Hisotry

• Mass Migration caused many different nationalities and groups entering the US due to the open door policy, creating a melting pot of different groups and nationalities.
• People emigrated to the USA due to push factors, which are factors that led them to leave their country, and pull factors which are factors that drew them to the USA
• Push Factors of people emigrating to the United States include: Civil Wars in other countries; low wages; high taxes; high cost of living and little human rights
• Pull Factors of people emigrating to the US included: Better education Better healthcare Better job opportunities Better quality of life
• The Open Door Policy allowed mass migration with little restrictions to ensure America's growth
• The Open Door Policy led to attitudes towards immigration dealing as the housing crisis got worse, and jobs were going to immigrants
• Ellis Island was an immigration centre for migrants, checking people for health problems and processing migrants. Only 2% of migrants were deported back to their home country from the Island.
• Most Immigrants were in appalling conditions from urban ghettos.
• Immigrants were paid low wages and were expected to work in factories and were essentially abused for cheap labour in factories
• Immigrants were blamed for rising urban crime, and drunkenness.

  They became the victims of violent racism in the 1920s. They were blamed for their religious beliefs, as they were seen as a threat to the protestant church of America.
• Nativism involved protecting American-borns and their interests over immigrants. This changed how people perceived migrants and looked down upon them as if they had less rights than Americans
• WW1 encouraged opposition to Immigrants due to threats of German Immigrants. America passed a bill of the Literacy Act of 1917, making immigrants read a 40-word passage to the officers at immigration,
• 1921 Emergency Quota Act restricted annual immigrants from a country to 3% of the people already in USA from that country, from 1910 census.
• 1924 National Origin Acts reduced the quota down to 2% of people based on 1890 census. This discriminated even more harshly against those from East and South Europe - only allowing rich Europeans to enter.
• 1929 National Origins Act restricted total migration to 156000 a year, priority given to the education and skilled English speakers.
• The Red Scare was a form of right-wing propaganda in which there is widespread promotion of fear and panic towards the potential rise of communism
• Numerous Actions occurred during the Period to show how xenophobic Americans were towards immigration.
• Strikes after WW1 occurred, with 400000 workers on strike in 1919 alone.
• The bomb attack on Palmer caused political to hunt out Communist Activity and resulted in 6000 suspected communists arrested.
• FBI was formed to hunt down "Reds" and stop "un-American" Activity
• Palmer Raids were raids on magazine officers and private houses without warrants to arrest suspected reds. 4 elected members of the NYC assembly were arrested.
• May Day Parade was a suspected start of a communist uprising and hard put police and national guard (army) on alert. This showed the American people the exaggerated threat from the Palmer Raids.
• Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian Immigrants arrested and charged with the robbery and murder of 2 people. They had anarchist beliefs, radical activities and prior criminal records.
• Sacco and Vanzetti Case had insufficient evidence to grant them as guilty of all charges, as more witnesses identified them as not the killers, and evidence such as the guns did not match Sacco and Vanzetti.
• Sacco and Vanzetti case was seen by many Americans as a miscarriage of justice due to their ethnicity and political views.