Chronology of U.S. Immigration History
An Outline History of "Ethnicity" in the
United States
The Roots of Emigration
Immigration to the US, 1870-1920
The New Immigration in Comparative Perspective
Transplantation and Transformation of Immigrant Culture
Immigrants in the U.S. Economy
Immigrants in American Politics
The Racial Roots of Immigration Policy
American Immigration Restriction, 1875-1929
The Northward Migration of African-Americans
Immigration from Mexico
Refugee Issues during and after WWII
Domestic Conflict during World War II
The Economic Assimilation of European Ethnics
The Social Assimilation of European Ethnics
Video Presentation
Spring Break
The Political Assimilation of European Ethnics
The Triple Melting Pot and Beyond
The Immigration Reform of 1965
Immigration to the U.S. since 1965
The Undocumented
U.S. Refugee Policy
Immigration and Economics
IMMACT90 and Pending Proposals
Immigration, Ethnicity, and Race since 1965
The Debate over Multiculturalism
Current Evidence on Assimilation
Text:
Thomas J. Archdeacon, Becoming American: An Ethnic History, Chapters I-IV
T: 21 January
Chronology of U.S. Immigration
History
We shall review the syllabus and the ground rules
for the course. For the benefit of students who know little about
immigration history, I shall then provide a quick history of the
various "waves" of immigration to come to the U.S.
I shall provide a little more information about immigration in
the colonial period and in the Pre-Civil War era, which will not
be covered in this course, than about immigration in later years,
which will be the focus of our attention. The goals of the lecture
are to help students develop a context in which can place what
they will learn in the course and to provide them an outline of
the material to be covered in regard to the history of immigration.
R: 23 January
An Outline History of "Ethnicity"
in the United States
The goals of this lecture are analogous to those
of the first lecture: to develop a context and to provide an
outline for the history of ethnic group relations and ethnicity.
Once again, and for the same reason, the colonial and pre-Civil
War periods will receive a little more attention. We shall examine,
across the span of American history, the patterns of initial interaction
and eventual accommodation between earlier arrivals and those
who came later. Moreover, we shall call attention to debates
relating to the extent to which ethnic identities have survived
- or ought to survive - in the U.S.
Text: Thomas J. Archdeacon,
Becoming American: An Ethnic History, Chapters V-VI
T: 28 January
The Roots of Emigration
Though the geographic origins of immigrant flows
have changed over time, the causes and processes of human movements
across borders have shown strong elements of continuity. In general,
emigrations occur in the wake of a population "explosion"
in a donor country that has become at least partly integrated
into the economic system of one or more potential receiving nations.
Once emigration begins, networks linking early arrivals with
those still in the home country intensify and sustain the flow
of people until the destination nation becomes less attractive
or takes action to restrict entry. This lecture examines the
complexities behind that apparently simple line of argument.
R: 30 January
Immigration to the US, 1870-1920
Late in the 19th century, the primary source of immigrants
to the United States shifted from the North and East of Europe
to the South and East of that continent. At the same time, small
numbers of immigrants also entered from Asia and Latin America.
This lecture examines the size and causes of the flows from particular
countries, including Germany, Ireland, the Scandinavian states,
Italy, Russia, and the Austria-Hungarian empire. We can only touch
on the basics, and, for information in depth on particular groups,
students will have to pay close attention to the summaries provided
for the supplementary readings.
T: 4 February
The New Immigration in Comparative
Perspective
Historians have often described the surge of movement
to the United States occurring between 1880 or 1890 and 1930 as
the "New Immigration," and the influx was, in some ways,
different from earlier ones. In the thinking of some scholars,
however, the term has wrongly de-emphasized continuities between
periods and incorrectly dated some of those changes that did occur
over time. It has also unintentionally given credibility to racial
stereotypes that turn-of-the-century entertained about certain
immigrant groups. This lecture considers what, if anything, was
new about the "New Immigration."
R: 6 February
Transplantation and Transformation
of Immigrant Culture
Through the first half of the 20th century, observers
assumed that immigrant cultures and ethnic identities faded rapidly
in the U.S. Some of them also believed that shock of immigration
had severely disruptive effects on immigrant families. In recent
decades, scholars have become increasingly cognizant of the extent
to which the immigrants' original identities not only persisted
but also helped them adjust to the new realities of their world.
As with most such pendulum-like swings of interpretation, the
most reasonable position probably lies at some distance from either
extreme. This lecture discusses the roots of the interpretive
controversy and the evidence related to important aspects of it.
Reading: Hasia Diner, Erin's Daughters in America:
Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century
T: 11 February
Immigrants in the U.S. Economy
Regardless of the era, the role of immigrants in
the economy of the host society has been a source of controversy.
Foes of immigration hardly ever see a benefit, and advocates
of it rarely see a cost. Assessing the issue is difficult because
the questions asked are politically charged, the analytical requirements
for answering them are technically quite difficult, and the final
judgment often involves a value-driven balancing of competing
goods. This lecture examines evidence relating to the problem
at the beginning of the 20th century and discusses the problematic
relationship between immigrants and a labor movement struggling
to improve the lives of the working poor.
R: 13 February
Immigrants in American Politics
Politics permeates issues relating to immigration
and ethnicity, and this course will take several looks at the
topic. This lecture focuses on how immigrants -- most of whom,
in certain groups, were not citizens -- were represented politically,
and on how questions germane to immigration and ethnicity affected
debates about domestic and foreign policies. It discusses the
emergence of second-generation ethnics in urban politics, and
it will pay special attention to the impact of World War I and
its aftermath on popular perceptions of immigrants' loyalty to
the interests of the U.S.
T: 18 February
The Racial Roots of Immigration
Policy
Economic and political fears probably constituted
sine qua nons in the movement to restrict immigration to
the United States. Those, however, were not the only issues.
This lecture examines prejudices about the effects of religious
and cultural diversity as well as popular and supposedly scientifically
based fears about potential social costs that an unsuccessful
effort to assimilate groups presumed to be innately inferior might
produce. Such concerns were very important in shaping the particular
program of restriction that was eventually enacted.
R: 20 February
American Immigration Restriction,
1875-1929
Serious efforts to control immigration began in the
1870s. For the next quarter century the Congress enacted programs
aimed at turning back immigrants whose individual personal, physical,
or socioeconomic characteristics made them unwelcome additions
to the population. As time passed, critics found those programs
inadequate and turned to remedies that would close the gates to
larger numbers. Those later initiatives directly or indirectly
had their greatest impact on people culturally, ethnically, and
racially different from the dominant population. This lecture
discusses both the early efforts and the later programs, which
culminated in a series of sharply restrictive laws enacted in
the 1920s.
Text: Thomas J. Archdeacon, Becoming American: An Ethnic History, Chapters VII-VIII
David M. Reimers, Still the Golden Door: The
Third World Comes to America, Chapters 1-3
R: 27 February
The Northward Migration of African-Americans
To allow inclusion of the African-American experience
in this course to imply that it can be reduced to a variant of
the immigrant experience would be wrong, and so I am explicitly
disowning such an equation. Nevertheless, some discussion of
the black experience is not only beneficial but also necessary.
Some persons of African descent have freely immigrated to the
United States -- usually from islands in the Atlantic and Caribbean,
and the migrations of native-born African-Americans within the
United States often mirrored and complemented the immigration
of peoples across national borders. This lectures examines the
exodus of African-Americans from the South to the North and West,
and analyzes similarities and differences in the experiences of
African and non-African movers.
T: 4 March
Immigration from Mexico
On the one hand, people of Mexican ancestry have
been residents of lands that are now part of the United States
from a time prior to the birth of this country. On the other,
most Latinos currently resident are either immigrants themselves
or descendants of persons who entered the United States from Mexico,
or from some other Hispanic state, after the North Americans had
established the present boundaries of this nation subsequent to
the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War. This lecture focuses
on permanent and temporary Mexican migration to the U.S. during
roughly the first half of the twentieth century. The reading
will also be relevant for our later discussion of the extent to
which European groups experienced assimilation over that period.
Reading: George J. Sánchez, Becoming Mexican
American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in
Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945
R: 6 March
Refugee Issues during and after WWII
International law especially as
defined by Western Powers sharply distinguishes refugees
from persons who cross international borders for reasons other
than to escape persecution from which they are individually at
risk for reasons that are essentially political. The substance
of the distinction between refugees and other immigrants, however,
is disputable and has not always been clear in concept or law.
This lecture examines the refugee issues stemming from World
War I, the effects of U.S. immigration policy and racial attitudes
on efforts to deal with refugee populations created by Nazi persecution,
and American efforts as well as those of the United Nations to
deal with displaced populations after World War II.
T: 11 March
Domestic Conflict during World War II
World War II was, in many ways, a defining moment
in the history of racism. The United States entered the conflict
in part because the Nazi racial ideology had implications so extreme
that Americans, despite their own penchant for racism, could not
accept them. Moreover, for combatants on both sides of the conflict
in the Pacific, racism played a central role in defining their
enemies and the objectives to be won. This lecture touches on
those topics, but concentrates on domestic events in the United
States during World War II. It discusses episodes of conflict
between the dominant population and Japanese, African, and Mexican
minorities as evidence not only of racism but also of changes
that would ultimately lead to the rise of an anti-racist movement.
R: 13 March The Economic Assimilation of European
Ethnics
For a score of years after World War II, observers
believed that ethnicity was waning as a force in American life.
Part of the reason for that assumption lay in the prosperity
of the era. This lecture examines the emergence of a substantial
middle class among Americans of European descent and the impact
of that development on popular perceptions of ethnicity. It also
addresses the extent to which ethnic origin - and religious and
racial backgrounds as well - continued to limit prospects for
opportunity and social mobility.
T: 18 March
The Social Assimilation of European
Ethnics
Social scientists have looked not only at changes
in economic standing but also at shifts in residential patterns,
intermarriage, and public opinion for evidence regarding the amount
of assimilation that occurred in the U.S. population after 1930.
This lecture examines their methods and their findings. It also
analyzes the extent to which nonwhite and other minority groups
shared in the experiences of persons of European descent.
R: 20 March
Video Presentation
I am scheduled to be at a conference in Washington,
DC.
T: 1 April
The Political Assimilation of European
Ethnics
Persons descended from the European immigrant groups
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were highly visible
political players in American politics by the middle of the 20th
century. The support of American ethnics and of the urban political
machines that helped organize them was essential to the New Deal,
which, in turn, helped the descendants of the immigrants to achieve
their goals of economic security and political opportunity. These
developments, however, were coincident with, and ironically contributed
to, a decline in the salience of ethnic and religious identity.
This lecture examines the phenomena of ethnic politics between
the symbolically important elections of 1928 and 1960.
R: 3 April
The Triple Melting Pot and Beyond
By the 1950s, the fears of any earlier generation
that immigrants and their progeny could not or would not to American
ways had receded. Commentators recognized that complete assimilation
had not taken place, but they chose to deem the glass half full
rather than half empty. In the thinking of most opinion makers,
residual differences in ethnic and religious identity seemed non-threatening.
Some, including President Kennedy, even used evidence of the
diminishing role of ethnicity and religion as a call to face the
seemingly more intractable problem of reducing differences between
blacks and whites. This lecture examines the evolving thinking
of mid-century commentators on the role of ethnicity in American
society and the effort to extend the paradigm of the European
experience to African-Americans and other minorities.
T: 8 April
The Immigration Reform of 1965
Sad lessons taught by World War II about the costs
of racism and growing satisfaction with the apparently diminishing
role of ethnicity in their society led Americans to reevaluate
their immigration policy. Even the McCarran-Walter Act of the
conservative 1950s, despite its retention of most of the restrictions
imposed in the 1920s, shifted the rationale for the limitation
of immigration to less racist grounds and opened the gates somewhat
to the entry of Asians. The Immigration Act Amendments of 1965
- part of a package of reforms passed as Lyndon Johnson's fulfillment
of the Kennedy legacy - effectively disavowed the ethnically discriminatory
intentions of existing legislation. This lecture reviews the
reshaping of immigration legislation, but it will also emphasize
the limitations on the changes that the reformers intended to
achieve.
Note that examination takes place on the Tuesday
one week following the end of the block rather than on the class
day immediately after it.
Text: David M. Reimers,
Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America,
Chapters 4-8
R: 10 April
Immigration to the U.S. since 1965
Due to demographic and socioeconomic forces at work
worldwide, and in part as an unintended consequence of the Immigration
Act Amendments of 1965, immigration to the United States has risen
to unprecedented levels over the last 30 years. This lecture
examines the causes of emigration in our time and discusses conditions
particular to several major donor countries. It also analyzes
the connections and differences among flows of traditional immigrants,
undocumented immigrants, refugees, and temporary workers. Once
again, I must state that the lecture can only touch on the basics,
and that, for information in depth about particular groups, students
will have to pay close attention to the summaries provided for
the supplementary readings.
T: 15 April
Examination #2 (material from Block
2)
See statement above.
"Undocumented immigration" is a less inflammatory
term for the phenomenon popularly called "illegal immigration."
Scholars prefer the former phrase because illegally entering
the U.S. is a civil rather than a criminal wrong and because the
line separating undocumented from documented immigrants is quite
blurred. The two groups reflect the same pressures and ambitions,
and numbers of those who come to the U.S. legally have at some
point lived in this country illegally. This lecture examines
the size and sources of the undocumented population, compares
illegal and legal immigrants in terms of their characteristics
and economic impacts, and analyzes the effects of the Immigration
Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) and of the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the problem.
T: 22 April
U.S. Refugee Policy
This lecture examines the evolution of U.S. refugee
and asylum policy since the Hungarian Crisis of 1956. In particular,
it discusses the Refugee Act of 1980 and the movement from a system
that equated refugees with opponents of Communism to one eschewing
such ideological determinations. It also examines the extent
to which practices have changed to match the change in principle,
the overlap and differences between refugee and asylum policy,
and current debates over applications for refuge from residents
of Central America, Cuba, Haiti, Russia, China, and Southeast
Asia.
R: 24 April
Immigration and Economics
Once again foes and advocates of immigration are
arguing about the economic effects of immigration on the economy
of the United States and on particular subsets of American workers.
The issue has a remarkable ability to create divisions within
rather than across liberal and conservative ranks. Spokespersons
for Hispanic and Asian groups find themselves allied with editorial
writers for the Wall Street Journal, and Patrick Buchanan
reaches out to those who see immigrants undercutting opportunities
for advancement in the African-American community. This lecture
attempts to analyze responsibly the strengths and weaknesses of
the competing points of view.
T: 29 April
IMMACT90 and Pending Proposals
Concerns over the impact of immigration on the U.S.
were extensive in the 1980s and led to the passage of the Immigration
Act of 1990 (IMMACT90). This lecture examines the background
of that legislation and the political pressures that affected
its structure. It focuses on the tensions inherent in efforts
to balance the goals of keeping immigrant families together, securing
an appropriately skilled work force for the American economy,
and preventing ethnic discrimination in admissions policies.
The lecture also examines current legislative initiatives.
R: 1 May
Immigration, Ethnicity, and Race since
1965
Since 1965, a special synergy has existed among issues
involving immigration, ethnicity, and race. The rationales for
easing restrictive immigration policies had common origins with
the roots of the civil rights movement. The influx of newcomers
from Latin America and from Asia made the racial structure of
America more complex and weakened, at least for the short run,
the prospects of creating a more homogeneous society. Lines of
cooperation and competition among various ethnic and racial groups
became increasing intricate. This lecture analyzes the "new
ethnicity" of the post-1965 era.
Reading: Mary C. Waters, Ethnic Options: Choosing
Identities in America
T: 6 May
The Debate over Multiculturalism
Even before the 1960s, many observers had rejected
that goal of creating a homogenized American "melting pot"
in favor of more modest one of building a society in which the
authorities would not attempt to eradicate cultural differences
and in which ethnic, religious, and racial identities would be
private matters without impact in the public sphere. By the end
of that decade, the continuing frustration of African-Americans,
a reassertion of ethnic identities among Americans of European
descent, and the presence of the growing numbers of Latino and
nonwhite immigrants in the population extended the boundaries
of the debate to include arguments that the government must act
to preserve differences and to insure an equitable allocation
of social goods among groups. This lecture analyzes the concepts
of pluralism and multiculturalism, including differences between
them, and examines the implications of ongoing debates for the
America of the future.
R: 8 May
Current Evidence on Assimilation
Among the most important issues facing the United
States concern the prospects facing its African-American, other
nonwhite, and Latino populations. How long will those who are
black be overrepresented among those who are disadvantaged, and
will the integration of other nonwhites and of Latinos into the
United States follow the European or the African model? This
lecture examines the evidence currently available regarding socioeconomic
standing, residential segregation, intermarriage, and popular
attitudes.
T : 13 May
Examination #3 (material from
Block 3)
The final exam. Time is 7:45 A.M. Location to be
announced.
