America is essentially a country of immigrants. As an expected result, immigration is and always has been a leading topic of debate and examination within our country. When examining our country’s history with immigration, a reoccurring theme seems to pop up. Tensions seem to grow high around immigration when our country is going through times of economic despair. Fear causes people to search for something or someone to blame and point their fingers at. In times of fear we can see time and time again that immigrants are the easy target that receive all the blame for any number of socioeconomic problems. Because of the vastness of the topic, in my commentary I will discuss a few major historical events that display many of the issues that come up with immigration.
When examining the vast subject of immigration in American history, it is important to keep in mind the difference between voluntary and involuntary immigration. Voluntary immigration refers to those people that willingly chose to immigrate to America for personal and voluntary reasons. Involuntary immigration refers to those people that were moved into America against their will, most specifically through the slave-trade. Understanding this important difference allows slave rights and civil rights to play a key part in the history of immigration in America.
In the late 1700’s, France had just ended its massive revolution. John Adams, who was currently the president of the United States was facing the fear that America would be subject to a large increase in immigrants, specifically French radical refugees. He was afraid that the radical revolutionary thinking would influence the United States and cause conflict and chaos. In response to this fear, four laws were passed in an attempt to strengthen federal government and discourage political opposition from the Republicans led by Jefferson. The law first was the Naturalization Act which required fourteen years of residency before citizenship, when the residency requirement had previously been five years. The second law was the Alien Act, which authorized the President to deport aliens that threatened the peace and safety of the United States. The third law was the Alien Enemies Act, which allowed wartime arrest, imprisonment and ultimately deportation of any alien subject to enemy power. The fourth and final act was the Sedition Act, which made it a crime for anyone to criticize the government. The Alien and Sedition Acts caused great injustice and were met with significant controversy, especially from Jefferson and his supporters. The Sedition Act in particular proved to be extremely unconstitutional; it did not allow for freedom of speech or freedom of the press.
In 1846, the Irish Potato Famine caused the emigration of millions of Irish people. 1.5 million disadvantaged, poor and unskilled Irish people immigrated to America. The result was great oppression of these Irish immigrants. They were viewed and treated as intruders. The Irish were depicted as lazy, dirty and stupid, and Americans continuously expressed their concern that Irish people taking all their jobs.
The Dred Scott decision in 1857 was the first impactful case that asked the question: where do free blacks fit in this country? Previously, the role of black people was easily defined as slaves and as property. As abolitionism rose and states began to declare themselves as “free states,” some black people were given their freedom. The Dred Scott decision declared that Dred Scott was still a slave because Congress did not have the right to prohibit slavery in federally owned territories. The decision also announced that black people were not citizens nor did they have any rights laid out in the Constitution because the Constitution was written for white people only. “We the People” did not include blacks.
The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 was one of the most extreme immigration laws our country has seen. It suspended all Chinese immigration for 10 years and barred the Chinese from citizenship. In addition, it barred convicts, lunatics and certain handicapped people. This extreme course of immigration action can only stem from irrational, emotional racism. Propaganda at that time showed the Chinese as inhuman creatures with alien-esque features and cartoonish yellow skin. To induce fear, it was said that the Chinese carried a highly contagious disease called “the yellow peril.”
Throughout history, we can see the poor decisions and courses of action that have been taken due to fear and misplaced blame during times of economic hardship. Immigration is a huge issue with too many factors to have a right way to deal with it and a wrong way. The best way we can avoid conflict and injustice surrounding immigrants and their rights is to identify our fear as something that may not necessarily be caused by a certain group of people. We must use our rational intellect and search for solutions for our economic problems, rather than causing larger problems fueled by fear and racism.
No comments:
Post a Comment