HIST 103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: American Imperialism, United States Congress Joint Immigration Commission, Literacy Test
Document Summary
From southern and eastern europe (russia, poland, italy, etc. ) Unsettling to americans: more disturbance to american society. Josiah strong: immigration needs to be handled better (like-minded individuals influenced legislation) From research: extensive investigation resulted in 41 volume study. 21 volumes about labor, very little about mexican labor. Previous immigration legislation based on race: chinese exclusion act (1882), which keeps getting extended. Against literacy tests: opportunity-based, not a good measure of person"s intelligence. Would need more employees at ellis island literate in foreign languages. Southern and eastern europeans mainly under scrutiny (asian immigrants mostly taken care of) Mexicans not part of this: focused on eastern us, not western us and mexicans are isolated and far away. Agricultural workers follow crops as seasons change and return to mexico. In a way, this is to protect america from immigrants. Us looking for places that will benefit the us (like hawaii) Had monarchy, us businessmen wanted this land.
