Patricia Muench
Prof. Saddler
11/21/08
German-American
Immigration Policies
German immigration to the United States has been in existence since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Some reasons that caused German immigration were religious persecution, poverty, and war. Throughout the history of the United States, Germans have constantly been one of the leading migratory groups. Overall, the major aspect that controlled German immigration was the collection of immigration laws and policies. For most of history, Germans were on the positive side of these immigration laws and policies.
Many of the policies in the late 19th century were geared towards the regulation of Chinese immigrants. One of those policies included the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Of course, this policy did not include Germans (USCIS). For the Germans, they were included in the Open Door Policy up until 1881. Starting in the year 1882, the United States entered a period of increased regulation towards immigration (TIR 52,57). In 1882, the Secretary of Treasury created an immigration act that taxed fifty cents for each passenger entering the United States. This helped the Treasury Department pay out the immigrant welfare (USCIS). This did not stop German immigration because German immigration was in its peak period during this time. From 1880-1889, there were more than one million German immigrants. It was not until 1900 that the German immigrants made up less than fifteen percent of the total number of immigrants (LAS). Also, in 1885, the first contract labor law was created. It barred any immigrant that was not skilled from coming into the United States. This act did not affect immigrants that were teacher or doctors (USCIS). One major immigration act that did affect most of the different migratory groups was the Immigration Act of 1891. This contained a law allowing the deportation of any immigrant that entered the United States illegally. This act was also later revised in 1893, which required every immigrant to list their marital status, literacy ability, health status, amount of money in possession, and occupation (USCIS). At the turn of the century, immigration laws for the United States became a lot more controlling because there was such an extravagant amount.
German immigration was at the end of a wave at the start of World War I. Another peak with the number of immigrants came around 1923 with a total over two hundred thousand immigrants (JSTOR 354). Within the next year of the peak came the Immigration Act of 1924. This was one of the first laws that set quotas on immigrants coming into the United States. The rate for migration was two percent of the number of immigrants in each group that were part of the 1890 census. This was targeted towards all European countries, especially Southern and Eastern Europe. However, Germans were considered to be part of Northern and Western Europe (HD). German migration slowed down after this immigration act, with Germans making up only nine percent of the total number of immigrants (New World 95). Immigration, in general, slowed down after this act because this act was also followed by the Great Depression and World War II. Germans were also on the opposite side of the war from the United States. The amount of immigrants that came into the United States between 1924 and 1947 equaled the number of immigrants that came into the United States within any two year period before World War I. For these same reasons dealing with the Immigration Act of 1924, the quotas were not fulfilled. Another problem that occurred was the inability of the government to differ refugees from immigrants. For Germans, especially Jews, people wanted to escape the Hitler dictatorship (HD).
Germans were deeply affected by the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. This allowed people, especially Germans, to come to the United States because of fleeing persecution. The only specifications were that there were only 205,000 people allowed to come to the United States over the course of two years. Two years later, in 1950, the time period was extended for two more years to allow more displaced persons into the United States. Among these displaced persons were German orphans and expellees. In total, there were 415, 744 people allowed into the United States (USCIS). Within the 1950’s, Germans made up almost a quarter of all immigrants, totaling 576,905 Germans (New World 95).
Germans had the optimistic side when it came down to many of the immigration policies and laws. When certain laws were created regarding immigration, Germans were usually the ones to overcome the odds, and surprisingly to the government, increase their number of immigrants. Even though German culture does not have as much of an effect anymore on American culture, the Germans still leave behind a great legacy. The origins of this country were based on Germans, such as the founding of Jamestown or Germantown. The Germans will always be a part of the United States history.
Bade, Klaus J. "German Emigration to the United
States and Continental Immigration to Germany in the Late Nineteenth and
Early Twentieth Centuries." JStor (Central European History, Vol.
13, No. 4 (Dec., 1980), pp. 348-377 ): pp. 348-377 .
This source is a database that is in the collection of George Mason University Library Databases. It provided a variety of statistics about immigration. It was very helpful because the document not only provided graphs, but a lot of general facts too.
Census, U.S. Bureau
of the. Latin American Studies. 21 November 2008
<http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/german-immigrants.htm>.
This graph was proven to match the statistics of a book from the George Mason University Library called Germans in the New World. It also continued the chart of German immigration statistics to America all throughout the 19th and 20th century. This study was done by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. This chart provided percentages and exact information about German immigration.
Historical
Documents in United States History.
2007. 21 November 2008
<http://www.historicaldocuments.com/ImmigrationActof1924.htm>.
This website provides information about many different American Historical Documents. The website is made up from a few sources. This source explained what the Displaced Persons Act of 1924 was all about. It provided statistics with information providing reasons as to why these statistics occurred.
Jacobson, David. The
Immigration Reader. Blackwell Publishers, n.d.
This was a book found on Google Scholar. There was a variety of information the four periods of immigration policies for America. Then, it continues to give statistics about these different periods of immigration policies.
Luebke, Frederick C. Germans
in the New World. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illiniois, 1990.
This book was from the George Mason University Fenwick Library. It provides much background information about immigration from Germany to the United States and Brazil. The specific graph that was used was based on statistics from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. It gave information about every decade and what happened during each decade.
"United States
Citizenship and Immigration Services." Historical Immigration and
Naturalization Legislaton. 21 November 2008 <http://tinyurl.com/3yj5dh>.
This was a source that was provided by the NCLC 130 Staff. It provided a detailed list about each Immigration Act since 1790. Not only did the source provide dates, but the basic provisions of the different immigration acts.
Patricia Muench
Prof. Lecker
9/23/08
Analysis of an Argument: “The Naked Source” by Linda
Simon
You
have a test the next day on the chapter you read about the United Nations and
Woodrow Wilson. You try to remember every little detail from the chapter
because you have 20 short answer questions on the test about those details, and
you’re expected to write an essay about them too. You are having so much
trouble because you don’t know what any of the facts mean. Some people just get
lucky at choosing the right answer, but they don’t actually remember why that
answer was right. In “The Naked Source” by Linda Simon, she argues that
children only write about history,
and they don’t write history. She
argues that children are only taught the name of a historian, and what they
were remembered for, but they aren’t taught why these events might have
happened. Her main argument is that the students need to experience history for
themselves when learning about history.
The
message that Simon starts off conveying is that “Student do not know history.
Students should learn history.” (pg. 391) By this statement, she is explaining
that even though students learn about history from second-hand works, they
don’t know anything about it. She feels as if the students lack a sense of
historical-mindedness. She argues that students aren’t given the opportunity to
expand their curiosity. To support this argument, she provides evidence by
giving two examples of questions. One question she provided as an example was,
“Has the role of the present United Nations proved that the hopes and dreams of
Woodrow Wilson were achievable? If so, how? If not, why?” (pg.392) This
question introduces the situation that students face all the time before a
test. There is only a certain amount of information that they have to know.
Thoughts are put into students’ minds that the rest of the information and the
little details are irrelevant and unimportant towards that specific topic. It
doesn’t allow the students to broaden their horizons on a certain topic because
they only learned a certain amount of information.
Another
strong argument that Simon makes is that students rely too much on second-hand
sources. She makes a direct statement
about this saying, “They need to understand the role of imagination and
intuition in the telling of histories, they need to practice, themselves,
confronting sources, making judgments, and defending conclusions.” This
statement shows for her argument that she is saying to go out and explore
history. Don’t just read about it. Students learn too many facts about many
topics, and not enough understanding of them. To also better support this she
even provides a passage from The Use of
History saying, “What you need at the beginning is a pair of stout walking
shoes, a pencil and a notebook; perhaps I should add a good county guide
covering the area you mean to explore…” (pg. 392) This quote goes back to her
argument about students needing to experience situations first-hand.
Simon
also argues that teachers should give work to the students that include a
first-hand experience. She even says, “Instead of putting students face to face
with primary sources, instructors are more likely to send them to read what
other people say about the past.” Simon expresses that students should be
encouraged to go experience a topic first-hand, and from then read second-hand
information. When teachers assign a research project, Simon also says that
students shouldn’t be saying, “I found it!”, but they should be asking, “But
what does it mean?” (pg. 393) Many of these statements by Simon express one
meaning, which is that teachers should bring out the curiosity in the students
while they are learning. She encourages teachers to make sure that they don’t
give a false impression of historical inquiry. Over and over again, Simon
repeats that historians are used to arriving at dead ends many times during their
research. Simon says, “Students have not had these experiences. When they are
asked to write, they write about
history.” (pg. 394) Simon explains through this statement and more that essays
are just another form of a test, but the only difference is that they are take
home for a longer period of time. Teachers, Simon explains, put too much
emphasis on format, punctuation, and documentation. They worry too much about
bibliographies, and not enough on how students feel about the overwhelming
feeling they put on the students. A recommendation that Simon gives to teachers
is that they should have the students’ work read and evaluated not only for the
facts that they have managed to compile, but for the sense of the past that
they have conveyed. She also argues that students need to find out the
realization of battles and elections, that those events in the past are so much
more than just that. These times were made up of ordinary citizens going to the
same hardships as the people of society today are going through, but just in a
different way. Overall, teachers need to allow the students to discover the
world for them, and not just through someone else’s perspective.
Simon’s
general message is that history is something that needs to be evaluated by the
past, present, and future. She wants everyone to know that students should be
able to express their curiosity for any topic because the sky is the limit. It
is okay to question something and maybe even come to a dead end on research. Teachers
should also let students gain more first-hand experience in their learning
process. Education on history isn’t all based on learning from writing about history and reading from
second-hand texts. Simon does not want any student to be the one that is
drenching in sweat from being so nervous about an assignment based on a list of
a thousand facts. Learning is understanding history, not just reading about it.