Tying Together the Background

America prides itself in being a country full of immigrants. Some even call it the world’s melting pot. Immigration undeniably played a huge role in the development of America culturally, socially, and economically. However, immigration was not met with open arms. Most Americans were very opposed to immigration and fought hard to stop it all together. Today people are still fighting against immigration, only now it’s a fight against illegal immigration. When massive amounts of immigration started to occur in the late 1800s Americans started to take a stand. In 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. This law banned the immigration of Chinese people for ten years. Many Chinese people were coming into the country through Angel Island in California and people were afraid that the Chinese would overpower the Americans. This wasn’t the only time that people were restricted from coming into America. In 1921 and 1923 the government passed the Quota Acts. These laws limited the number of immigrants allowed into America from each country throughout the world. This law is still in effect today and only a certain number of people are allowed to immigrate to America from certain countries. The number of people allowed in is based on things like the number of people from that country already in America and the number of people who want to immigrate. All these laws express the fear that Americans have had about immigration. This fear has been very evident in most of the research found on this blog. Many people have expressed their fears in different ways such as political cartoons or public demonstrations. Most people wouldn’t say that their opposition comes from fear but it is very clear that they are afraid immigrants will “dirty up” America. Even other countries have been afraid of the massive amounts of immigrants in this country. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt made an agreement with the leader of Japan and the Japanese government to limit the amount of Japanese coming to the country. The Japanese were afraid that they would lose too many people to America and that the country would suffer. This agreement allowed the Japanese to limit the amount of their citizens entering the country instead of leaving it up to the Americans. This held up pretty well until the Quota Acts were passed and it was no longer needed. Even though this is a country made of immigrants, immigration has not been the best thing in the minds of Americans for many years. America as a whole is still struggling with the idea of immigration, legal and illegal, and it doesn’t seem like there will be an end anytime soon. The fights for and against it in this country will be going on for a while until something can finally be settled in the minds of Americans.