty• Criminal • Dishonest• Drunk, and…

• Un-American, and willing to destroy American values and the American way of life.

Focus on the ACTION in this cartoon: what are the little figures doing?

Anti-Immigrant Groups

• The Know-Nothings (1840s) : estimated 1 million members

• The American Protective Association (1890s) : estimated 2-3 million members

• The Ku Klux Klan (before 1910 = racist, after 1910 = also anti immigrant) : estimated 4-5 million members in the 1920s

What does this artist think about immigration and immigrants?

Now…..

• Practice on your own

• Turn your pair so that you make a group

• Complete a SWAT analysis of ONE of the political cartoons and complete the activities on today’s handout

• Wrap-up: Why did attitudes about immigrants change?