During the time period of the first World War, the United States began to experience a boom in jobs and economic growth, which caused an excessively high desire for workers. There was an immense growth in the United States population, due to the fact that more jobs and opportunities had become disposable. People from all parts of Europe, Asia, and South America migrated to the United States looking for an opportunity at a better life, a life where they could pursue a better future for their families. There were so many immigrants coming into the country that the United States government needed to take action. The U.S. government created legislation regarding how the citizenship process would take place; the new regulation aimed to restrict
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To combat the growing amount of illegal Mexican immigrants that were coming into the United States, legislation made it a requirement to have “a passport, visa, head tax and inspection of” the immigrant (Ngai). For many Mexicans, acquiring these necessary papers was difficult because the process was too expensive. According to Katherine Benton-Cohen, Mexican workers received “one-half to two-thirds” of a payment that a white or European obtained due to the fact that Mexicans were on a separate “pay scale”. The legal requirements to become an U.S. citizen seemed impossible to fulfill due to the wage inequality that Mexicans experienced. Most Mexican immigrants were employed in tedious jobs that were full of manual labor in, which they received low earnings. Many Mexican workers were men who had big families that they needed to provide for. Receiving unreasonably low wages while having to feed a huge family made obtaining citizenship extremely difficult for the working Mexican immigrant and …show more content…
In 1924, the Immigration Act, also known as the Reed Johnson Act, established a “quota system” that “limited immigration to 50,000 people” coming into the United States (lecture). Asians were completely banned and excluded due to this law. This law completely took away the possibility of Asian immigrants coming into the United States. It was ironic that the government would prohibit immigration when the country desperately needed thousands of laborers for their growing work force. The ban placed on Asians “ruled that all Asians ” as well as Asians who had the capacity to a “naturalized citizenship” , as unqualified for American nationality (Ngai). The Reed Johnson Act was a prime example of racial discrimination and hypocrisy. Companies needed workers but white nativists opposed the idea of different races coming into the country in fear of losing their jobs. These restriction laws were also put into place to develop the white population even further and keep other races as minorities. This shows how determined and ruthless white nativists were when it came to keeping the racial hierarchy the way it was convenient to them. Similar to Mexican immigrants, Asians immigrated to the United States to participate in the country’s manufacturing growth. Becoming a citizen or in this case immigrating to the United States was a difficult task for many races due to
To combat the growing amount of illegal Mexican immigrants that were coming into the United States, legislation made it a requirement to have “a passport, visa, head tax and inspection of” the immigrant (Ngai). For many Mexicans, acquiring these necessary papers was difficult because the process was too expensive. According to Katherine Benton-Cohen, Mexican workers received “one-half to two-thirds” of a payment that a white or European obtained due to the fact that Mexicans were on a separate “pay scale”. The legal requirements to become an U.S. citizen seemed impossible to fulfill due to the wage inequality that Mexicans experienced. Most Mexican immigrants were employed in tedious jobs that were full of manual labor in, which they received low earnings. Many Mexican workers were men who had big families that they needed to provide for. Receiving unreasonably low wages while having to feed a huge family made obtaining citizenship extremely difficult for the working Mexican immigrant and …show more content…
In 1924, the Immigration Act, also known as the Reed Johnson Act, established a “quota system” that “limited immigration to 50,000 people” coming into the United States (lecture). Asians were completely banned and excluded due to this law. This law completely took away the possibility of Asian immigrants coming into the United States. It was ironic that the government would prohibit immigration when the country desperately needed thousands of laborers for their growing work force. The ban placed on Asians “ruled that all Asians ” as well as Asians who had the capacity to a “naturalized citizenship” , as unqualified for American nationality (Ngai). The Reed Johnson Act was a prime example of racial discrimination and hypocrisy. Companies needed workers but white nativists opposed the idea of different races coming into the country in fear of losing their jobs. These restriction laws were also put into place to develop the white population even further and keep other races as minorities. This shows how determined and ruthless white nativists were when it came to keeping the racial hierarchy the way it was convenient to them. Similar to Mexican immigrants, Asians immigrated to the United States to participate in the country’s manufacturing growth. Becoming a citizen or in this case immigrating to the United States was a difficult task for many races due to