Irrational Fears vs Rational Compassion
This essay by Jon Meacham struck a chord in me as I have been pondering the history of our on again off again love hate affair with immigrants and immigration.
Let us count the off again – hatred times:
Note that there is only 1 anti-immigration law until 1882.
Between 1882 and 1952 there are 10!
- Alien and Sedition Act: 1798
- Rise of the 19th century Know Nothings (American Party): 1848 They sought to permit only native-born Americans ( not Native Americans) to run for office and try to raise the residency requirement to 25 years.
- Chinese Exclusion Act: 1882
- Anarchist Exclusion Act: 1903 denies anarchists, other political extremists, beggars, and epileptics entry into the U.S.
- The Immigration Act of 1907: The list of excluded now adds “imbeciles,” “feeble-minded” people, those with physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from working, tuberculosis victims, children who enter the U.S. without parents, and those who committed crimes of “moral turpitude.”
- Gentlemen’s Agreement barring Japanese: 1907
- Immigration Act of 1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone Act): restricted immigration, particularly of people from a large swath of Asia and the Pacific Islands. The act also bars homosexuals, “idiots,” “feeble-minded persons,” “criminals,” “insane persons,” alcoholics, and other categories.
- The Emergency Quota Law of 1921 limits the number of immigrants entering the U.S. each year to 350,000 and implements a nationality quota. Immigration from any country is capped at 3% of the population of that nationality based on the 1910 census. The law reduces immigration from eastern and southern Europe while favoring immigrants from Northern Europe.
- The National Origins Act of 1924: reduces the number of immigrants Irrational Fears vs Rational Compassion | DCGEducator: Doing The Right Thing: