Eugenics, Citizenship, and Immigration

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Eugenics, Citizenship, and Immigration

• There is an irreconcilable resistance to
  amalgamation and social equality that cannot be
  ignored.
• -Representative Clarence F. Lea, 1924

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Immigration

• Peaked during the Progressive Era (1890-1914)
• Before 1890 immigration primarily from
  Northwestern Europe (Great Britain, Ireland,
  Canada, Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland,
  Holland)
• 1890-1914 South and Eastern Europe
  (Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, Greece, Romania,
  Turkey)
• Majority were non-Protestant, spoke unfamiliar
  languages

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How Immigrants Were Viewed

• Competition for jobs, housing, and public
  services
• Threatened prosperous Americans by crowding the
  largest cities
• Bred crime and disease caused social problems
  instead of being the victims of them

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Definition of Citizenship

• After the Civil War, whites and persons of
  African descent were eligible for citizenship
• In some cases, everyone not black was considered
  white, but
• Takao Ozawa, a Japanese immigrant, was denied
  citizenship by the Supreme Court in 1922 because
  he was white but not Caucasian
• The Supreme Court also denied citizenship from
  Singh Thind, a Hindu, because he was Caucasian
  but not white

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Eugenicists Goals

• Stop the decline of American intelligence
• insure aprogressive upward evolution
• Define citizenship based on race
• Stop the immigration of Eastern Europeans and
  others polluting America
• Prevent the immigration of anyone who might
  prove costly to society

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Supporters of Immigration Restriction

• Boston-based Immigration Restriction League
  pushed for immigrants to pass a literacy test
• President Calvin Coolidge Restricted
  immigration is not an offensive but purely a
  defensive action. 1924

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Direct Causes of Restriction

• Outbreaks of smallpox, typhus and cholera in New
  York increase scrutiny of immigrants
• Fear of spies and the openness of borders creates
  anxiety during WWI
• A statement by Leon Kamaiky that essentially said
  3 million Polish Jews would come to America if
  given the means

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Strategies of Eugenicists

• Used graphs, pedigree charts, and the results of
  hundreds of IQ tests to provide shocking
  scientific evidence
• Use graphics, such as pictures from Ellis Island
• Call immigrants degrading names, such as
  Carriers of the Germ Plasm of the Future
  American Population
• A Study of American Intelligence by Carl Brigham,
  which provided a scientific rationale

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Harry Laughlin

• Used statistics, charts, graphics, etc. from the
  ERO to present the immigration problem to the
  House Committee on Immigration
• Appointed Expert Eugenics Agent by the committee
• Influenced Representatives to oppose immigration

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Challengers to the Eugenicists

• Herbert Spencer Jennings
• Testified before Congress about Laughlins flawed
  statistics testimony cut short
• Ignored in favor of Laughlins lurid findings
• Representative Adolph J. Sabath
• Argued for assimilation in a Congressional debate
• Dr. Frederick Lam
• Worked to convince officials that liver fluke, a
  common disease among Chinese immigrants, was
  noncommunicable

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Immigration Policies

• Immigration Restriction Act of 1924
• Scale the number of immigrants down by allowing
  only 2 of each groups population in the US
  according to the census of 1890
• Reduced quota of Southern and Eastern Europeans
  from 45 to 15
• Coolidge rallied support with his slogan America
  must remain American
• Deportation of foreigners with ailments, even
  non-communicable diseases

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Effects of These Policies

• Immigration from Asia and Africa is essentially
  cut off
• Source of immigrants returns to former areas
• Ends the era of the most immigration in history

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Modern Repercussions

• Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 replaces
  the racism of the 1924 act
• New system gives preferences to refugeespeople
  with relatives in the United States, and workers
  with needed skills
• Only 16 of foreign-born people now come from
  Europe

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Sources

• The Self Made Man
• Harry Laughlin
• Pie Charts
• Immigrant Picture
• Social Origins of Eugenics
• Race and Membership in American History The
  Eugenics Movement