Guarding The Golden Door Summary

The author provides a brief history of immigration policy in order to determine what the domestic function is.

One of the first significant pieces of federal legislation aimed at restricting immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from coming to America. Californians had agitated for the new law, blaming the Chinese, who were willing to work for less, for a decline in wages.The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white “racial purity.”

Guarding the Golden Door is a historic book written with an intention of analyzing, and addressing the policies that were instigated to effect to immigration that was happening in America. Roger Daniels, a reputable historian interested in historical literature, inscribed the book. Only one edition, the original copy, has been produced since the publication of the book. The publisher of the book is Hill and Wang, a press company based in the U.S. This was due during the course of year 2004. The lengthy book of 328 pages addresses the subject range of history in the United States. Its ISBN numbers are 0809053438 and 9780809053438.

People are always uneasy with what they don’t know, and immigrants carry with them different cultures, languages, and the unknown. During the late 1900s and early 2000s, America was dealing with a large influx of immigrants. In America from 1880 to 1925, immigrants were viewed through a lens of racial prejudice and seen as either sources of work or of crime.

The United States is known as a free country, and has become a popular destination for many to immigrate to. Along with this immigration, came many problems and controversy since the 1790s and still continues to raise concerns today. The immigration problems in the late 1800s and 1900s are very similar to today. This is evident in the different complications and disputes that occurred in the late 1800s and 1900s all the way to 2015.

This thesis compares events that occurred from 1875 to the 1930’s and present day that highlights that America had a bi-polar view on immigration from the 1875 to the 1930’s and still has a similar view on immigration today. The first part of this timeframe during the 1870’s and 80’s immigrants were welcomed with open arms and were offered incentives to come to the United States, then middle class Americans realized the new immigrants coming into America could be a threat to their lively hood and profits, they changed their stance and their welcoming attitudes towards new immigrants. Middle class Americans, whose ancestors were once immigrant’s their-selves, lobbied their political parties for immigration reform, and this is still happening

Immigration has been a central theme in the development of the United States. The influx of foreigners into the country has been met with acceptance and restrictive policy since its formation. The reaction to diverse immigration created exclusionary policies first introduced in the late nineteenth century and held in place by national origins quotas until 1965. The purpose of this historiography is to show how recent scholarship on immigration has developed and changed in the last fifteen years. This historiography is divided into three types of studies. The first is focused on how historians have extricated the individual from the broad historiography to give voice to specific ethnic groups as they negotiated for a place in the country.

What have been the similarities and the differences regarding immigration between the 1880s-1924 and the post-World War II era until 1964? This will be the main question toward which my essay will be about. To answer this question I will highlight the main characteristics of these two period and compare different institutions, organizations, and legislations around immigration during these two periods. Then I will conclude by pointing out the main similitudes and the differences between these two periods.

During the years between 1882 and 2000, immigration and naturalization were always important issues for the United States. The United States’ stance on its policies and laws towards immigrants and their naturalization saw drastic changes during this time period, which reasons ranges from American’s experience with the immigrants and the nation’s changing relationship with other countries. During the beginning of the time period between 1882 and 2000, the United States took a restrictive approach on its immigration policies and naturalization law, mainly because of American’s fear of job competition with the immigrants, and also because of their racism. However, the change in relationships between United States and other nations during World War II marked the turning point of the nation’s approach on those policies and laws, where the United States slowly began to reopen its door of immigration. And in the late 20th century, the United States continued its approach on open immigration policies and naturalization laws that began during World War II due to the same reason, but at the same time the nation also passed restrictive policies towards undocumented immigrants.

The 1965 Amendment to the Immigration Act was a defining moment that radically changed US immigration policy and provided the basis for all that we have witnessed today with its far reaching consequences. Before 1965, the national origins quotas, which heavily favored British, German, and Irish immigrants, was replaced with a less discriminatory system (Hatton, 2015). Many decades following the enactment of this law saw a dramatic rise in the total number of immigrants, and an equally dramatic switch in the source-country composition away from Europe, towards Asia and Latin America. Contemporary legislators may have anticipated some of these effects, but the changes in the scale and structure of immigration, and the speed with which they took place, were not foreseen. It might be correctly stated that the consequences were largely unintended. Among such consequences is the attendant rise in criminality among immigrant population.

This article helps me study the effects that congress didn’t anticipate after the 1965 immigration Act. Part of my project’s

The presidential election is drawing closer and immigration reform continues to be a key issue. There are proposals to build a massive wall, deport all illegal aliens, and instill a new kind of grandfather clause. Even though the United States is revered as a “nation of immigrants” it continues to hold nativist sentiments against newcomers. Before we make a decision, it is necessary to revisit our own immigrant roots.

In America, there has always been a long-standing history of hostility and opposition to immigrants. In a sense, immigrants are viewed under the same light and manner as an enemy threatening the constitution and safety of American citizens. During, the introduction the author states that “the antagonism was based on fear of what the wretched refuse was doing to America” (Elliott 25). This mindset and attitude towards immigrants eventually lead to the immigrant restriction of 1920. Although the terminology has changed, the fear of the unknown and what we cannot control still remains. History has a tendency to repeat itself and if anything, the recent executive order signed by our president is proof of this.

Martin describes a country that is supposed to welcome immigrants with open arms and how the United States has now closed its front door on immigrants. Overall, Martin seems to be pro-immigration. The paper was informative and provided insight on the stalled construction of policy.

Throughout the history, immigration and the United States are inextricably linked. The United States has promulgated many immigration legislations in the past either to restrict or support the immigration. Immigration is still going on and it is a debatable issue even today. In the interview, Chang-rae Lee says, “I’m interested in people who find themselves in places, either of their choosing or not, and who are forced to decide how best to live there. That feeling of both citizenship and exile, of always being an expatriate-with all the attendant problems and complications and delight”(Garner 2). Chang-rae Lee exposes the inner and outer conflicts the immigrants go through in the United States with