Immigration 1880-1925

Immigration was a tedious problem that rose during the period from 1880-1925 and created a lot of tensions. Immigration caused an increase in the population, but took many American jobs in the workforce. The U.S. government did not know exactly how to tackle the issue of immigration, making the situation worse. Negroes, Italians, Jews, and many more were all taking America by storm, leaving the government dumbfounded. The government response to immigration created more problems while immigration was leading to political. social, and economical tensions . The political tensions at the time were probably worse than any other. The government was struggling immensely as immigrants were trying to escape from war happening in their countries. Document
A is a picture that displays an example of the U.S. attempting to be a refuge for immigrants from war, military service, or dictatorships. In the early 1880’s, immigration was gladly welcomed, but as time progressed, the government started to see it as a growing problem. Since, businesses saw opportunities in cheap labor from immigrants, American jobs were in jeopardy. In response, the government began taking more action in immigration policies. In 1882, the federal government created the Chinese Exclusion Act. The American and Japanese governments worked together to discourage the immigration of the Japanese laboring class. In Document E, a report from the Commissioner General of Immigration in 1908 states that an understanding was reached with Japan and the existing policy of discouraging emigration of its subjects of the laboring classes to continental United States should continue and be made as effective as possible. The government was really started to worry about the immigration increasing as time passed, causing varying amounts of political tension. The federal government also closed off the flow of immigrants from Europe with the Emergency Quota Act of 1921.