What were American attitudes towards immigrants?

American attitudes toward immigration have generally not been positive. Immigrants, for various reasons, have threatened Americans. Often, Americans have feared that immigrants will take away their jobs or help drive wages down by increasing the supply of workers. Americans have feared that immigrants will bring diseases to our country. Americans have been frightened by the different religious practices of the immigrants. The Irish, who were Catholic, frightened many Americans. When immigrants came from South and...

American attitudes toward immigration have generally not been positive. Immigrants, for various reasons, have threatened Americans. Often, Americans have feared that immigrants will take away their jobs or help drive wages down by increasing the supply of workers. Americans have feared that immigrants will bring diseases to our country. Americans have been frightened by the different religious practices of the immigrants. The Irish, who were Catholic, frightened many Americans. When immigrants came from South and East Europe, people felt threatened by the different customs and languages of these immigrants. Other people believed immigration to our country would increase poverty and crime. Some people believed that immigrants supported anarchy or communist ideology.

There have been many groups that have worked to oppose immigration or intimidate immigrants in our country. The Know Nothing Party was an anti-immigrant group in the 1840s. The American Protective Association was another group against immigration. The Ku Klux Klan tried to intimidate those who weren’t white and Protestant. In the 1920s, laws were passed to restrict immigration to our country. The Emergency Quota Act and the National Origins Act limited immigration to the United States in the 1920s.

Considering that the families of most Americans were immigrants at one time, it is interesting to see how future generations have generally opposed immigration to the United States.