Daniels- Ch 10. "The Triumph of Nativism"

Coming to America- Ch. 10 “The Triumph of Nativism”

                After reading this chapter, I was shocked to learn of all the restrictions that were placed on immigration and how most of their effects were minimum (with the exception of the Chinese Exclusion Act). One of the things that stood out to me the most is that there were 7 factors said to have limited immigration by 1917. Daniels writes, “Admission was denied to Asians (except for Japanese and Filipinos, the latter because they were held to be American nationals); criminals; persons who failed to meet certain moral standards; persons with various diseases; paupers; assorted radicals; and illiterates” (279). Of these 7 imposing factors, the fact that they would restrict people who were to be idiots and insane people bothered me the most. Of the small percentage of people who were deported back home, many of them were deported back for mental reasons and diseases. One man who worked as an interpreter on Ellis Island revealed that the majority of people who were deported for “mental diseases” were unjustly sent back. In most of these cases, it was because the immigrant had norms that the doctor was unfamiliar with or the immigrant was ignorant.  For these reasons, it seems as though the doctors were unaware of what to look for when it came to “mental diseases” and were ignorant of other cultures. Even then, I feel as though was wrong to keep people out of the country because they suffered a mental disease—I can understand a little more why they would want to keep someone out with a contagious disease. For those individuals who were deported back, they were often left with the no place to go when they were sent back and a family member would often have to go back with them. Also, many people were sent back for diseases such as trachoma that many were not even aware that they had—many of them being children. Not knowing what trachoma is, I was compelled to look up what the disease was and why these people were kept out of the country. Turns out, it’s a contagious, chronic eye disease that is known to be a major cause of blindness. Still, I doubt that many of these immigrants actually had it. Yet again, it was probably another excuse to keep people out.

                In my own understanding, I have always thought the biggest factor in keeping people out was the literacy test that was a requirement to have people become citizens. Yet, it turns out that it took almost two decades to pass the literacy test which was passed in 1917. This law originally only applied to adult males. I found it interesting that from July 1920 to June 1921, 800,000 immigrants entered the country and only 13,799 people were denied—of those 13,799 people only 1,4500 people were deported because they failed the literacy test. It’s shocking to me how little impact this test had on barring immigration. However, the education in Europe became better at this time so that was probably a major factor in the little impact.

                Of the many factors that restricted immigration, it is interest that there was very little impact from the majority of them. This was the case because many of the passenger ships checked their passengers for diseases and such before they ever came. This occurred because the passenger ships had to pay for anyone who was to be deported back to their homeland. In addition, many individuals who believed they would not be admitted to the United States would decide not to come in the first place and waste money on a ticket when they would only be sent back. In this way, immigration restrictions really did keep immigrants from coming to this country—but more so in a way that they just never made the journey.