Transcripts For CSPAN3 Immigration In America 20160529

Symposium, we have professor finkelman. Again, those of you who come on well. Ine basis, know paul hes been our fearless leader for the past several years in symposium. Direct the because of that i feel like no introduction is needed. Pauls case its really true. Ill just say that he comes to from the university of is he catch with an to give you a of how far hes come to be with us today. Hes there on a visiting rights. Rship on human a a nationaking on of immigrants. The keynote is an opportunity to a broadere theme in sense. So hes going to be laying the groundwork for everything that were going to be discussing tomorrow. I hope youll all come back if you can tomorrow as well. Comesst thing before paul to the podium. We have a special lunch program. Do typically. Ont were going to have a speaker join us during the lunch period tomorrow so we can keep people room. Well have box lunches to make that easy for you. I think youll really enjoy it. If youre suspicious about what a living historian interpreter a good chance for you to find out what kind of historians deal with the public directly. These are people who speak to classroom groups, tour groups at specific Historic Sites and so on. I think youll be really impressed by ron dukett tomorrow. Ng paulut further ado, finkelman. [applause] you very much. Its delightful to be here. I think its marvelous that we on cinco de mayo. When, as chuck pointed out, when we planned this ago, wece about a year as no idea that it would be much in the news and as important a topic as it has become. Say wereke to prophets and that we could ofision the last Year American politics but then that would also not be true and it impossible. E so here we are. We are a nation of immigrants. A theme that runs throughout our history, throughout our public schoolbooks. Did a quick search of something called world cat which tells you where all the books libraries around the world. I found dozens of entries with a nation of immigrants including, perhaps, the most interesting one, a book john f. By senator kennedy in 1958, republished in 1964, posthumously with an introduction by his Brother Robert kennedy and then republished again in 2008 with an introduction by his other brother, senator edward kennedy. The phrase appears, of course, articles, popular journals, and popular media all time. Most americans take pride in the notion that we are a nation of immigrants. Story of immigrants success, the story of america as immigrants isor woven in much of our history. One scholar has, indeed, noted that the history of immigration is the history of america itself. This would even be true, of onrse, if you were focusing nativeamericans because they would be seeing the history of ofrica from the other side immigration. But, in a sense, immigration. Uns throughout our history growing up, theng up, schoolbooks focused on the famous successful immigrants, andrew carnegie, alexander name, ofll, whose course, became synonymous with johnelephone he invented, ericsson, the great engineer, and occasionally jack warner and his brothers who helped create the movie industry. Have a mentiond of the great immigrant scientists who helped us win the war. Albert einstein, edward keller, fairmay,d, heinrich yo while skipping over the postwar nazi immigrant westerner von brown. Brown. Er von today their hightech, andy from india,ungary, invented the pentium chip without le itself would not be and, of anymore, course, serge brin of rushia, cofounder of google, which is, itself. Life alternatively, of course, we learned of the great entertainers, irving berlin, bow,grant, greta gar sophia loren, zsa zsa gabor, and now the most recent entertainers, Natalie Portman from israel, arnold austria, danr from akroyd from canada, and, of course, most important of all, thee van halen from netherlands. There is the litany of sports generatione first was actually children of immigrants, lou gehrig, joe dimaggio, hank greenberg. And, today, of course, we have the immigrants themselves, yao nat, serge fedorov, martina are a lofa, wayne gretzky, and, of course, the single greatest athlete of our generation, mariano rivera. [laughter] paul who . Boston haverom spoken. [laughter] role when we consider the of congress and the executive branch in immigration, it is, of important to understand that immigrants and their children and when we speak about immigrants, its almost always important to talk about the first generation because they are almost always raised in immigrant communities. Indeed, theres a phenomenally censusul map that the produced for the 1910 census which shows county by county the percentage of immigrants and their children across the united. Tates bright red meant they were 50 or more immigrant. Not surprisingly, all of new york city, most of new jersey are bright red. But so is virtually all of idaho, all of montana, the minnesota. Sconsin, we forget how incredibly withtant immigration was their children across the settlement of the United States. And today, of course, Popular Culture so when we talk about politics, we talk about both the immigrants and the children of politics. Who are in Popular Culture, of course, today celebrates the west indian came to new york looking for a College Education and instead end up as the secretary treasury. Meanwhile, while hes unlikely broadway play after him, theres also the son of the west indian immigrants who went schools in new york, went to city college, and ended up being chairman of the joint and secretary of state. Colin powell, of course, followed in the recent footsteps of many immigrants and their children who have ended up in and theiral cabinets equivalent. Indeed, in the last halfcentury there have been at least 20 immigrants and their children who have served at that level of american government. Two secretaries of state, one secretary of the treasury, one secretary of two National Security advisors, one of whom was also state, and one ambassador to the united nations, all of whom were naturalized american citizens. When we think about the role of the immigrant in American History, we have to wonder what this it be if we cut off stream of immigration that has provided us with so much leadership. Course, many children of immigrants in Congress Today and president ial cabinets. And the numbers of grandchildren of immigrants who were raised in where immigration matters is simply too big to count. This has always been the case. In the 1790s there was senator Pierce Butler from ireland. And as we will learn tomorrow, gallaton from switzerland. Thehe mid 19th century, in senate there was benjamin, peter david, and karl surs, all of whom were immigrants. In the 20th century we saw robert wagner, s. I. Haikawa, rudy bosh witz and mel more teen why hes serving in the senate. And this is only the skimming easy names off the top. It would be too difficult to house members which simply run out of time. 1790, 10 of congress was foreignborn. 1880s, 8 of congress was foreign born. Today its down to 2 . Central to the notion of the nation of immigrants has been refugeerica has been a of the oppressed. Have been of course, proud of this. And this is part reflected by nickname of the two great entrees to the United States, island and angel island were known as the golden time that they were active and in subsequent history since. For this. Good reason whatever else we may say in aspects of some American Culture and american society, the golden door is an enormous amount of Economic Opportunity as well as haven for political and religious refugees from around world. Emma lazareths home on the base libertytatute of encapsulates the ideals and ideology of both the nation of golden door. D a keep ancient lands your storied she cries with silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor, huddled masses yearning to be free, the refuge of your teeming shore. Homeless tempest to me, i lift my lamp beside the golden door. Many newcomers, historically the sight of lady liberty was never forgot. My own grandparents and great called thencles were thrill of seeing the statue as into new yorke harbor after a less than pleasant voyage and steerage from europe. My own my own grandfather, on hadathers side, the statue greater meaning. He came to america at a time when federal law banned kinds ofs with various loathsome or dangerous diseases as the federal statute put it. My grandfather wasnt sure what loathsome or dangerous diseases was kinds but he knew that he hd eyes. And he knew that if you had bad eyes, you didnt get into the states. He didnt know what tracoma was and he didnt know he didnt have it. So instead of going through siblingsand, how his and parents went, he went from southern poland to hamburg to to halifax to montreal. And he took the train from plattsburgh, new york. Morean hardly imagine a dismal way to enter the United States. [laughter] he crossed in as a tourist. To new yorktrain city. And he stayed in new york city badl he discovered that his eyes were not what they would stop you for at ellis island. Took the boat out to ellis island. Hes one of the few immigrants to elliserse trip island so that he could come in states. Nited he came into the country, in a sense, through the backdoor and reentered through the golden door. My other grandfather came in 1913the golden door when he was about 13 years old. But you had to be 16 to work so he lied on his immigration papers, said he was 16 so he could go to work. Was only aboute 17, uncle sam sent a little letter greetings, world war i is now here. So my grandfather got drafted was eligible but he couldnt very well say, oh, no, young. Too he then on august 8, 1918, became a citizen under the may 1918 while stationed at camp gordon in georgia. Are a nation of immigrants but not everybody came in according to the rules. Am the face of the illegal alien. [laughter] paul my father and mother, both born in new york city, were what some people would call anchor babies. They were anchoring their fathers who today, of course, would be expelled from the United States for the way came into the country. Goldenuck in through the door and lied about it to stay here. The easy praise for immigrants who made good and the easy case to be made for contributions to american society, there has always been, of course, the counternarrative. Often immigrants are seen as a threat to society or the cause and political problems. Imgrants have been condemned for ofermining the moral climate america and have been singled out for criminal misbehavior americancourse, citizens who did the same thing dont make headlines. Religion, ethnicity and race have been a constant theme of antiimmigration rhetoric in the. Nited states at various times the nation and states in many cities have encouraged immigration for while at theons same time opponents of immigration have vigorously wages immigrants depress and threaten the incomes of nativeborn citizens. By the way, this is going on today. Ow there are a number of cities that are seeking out immigrants revitalize depressed neighborhoods, depressed cities, as other people complain about the flood of immigrants that keep coming to the United States. Thus historically, and certainly there have been loud calls for Immigration Reform and is he veer immigration restrictions. Immigration is, of course, a central issue in the president ial campaign this year. This is, of course, the elephant or the donkey in the room. Not sure which it might be. Ironically, four of the major president ial candidates this children of immigrants. This has never happened before. Two of the major president ial candidates are married to immigrants. And one was born outside the states and is arguably not a naturalborn citizen and eligible tos never be president in the first place. At no other time in u. S. History many children of immigrants been viable candidates for a president ial nomination. Becomedonald trump president , he would be the first child of an immigrant to become president of the United States while simultaneously being a immigrants. E of [laughter] is a news, of course, world for us. As this conference will demonstrate, the rules for citizenship have been constantly changing. What id like to talk about for the evening is opposition to immigration and the way it has affected the immigration. Obviously they are interconnected. When opponents of immigration are asended, the rules have it more making difficult for the huddled mass who is are yearning to be free, fact, become free. And if they get here at all, to become citizens. Opposition to immigration, as ive noted, has been based on ethnicity, race, and sometimes unabashed bigotry. These sentiments, known in u. S. History as open. Sm, have been quite sometimes they are couched in terms about economics, competition, or respect for the law. Often immigration has been based on narrow political considerations. Most famously, of course, in 1798, the Federalist Party tried stop immigration, made it far more difficult for immigrants to become citizens. Why . Because the federalists understood most of the new voting for the party of thomas jefferson. Andlarly, in the 1840s 1850s, the neatistist movement culminating in the noNothing Party with its president ial campaign of 1856, again, did not catholic immigration in part because a number of the nonothings, including their 1856 president ial candidate fill more had previously lost elections because they lost vote. Tholic now, filmore never understood why the catholics didnt vote him after he campaigned in favor of mandatory prod instant bible reading in the new york public schools. But perhaps that was his own limitation. Earliest example that i can find of antiimmigration sentiment comes from an outburst in governor William Bradfords in 1642. Of thed was the governor Plymouth Colony and claimed the population was being corrupted by recent immigrants who were, quote, wicked persons and profane people who had so landly come over into this and mixed amongst us the religious men who began the community had come for religion sake and now they had these wicked people. Referring to the recent execution for beastality man, thomas granger, who at age 17 had been caught in things whichdoing were illegal. When asked where he learned this immoral he was taught by another who had heard of such things when he was there and they kept cattle together. Thus, radford claimed grangers fatal behavior on recent immigrants who corrupted this young man living in plymouth. Bradford also noted that another young man had been recently executed for sodomy confessing long ago. Radford concluded that this illustrated how one with the person may affect many and he ofed residents to be careful what servants they bring into the family. Hisord recorded the case in diary, including various details about rangers behavior which i will not going to. Suffice to say granger confessed to having sex with various barnyard creatures as well as a wild turkey. [laughter] hanged andequently all the barnyard creatures were killed and thrown into a big pit. By the way, massachusetts magistrates were truly both huddled by what to do about the turkey and so they went in and shot three wild turkeys and through them in the pit to symbolically cleanse the society from this morality immorality. After the execution, bradford try to understand why wickedness did break forth in the land where it so much was witnessed against and so narrowly looked unto. He concluded that grangers behavior plus adultery and nonmarital sex and even sodomy and buggery have broke forth in this land oftener than once. Radford focused on the fact that most of the offenders were immigrants or people who had been corrupted by immigrants. This by to explain looking at the labor shortage in plymouth. He noted that many of the settlers, desperate for laborers , that when they could not have such as they would, were glad to take such as they could. So of course, settlers of plymouth were willing to take irreligious people, people of questionable morals, recent immigrants because they were desperate for labor. Then he concluded, another and more main reason was that meant finding so many godly persons disposed to these parts, some began to make a trade of it. To transport passengers and the goods. Higher chips for that end. Then, hired ships for that end. To advance their profit, they could not the people were. By this means, the cost three country became pestered with unworthy people. In other words, plymouth in the 16 40s was being overrun by the wrong kind of immigrants brought by greedy capitalists who were willing to fill their ships with anybody who could pay their passage. Course, reflects the problems that opponents of immigrants often talk about. Not only bad people coming, but local citizens beginning to look the other way and hire anybody they could hire without regard to whether they were the right kind of immigrants. Bradfords analysis, by the way, dovetails with that of theodore roosevelt. The annual message to congress in 1905, roosevelt played the nation could never have too much immigration of the right sort and we should have none of the wrong sort. The debate from the time of bradford to roosevelt to our own time is how do we figure out what the right sort of immigrant is and how do we figure out what the wrong sort of immigrant is. Bradford, of course, was not the only colonial official to do this. In the interest of time, i will not go into too many details, but it is worth noting that just a few years after bradfords outburst, the governor of the dutch colony of the new ofherland faced the problem quakers and lutherans and jews. Creeping into New Amsterdam and corrupting the society. When 23 jews arrived in 1654, he tried to expel these homeless, stateless people. They had no place to return to ordination to protect them, thus, no plans to go anywhere. He immediately wrote to his bosses in amsterdam and asked for permission to expel them because they were very repugnant to the colonies magistrates. Claimed that he feared they would soon be up to their old customary usery and deceitful trading with christians. Deal with problem was they had no money to lend and no money to buy and nothing to sell. That did not worry him. He referred to these 23 immigrants as the deceitful race. Such hateful enemies and blasphemers in the name of christ and he hoped they would not be allowed to infect and trouble this new colony. The religious leader of the community similarly wrote authorities in holland and asked that the godless rascals be expelled. Noted thatus leaders many puritans, independence, lutherans, atheists, other under thef bahl english who conceal themselves under the name of christians will create further confusion if the immovable jews came to settle here. Fascinating outburst seems to be more aimed at nonjews benches. The general issue is that the authorities in the new netherland colony wanted to make sure that they got the right kind of immigrant, and not the wrong sort that had troubled and when trouble americans. Official of the dust west Indies Company sympathized with sti venson. They said they would like to agree with the wishes and request that the New Territory are being paid by people of the jewish race, but they concluded that this would be unfair to these immigrant jews who had escaped from a dutch colony in brazil were a number of jews had died fighting the portuguese invaders and that they had in the authorities and holland noted that dutch merchants living in amsterdam also wanted to come trade in the new world and ever going to get permission to do so. The dutch authorities refer to a petition of the portuguese merchants as the jews in amsterdam were called and in the margins has that the american colony was a land that needs people for its increase. Themeecomes the counter to antiimmigration sentiment. We dont want any of these people, but we really need noted,and as bradford people took what they could get rather than what they would want. Between the british acquisition of the new netherland colony and the eve of the american revolution, there was substantial on terry immigration into the colonies that would make up the United States. Britain, from great wales, scotland and ireland, the irish were quite considered english so they were among the wrong kind of immigrant, but since they were coming from the realm of the king, it was hard to keep them out. There were also significant numbers of dutch ancestry. The largest nonbritish immigration came from germany. Immigrants flooded the colonies. In 1740, england made it easier for immigrants to become citizens. They did not make it easy enough in the eyes of most of the american colonies. In the declaration of independence, one of the complaints against king george was he has endeavored to in dent the population of the states with the purpose of constructing laws of naturalization of foreigners refusing to pay ours others to encourage their migrations hither. In other words, the american revolutionarys understood that they needed immigrants and that one of king george is false was that he was not doing enough to encourage immigration. After the war, america opened its arms to immigration and gave citizenship to many that come to fight in the war including the marquis lafayettes was granted citizenship even though he had no plans to attend the United States. I suppose it is worth noting and passing, as a historian im trying not to get too involved in the present debate, one might make the argument if one believed in the intentions of framers that the intentions of the framers of the decoration of independence and the constitution was that we should have open immigration because immigration is what makes america grow and what makes america strong. That would have been the ideology of those people who participated in americas First Political tea party in 1773 in boston harbor. The nationevolution, initially was receptive to immigration. The constitution adopted in 1789 allowed for a uniformed rule of naturalization and furthermore, ban congress from interfering with immigration of any kind until 1808. It did allow the states to interfere with immigration. The new constitution gave power to congress the right to control immigration once they got here and to expel people who did not fit in as in the 1798 series of laws known as the alien acts. This then set a pattern that would continue on and off for most of the century. At times, the u. S. Would encourage immigration and other times, the u. S. Would discourage immigration. The federalists used immigration of new reduce the number citizens who might vote for the opposition, but of course, the federalists lost power after 1801 and many of those laws were repealed or expired or fell into disuse. Meanwhile, the states aggressively tried to deal with immigration. New york, for example, require that ships bringing immigrants in the 1820s and 30s register the immigrants with authorities in new york. The mayor of new york versus milne, the Supreme Court upheld this noting, it is worth understanding for the court says, this law was obviously passed with a view to prevent citizens from being oppressed by the supporting multitudes of poor persons who come from Foreign Countries without possessing the means of supporting themselves. Milne the Supreme Court develop state Police Powers which allows states to protect themselves from undesirables and the courts argument, the argument of lawyers and of some of the concurring judges in this desirempared new yorks to limit the number of poor immigrants and, by the way, that translates into Irish Catholic immigrants, to limit Irish Catholic immigrants precisely the way South Carolina was allowed to prevent the immigration of free blacks from other parts of the United States or from the british caribbean. Just as Philip Barbara concluded, we think it as competent and necessary for a state to provide precautionary measures against the moral pestilence of poppers, vagabonds, and possibly vagabonds as it is to guard against be physical pestilence which may arise from unsound and infectious article supported or should more through which may be laboring under an infectious disease. Thus irish immigrants, free blacks, and other undesirable foreigners were really no different than an infectious disease. Of the the Supreme Court 1830s. A decade later, theres a new wave of antiimmigration and the first native is our elected to congress in the 1840s. More famously, they come in to congress in larger numbers and 1850s. In the passenger cases, the Supreme Court overrules laws of new york and massachusetts which had a tax on new immigrants because the court said that only the federal government could tax immigrants. This was the development of what is in part known as the dormant Commerce Clause. Is important to notice that these major constitutional aspects and there is such a state Police Powers and dormant Commerce Clause come from two areas of jurisprudence. One is from immigrant jurisprudence and the other is simultaneously jurisprudence around slavery. As we saw in milne, it is both free blacks and poor irish and criminals and immoral people and diseases. All wrapped into one. We have to fight against this. Party won theican mayors race in philadelphia and new york and one a few seats and caucus. As i said, hurts Millard Fillmore by endorsing him calix all voted for the democratic candidate. In the mid1850s, the antiimmigrant, anticatholic American Party known as the know Nothing Party had fleeting tocess sending 50 Members Congress and taking 397 out of 400 seats in the massachusetts legislature. Meanwhile, the know nothings elected governors in massachusetts, maine, pennsylvania and mayors in boston, philadelphia, and San Francisco. In 1850, fillmore would run for president and carry the state of maryland. Ironically, ireland was first begun as a haven for catholics and so that is why the catholic anticatholic party won maryland. It should be noted, by the way, when i say anticatholic that meant the know nothings, one of their platforms was that no catholic should ever be eligible to hold Public Office in the United States. Another piece of their platform was that any immigrant who came had to reside for 21 consecutive years in order to become a citizen. If the immigrant left the United States for any reason, the 21 year clock would start again. This was essentially an attempt to prevent immigrants from ever. Ecoming citizens t despite hostilities in the wrong leg wishing spoken and had a strange and odd appearance or went to the wrong church, most americans tolerated and welcomed immigrants. The know nothings, of course,eaded brief amount of success but they were doomed to failure. The new the leader of Republican Party of illinois wrote to a friend, im not a know nothing, that is certain. How could i be . How could anyone who endorses the oppression of negroes in favor of degrading classes of white people talk of our progress of generously appears to be rapid. As a nation, would begin by declaring all people could equal. Now reads all the men are created equally negroes when the know nothing get control, it will read all men are created equal except negroes and foreigners and catholics. Should comes to this, i prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense about loving liberty. To russia for instance where despotism can be taken here without the base alloy of hypocrisy. This was abraham looking to five years later would become president. Who would understand the sympathy for immigrants was truly important because, in the civil war, about a half a Million Immigrants would serve in the end states army or navy. At least 200,000 german immigrants come at least a hundred 50,000 irish immigrants, there were numerous irish for grades, german brigades irish brigades, german brigades and regiments of swiss, italian regiments. Polish and norwegian regiments. There were numerous important generals from overseas. Germanre number of generals. But reflecting the diversity of america, there were also a number of jewish generals in the civil war. Elfer and now for n several others. Recognizing the importance of new immigrants, the Lincoln Administration changed American Military law to allow for the appointment of jewish clergymen in the clergy core for the first time in American History. In 1864, i was passing a statute to encourage immigration and one of the pieces of this new statute was that immigrants who came over not be subject to the draft. Want to be. Ot they were encouraging more immigrants because with hundreds of thousands of men in the field, we needed new people to work in the factories in the fields of america. Starting in the postwar. Of masswe get the age immigration from scandinavia and the Ottoman Empire in Eastern Europe and these dramatically change both americas ethnic culture and the nature of the society. The new immigrants, not surprisingly, give rise to a new anticatholic sentiment, merge with antisemitism, merge with just general antiimmigration. What Better Things interesting things, this is the first large muslim immigration from the Ottoman Empire, ive yet to find any people worried about muslims coming into the United States at that time. Andy hatred has its moment so, that could wait. [laughter] the 1890s, the American Protective Association merges. Throughout this time, there are debates as to the race of these new immigrants. Lawamerican naturalization after the 1870s allowed only white people and people of african ancestry to be naturalized citizens. Is, wereestion syrians, turks, armenians, jews, italians, people from south asia, where they white . Were they not white . Who could come in and who could not . The obvious big issue was if the chinese in the last half of the 19th century and japanese immigration in the first 20 years of the 20th century. Urgehese issues begin to merging of right to place. Merge and a variety of ways. Millions of immigrants come to the United States. Andillion between 1880 1914. One of the things to think about when we think about the poor huddled masses, after about 1902, they are required to have 50 in concurrency. Currency. There is an enormous treasure of wealth from europe to parts of asia and the United States. They are bringing the money. I wish i could be a time traveler to go back to a bank in new york as you can imagine there would be this plethora of foreign currency coming into the bank from every part of your and some parts of europe in some parts of asia as immigrants forked over 50 and a two dollar process the to go through ellis island. Then, of course, weve got world war i. Ther world war i, we had 1921 and 1924 immigration ask. Which essentially close the golden door to most immigrants. Act isgedy of the 24 that the door will remain closed for hundreds of thousands of europeans, mostly jews, but also many others who would have escaped not to use them and fascism had the door been open. Similarly, of course, i will talk about this briefly, the door had already been closed to chinese immigrants so that, again, hundreds of thousands if not millions of chinese who were about to face slaughter by the Imperial Japanese army could also not come to the United States in the 1930s because the door was closed to them as well. 1950s, most often on terri immigration and was of and after then 1850s, would begin to get large numbers of chinese coming. There are almost no chinese before this time. 1850, the census found 758 people of chinese birth live in the United States. Since the revolution, there had been a smattering of chinese come as merchants, occasionally as students, sometimes merchant seamen. There is a large trade, the china trade and ships were always adding a few seamen here or there. Occasionally, you get some chinese immigrants coming in. In andnese begin to pour 1850s. Initially, they are welcomed. There are people saying how important the chinese are. How helpful they are. Labor. Her that quickly changes. Will hear much more about this tomorrow so dont want to go into any detail extensively to say, except sibley to say, by the 1870s, the west coast of the United States has a essentially making war on chinese immigrants doing Everything Possible to prevent them from coming in from being successful when they arrived and ultimately, this leads to the chinese exclusion act which does not in fact exclude all chinese, it excludes and awful lot of chinese. There was still be significant chinese immigration of to world war ii, but not in anything like the numbers before. Meanwhile, starting in the mid1890s, we begin to get japanese immigration. Partapanese had not been of the chinese exclusion act. At the time, it was illegal for japanese to lead the country say do not have to worry about excluding them. However, when the japanese come, they are immediately met with hostility. They are essentially seen as like the chinese, except worse perhaps. Japanesere to include in the final exclusion act of 1902, which was only directed at the chinese, injury did people of california. There is an important difference. This is where i will get to bring all this to a close. 1900, japan was a formidable country. Economy, aowing force to be reckoned with, it had played a major role in suppressing the boxer rebellion japan hasnd by 1906, defeated russia, the largest country in europe and they were. War. A america had to take notice that people the wrong race and wrong religion had suddenly defeated a white european power that was much bigger. Teddy roosevelt negotiated the piece for the russia japanese war. For that he would windy nobel peace prize. When the nobel peace prize. Roosevelt came away impressed by the japanese. The japanese never told me anything but the truth of the nations unlike the negotiations unlike the russians. He came away despising the russians and admiring the japanese at the same time he is fearful and wary of the fact that japan is a Rising Economic power and a rising military power. Roosevelt does everything he can to become be conciliatory to the japanese from the time he takes office most of the end of his administration. When San Francisco try to segregate japanese schoolchildren, roosevelt steps in and does Everything Possible to stop San Francisco from doing it, but, of course, he was limited by both federalism. Education is a state and local policy. And also by the Supreme Court which has said that segregation is ok. If blacks can be segregated in the south, why cant asians be segregated in california . The difference of course, the southern blacks were only protected by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment and the whims of congress and the executive branch. None of whom were sympathetic to the plight of africanamericans. On the other hand, the japanese were protected right a by a treaty by the japanese and government of america. Ultimately, San Francisco would back away from it segregation of japanese, but not before San Francisco had done enormous damage to u. S. Japanese relations. In 1900, the United States reached a gentlemans agreement in which japan promises to limit exit visas to the United States. This worst breakup leaders but the japanese immigration rises again. In 19 eight, theres another 1908, there is another great. Japanese immigration goes down a little and then goes back. In 1924, the United States eliminates all japanese immigration in the elimination immigration act of 1924. In the early 1900s, the United States was enormously popular in japan. U. S. , theymire the saw the United States as their friend and americans were considered friends of the japanese after the San Francisco earthquake. Specialiststhquake can to help San Francisco dig up. By 1921 and especially after 1924, the United States was seen as an enemy of japan. In part because of the immigration acts, but also because of the vigorous antijapanese laws passed in california between 1905 and 1924 totricting landownership aliens eligible for citizenship. Japanese are not because they are not white. Story ofmes the American Immigration in 45 minutes. It is hard to cover this much ground in any great detail. One of the things that is clear is that the decline of immigration after 1924 fundamentally changed the United States. Up in the 1920s, 30s and into the 40s grew up in a nation of immigrants. People went to school with immigrants, people knew immigrants, there were the immigrants euros, the jeddah gehrigs to lou americas 24. By the 1950s americans cheered for. But then 1950s, there were few immigrants in schools. I would to high school in a town that had a large italianamerican community. Number of irishamericans, a very small smattering of jewish americans. There was one immigrant kid in my class. Everybody else had grandparents were immigrants or even parents who were immigrants. Generation of the postwar babyboom up through the millennials is a generation that grew up without knowing immigrants, without understanding them and that i think has led to greater hostility to immigrants than any time since the 1920s. Because people who do not know other people fear of her people other people and are bothered by other people. That is one of the lessons, i think, of closing the golden door. By closing the golden door, we in fact increased the potential for hostility to the foreigner because the foreigner was truly foreign. For my parents generation, the foreigner was not for us all, the foreign or their classmates or parents or the parents of their classmates. So, that is the world that we have been bequeathed to us. And the rest of the symposium, we will examine in much greater detail many aspects of this immigration detail history. Thank you very much. [applause] we have lots of time for questions. Wait until the microphone reaches you and perhaps stand up. Other questions . Are there questions . Yes, over there. Thank you. About variable rates of migration, some groups come and go home or is it that who comes to america and stays . Have youtwo, characterize immigrants, individual choice or communities that are recoding relocating . The first question is easy. Fromast immigration 18801924, we have fairly good statistics of remigration. As you might expect, remigration varies by country. For example, significant numbers of italian immigrants and polish immigrants return home. They make money and go back him. Act,ebate over the 1924 one of the congressman pushing for the act said something about these immigrants coming, make money and then back to italy. Yeah,ssman fear and said but they leave the roads and sewers and bridges and subways they build. That was part of that debate. On the other hand, as you might expect, jewish immigrants who had no home to go back to have a repatriation rate of 8 , i think. They come and talk about because there is no home to go back to. The other phenomenon which is much more modern, postworld war ii, a significant number of immigrants retire to their home country so that, at one point, which still may be true, i was anticipating the question, there were Social Security offices in warsaw and dublin and tel aviv and athens and rome and very southern cities in italy because so Many Americans spend their lives here and go back home to receive the Social Security. A reversal of the balance of payments. In terms of how an immigrants , i think some, as individuals. Basically get on it but a boat. Others come as communities. More likely, i think they come as families. There is a fairly standard pattern. Men come first. Immigrants are disproportionately male. For those communities where you get the rest of the family coming over, the men come over and earn money and send money back. Their sisters and daughters and wives and grandmothers come over and so you get, get families coming over. There are communities. There are organizations and people who came from particular cities that exist. I have an uncle who is buried in the cemetery area and everybody in that cemeterys descendent of somebody who came from the same place in Eastern Europe. Trueuessing that may be and lots of other communities as well. There are catholic churches, polish catholic churches and probably catholic churches that are northern italian and southern italian. I think that is the answer. There is a hand over here. Intriguing points about how after 1924, the generations that go to school in the 40s and 50s, there are not too many immigrants that they go to school with. You are saying, connecting how that leads to if you dont know immigrants, you will be more hostile. Then i looking at the last halfcentury, since the 1965 act that reopens immigration and am i correct that in the last 2025 years, there has been probably the highest immigration, at least in raw numbers at any time in the last 100 plus years. How does that connect to the recent antiimmigrant stuff . I have seen studies in the study suggest that people who are most hostile towards immigration today, and this of course gets to the elephants and donkeys in the room, this is modern politics, the people most hostile to immigration are people who grew up in the 50s60s and 70s. That is where the core is. The people on the people on base and has done a lot of research on this. W foundation has done a lot of research on this. This is similar to issues of race. Children who went to integrated schools are less likely to be hostile to racial integration than people who did not go to integrated schools. To know people is to be more respectful of them and to be left uncomfortable for them. Hand, you yes. Today,mentioned that both your grandfathers would be deported. What percentage of do you think they would be deported . 20 . Not that many illegal aliens are deported. But my grandpas would have been to portable deportable because they came in under fraudulent circumstances. Of leaving,tentions he overstayed as a taurus. Tourist. My other grandfather like it immigration authorities. Lied to immigration authorities. I wrote about this on huffington piece that i , i got a ton of emails on people who said me too. My relatives to. O. One person said their grandfather came over alone, he was too young to immigrate, he came over alone and he found a family with 12 children and he just got in the middle at the right height and walked off the boat and got a new name. Then he was here. There were lots of people like this who came over and, of course, immigration inspectors were mostly concerned about people with diseases or anarchists after the assassination of mckinley or people with certain kinds of criminal records. By the way, it is interesting that the criminal records law has an exclusion for people who are convicted of political crimes. In fact, and 1840s, there is a case where they are trying to deport an irish immigrant who is wanted for murder in england in he deportation fails because convinces the court that it is a political crime, not a murder because when an irishman kills an english man, it is always a political crime so hes allowed to stay. You can misunderstand, i probably misstated. I said they would have been deportable. Not everyone who is the port ported table is the deported. The other thing about this is that if you are deportable, then you are always vulnerable. If you are here with some kind of problem in your status, you are always subject to different rules. And naturalized citizens our people here who can better talk about this than i can, even naturalized citizens dont have the same protections as americanborn citizens when it comes to issues of deportations. That is true in the past at currentlyt is not true. I will do for that to people who know Immigration Law that of an eye. Knowfer that to people who immigration lot better than i. Courts decimate things and then they underestimate them. Other questions . A hand over here. You very much. Theyre interesting topic. I hope i have not missed something earlier, when i am curious is about, how many of the three hundred Million People here in the nine states are immigrants at this point . Do we have an idea of the percentage . Does someone know . About 40 million. They would be for many decades ago. From many decades ago. Mr. Trumps wife is now a naturalized citizen, but she is an immigrant. We have lots of immigrants in the country and most of them have come in the last 30 years. 1014 which would be about 40 million and then i think about 1910 and 1920. We would have been higher than that. From matthew 241960 five, the number of immigrants is truly a trickle compared to what it has been. Other questions . Last minute. Go ahead. I dont of this is a question or an observation, i worked for the u. S. Capital Historical Society and ive been looking at around the room at the different phases and thinking about myself , im adopted and i only found five yearsse ago ago, my grandparents are from my grandfather came to philadelphia first. Then the rest of the family, including the siblings came over and one of the siblings was my mother in the house is Still Standing in south philadelphia w livede house where they in the budget shop on the bottom. The only reason he was outside there was because he had a trade. He was a butcher. He was in the ghetto. I was thinking about this while you were talking and it is not a question rather an observation about immigration and how it affects people down the line. Sometimes, i grew up in people asked me where i was from my life. Im not immigrant per se, im not firstgeneration, but i have if your mother came over, you are firstgeneration. I am. If your mother was an immigrant, you are the child of an immigrant. You are firstgeneration american. That have you like how do you like that . [laughter] makes you no different than marco rubio. [laughter] ted is an immigrant from canada, but that is a different question. [laughter] i need to clear up the naturalization. She practices Immigration Law so i defer to her. And naturalized citizen has the same rights as a person born. The only issue is that the government can ring a federal suit to take this citizenship away if it is obtained illegally. It really happens. Most of the time, we see the been deported and having their citizenship taken away. That is fine. Difference. We could have two individuals, one of whom is an american who went somewhere and became a war criminal and the other is a war criminal and they both come back to the United States and the foreignborn workers becomes a criminal becomes a citizen and can lose his citizenship. The american war criminal cannot. Yes. To really go off the reservation, it has been kind of interesting to watch after 9 11 how some unit of this u. S. Citizens have given up u. S. Citizenship. They gave it up as part of a deal. Ok. The brave new world of citizenship. One question in the back. Talking about statistics, have you seen the new Smithsonian Museum in American History, they have this abouttion wing talking immigration and places of invention and it is decade by decade that want to say that in the basement of American History, it is worth seeing. Again, the smithsonian is always worth seeing. [laughter] there is some fabulous stuff there. What is important is that almost anywhere you go in this country, there are museums that do with immigration. Deal with immigration. ,ow we come to terms with that is fascinating. Some people dont recognize the because it wass 710 generations ago. Interesting,lways i made i suppose the weirdest encounters are the people who are the children of immigrants and want to shut the door behind them as they come in. I would find that to be the weirdest where the people for the grandchildren of immigrants and dont want. That may be another from a moment on some nominal want to as much as possible melt into the system and disappear. When i thought about speaking here, i thought i might just do a litany of name changes in American History and the way, part of the golden door is that you reconfigure yourself as something else. Even beyond that, the names you take and there are all kinds of first name naming patterns that are fascinating amongst certain ethnic groups try to be american eyes. Theyre the people who change names because they want jobs. In order to get the job, he had to pretend your not who you are. Believe, i could be wrong, there may be other exceptions, but for example, when Barbra Streisand became a famous singer, everyone told her she needed to change her name because that last name would not make it in america. You. Es one behind generations of the immigration historian marcus hansen, a hansen law that the thirdgeneration wants to member with the second one was to forget. My question is about the concept of naturalization. Naturalization meant Something Different and 18th century than what it means today. For economicomic rights as opposed to citizenship and political rights. Or am i wrong . It has to do with everything. There are certain economic rights that come with naturalization, but it might surprise some americans to know that at various times, noncitizens have been allowed to vote. In both national and local elections. At other times, only citizens could vote. If you wanted to be in the political process became naturalized. Certain economic rights came with naturalization. The other piece of it is, and i think this is important, naturalization is also a symbolic and personal compliment. My grandparents had a naturalization papers friend on the wall and i suspect that was very common for hundreds of thousands and millions of immigrants who became citizens and were fiercely proud of becoming citizens because it gave them a place of belonging and a place to be where they were. Is there always the concept of citizenship in the colonies . They are not really citizens per se. They are. In the 1740, there is an imperial law. In 1740, the law allows protestants and others to become citizens. What are the others when you read this . They turn out to be quakers and jews. Now we know who cant become citizens, catholics. Migrate740s, you can to the american colonies and become a citizen of the British Empire and that meant a great deal. That meant you were part of something, you are protected. If you were a merchant seaman, are protected by the british navy heard if you were abroad, you could get a passport. There are huge advantages to being a citizen. Participatehe could in the clinical and cultural process. And cultural process. They could naturalized and that would give them economic rights, but they could not hold office, not political rights. Lots of people do not have complete political rights. They could also serve on juries. Service, for the average american in the 18th and 19th century, jury service is a lot more important than what he will be elected alterman. With that is militia service. Militia Service Entry service and voting means you are part of the community. Actually the, not entirely, inheritance rights there are places where you cannot inherit land if you are not a citizen. A window might not be able to inherit. If somebody writes a will and write to him, he have to be able to inherit the land. There are some citizenship issues for women as well. Citizenship issues for women. They cannot naturalize. Could not naturalize. One question over here. I dont have a question, it is more about an amusing anecdote. Several years back, i met a fellah and i asked what nationality he was and he explained that his ancestor came through ellis island with a name u. S. N that said the all of them were called theus. That is how he got his new name. Yes. [laughter] thank you all very much. [applause] just a reminder, everyone who can, join us tomorrow. The instructions are on the yellow flyerof outside. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. 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