The document provides background information on immigration to the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when millions of Europeans immigrated seeking opportunity. It then discusses five factors that led Americans to change their attitudes towards immigrants in the 1920s: isolationism, fear of revolution, prejudice and racism, economic and social fears, and the effects of World War I. Each factor is explained with examples of how it contributed to more negative views of immigrants. The document aims to help students understand and analyze the reasons for shifting immigration policies in that era.

1. Higher History
USA: Changing Attitudes to
Immigration
Why did the open door close?

2. We are learning to…
Explain why Americans changed their
attitude to immigrants in the 1920s
I can…
Build up notes on the topic
Plan a 20 mark essay
Pass a 20 mark timed essay

3. America’s Motto: E Pluribus Unum
= Out of Many, Comes One.
What do you think is the significance
of these two sets of words being so
ingrained in core features/symbols
of America?

4. Background (need for intro)
• In the 19th and early 20th centuries, millions of
Europeans migrated to the USA seeking a better
quality of life for themselves and their families -
they wanted to achieve 'The American Dream'.
• America was a land full of opportunity and it needed
a steady flow of immigrants as the economy had
expanded rapidly after the end of the Civil War in
1865.
• The American government adopted an ‘open door’
policy on immigration. This is summarised on the
inscription at the foot of the Statue of Liberty.
• ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free’
• Some immigration, such as that from China had been
limited since the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act which
placed a 50% tax burden on new immigrants,
however the United States generally had an ‘open
door’ to immigrants chasing the American dream
• However, in the 1920s that started to change; many
Americans changed their attitude towards those
hoping to come to America

5. The arguments for changing attitudes to
immigrants ‘The Factors’
1. Isolationism
2. Fear of Revolution
3. Prejudice and Racism
4. Economic & Social Fears
5. The Effects of WWI
You should aim to cover 4 of these in your
essay; but you must know all of them in case
it is the isolated factor.

6. The USA at the start of the 20th century was strongly isolationist, meaning
they wanted to stay firmly out of the affairs of Europe and other countries
• The Alien Land Law of 1913 forbade ‘aliens’ from owning any agricultural
land in California. It was meant to apply to all recent immigrants but was
more directed at the Japanese. Eleven other states quickly followed the
Californian example.
• At the beginning of the first world war, US public opinion was strongly one
of neutrality – wanting to stay well clear of European problems
• President Woodrow Wilson warned that the USA should not become
involved in Europe’s ‘Civil War’ in his Appeal for Neutrality In 1918
• When the war ended, most Americans wanted to return to this Isolationist
policy
• The USA had refused to join the League of Nations, with most Senators
concerned that joining would see America being dragged into another
European war
• Many citizens and politicians supported a movement called 100%
Americanism, a type of nativism, and were known as ‘nativists’
• Continued anti-immigrant legislation after WW1 1921 Emergency Quota Act
that limited eastern European immigration to 3% of the existing cultural
population as on the census in 1910
Isolationism: Knowledge

8. Isolationism: Analysis
• This shows that many Americans around 1920 were
wary of outside influence and felt strongly that the
USA needed to isolate itself from European & word
affairs, and becoming anti-immigration was a natural
extension of this (analysis)
• The government led by example in it’s isolationist
strategies and the unwillingness of President Wilson
and the Senate to become involved in European affairs
led many Americans to believe that European
immigration needed to be reduced and therefore
their attitudes to immigration changed as seen by
their refusal to join the League of Nations (analysis)

9. Isolationism: Analysis+
This proves that isolation policy was an important
reason in changing attitudes to immigrants because
there was a call from Americans to follow these policies
so that America could be left out of the problems of
other countries – if they joined the League of Nations
or had less restrictions on eastern European
immigration, those problems might be brought to
America, which was not desired after the toll of WWI.
(Analysis+)

10. Fear of Revolution: Knowledge
• The Russian Revolution in 1917 had seen the autocratic Tsar Nicholas ousted
in a bloody revolution by the Bolsheviks (communists). The establishment of
the world’s first Communist state had sent shockwaves and panic across the
world. In the aftermath Lenin the new Russian leader threatened to destroy
capitalism.
• Communist ideas were the opposite to American values of free enterprise
and hatred of government interference
• The ‘Red Scare’ was the name given to the wave of hysteria that swept
across America in 1919 provoked by the fear that a Communist revolution
would occur in the USA and the American ‘way of life’ would be gone
forever.
• These fears were seen to be justified when a series of strikes broke out in
1919 – first with the shipyard workers’ strike in Seattle in which 35,000
workers walked off in January, growing to 60,000 by February. This was
followed by a strike of the Boston police force in September, with fear
leading to the striking officers being called the ‘agents of Lenin’.
• The Palmer Raids in November 1918 were a series of raids by the US Dept.
of Justice (led by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer) intended to capture,
arrest and deport radical leftists, especially anarchists
• More than 500 citizens were formally deported by the Palmer Raids (and
Palmer wanted more), resulting in strikes and a bomb sent to Palmer’s home

12. Fear of Revolution: Analysis
• This shows that many Americans had become very fearful of the
possibility of a Communist revolution and the spread of
Anarchism throughout the USA by the 1920s and this was a very
real fear of many, fuelled by the Russian Revolution in 1917 and
Spartacist Revolt in Germany in 1919 (analysis)
• The government helped spread fear and panic through it’s
reaction to the Red Scare i.e. the heavy handed Palmer Raids
and this contributed to many US citizens changing their
attitudes to immigration as a result believing that communism
would destroy their way of life. (analysis)
• However, For many the Palmer Raids were a step too far and
while most Americans were shocked after the bombing it did not
lead them to fear the ‘Reds’ in the way the media portrayed
(analysis+)
• However, it cannot have been the main reason for changing
attitudes to immigrants because there were only approximately
150,000 anarchists in the US at this time, which was only 0.1%
of the population – so the supposed threat was minor. (analysis+)

13. Prejudice & Racism: Knowledge
• Between 1820 and 1880, the majority of immigrants were from Britain,
Germany and Scandinavia. These ‘old immigrants’ became known as
WASPS – White Anglo-Saxon Protestants
• The ‘new wave’ of immigration (1880-1920) tended to be from Southern &
Eastern Europe – Italy, Greece, Russia – and the WASPs held these
immigrants in contempt as many were darker skinned and some illiterate;
this worried WASPs
• In 1911, the Dillingham Commission was published which found that since
the 1880s, most immigrants had come from southern and eastern Europe.
The Commission stated that these immigrants were less desirable as they
were unsuited to American life and recommended that they undertake a
literacy test before being allowed in to America.
• Many were also worried about religion in America as a result of this influx
of immigrants as before 1830 America had been almost exclusively
Protestant, but by 1860 the number of Catholics had exceeded 3 million –
many of these were Irish, Italian and Hispanic. Similarly, by 1913 there
were over 1.25 million Jews in New York’s lower east side.

14. Prejudice & Racism: Knowledge
• Many ‘new’ immigrants were also unfamiliar with
democracy which seemed to threaten the American
Constitution
• Many new immigrants also failed to assimilate (fit in)
as they didn’t speak English, wore their own
traditional dress and stuck to their own communities
like ‘Little Italy
• An example of this was the widely read articles
of Kenneth Roberts in the Saturday Evening Post
where he Urged that the immigration laws be
revised to admit fewer Polish Jews who were
“human parasites”

16. Prejudice & Racism: Analysis
• This shows that by the 1920s a hierarchy of immigration was in existence –
old ‘WASP’ immigrants saw themselves as better than the ‘new’ immigrants
From South & Eastern Europe and wanted to control the numbers of ‘new
immigrants’ coming to the country (analysis)
• This helped change attitudes as the Dillingham Commission increased the
dominance of nativism in America – this was the idea that WASPs were the
superior Americans, and that American racial purity should be continued
(analysis)
• The press added to this prejudice and racism by fuelling fears of the US
Public that new immigrants were threatening the American ‘way of life’ and
therefore many Americans began to call for immigration restrictions. For
instance, Henry Ford even bought a local newspaper and used it to attack
Jews, blaming them for the Bolshevik revolution and bootlegged liquor.
These published opinions influenced people even more and continued to
persuade people to see immigrants negatively. (analysis)
• However, It was not the increased numbers but the changing nature of
immigrants which led to calls for tighter controls so many wanted a
different type of immigration rather then less immigration (analysis)
• Also, Evidence of prejudice towards immigration was not a new thing and
this was evidence in the restrictions introduced in the 19th century such as
the Federal Immigration Act of 1882 (analysis)

17. Social Fears: Knowledge
By the 1920s, immigrants had mostly settled in four large
cities of Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and New York and
begun forming their own ‘little’ communities such as Little
Italy in New York where they could speak Italian and
practice their culture with other Italian immigrants.
These communities were mostly formed in poorer areas as
that is what the immigrants could afford, which led to the
development of slums in which whole families of 10 or 12
people had to share one room in homes that were damp and
had no water supply or toilets.
The activities of Al Capone, the son of Italian immigrants,
also reinforced the stereotype that all Italian immigrants
were in some way linked to crime.

18. Sacco and Vanzetti
• Radical Italian immigrants
• Accused of double murder in
Massachusetts
• Both had alibis (inc a work
time card)
• Many defence witnesses
spoke in broken English and
were manipulated by the
prosecution
• Hat apparently belonging to
Sacco found at the scene did
not fit him
• Executed 1927 – many
believed it was due to their
nationality and politics rather
than hard evidence
• https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=N0sYAU96FY0
I am suffering because I am a
radical. Indeed I am. I have
suffered because I am Italian.
Indeed, I am.
Bartolomeo Vanzetti

19. Social Fears: Analysis
This led to changing attitudes because old immigrants saw the new
immigrants as being the cause of these slums developing, and worried
that this overcrowding was damaging their own living conditions and
bringing anti-social behaviours to their communities. (Analysis)
Many Americans viewed immigrant communities with disdain and
suspicion and started to believe that immigrants were contributing to
increased levels of crime, fuelled by high profile cases like Sacco &
Vanzetti, and this led to calls for restricted immigration. (Analysis)
However, the development of these slums was not the fault of the
immigrants themselves, but the city authorities who did nothing to
improve living condition and who used immigrants as a scapegoat so
they didn’t have to make any improvements, so this shows that it was
the prejudice being directed at immigrants that truly made people’s
attitudes towards them change. (Analysis+)

20. Economic Fears: Knowledge
• After WWI, unemployment doubled from 5.2% to 11.7% by
1921. Immigrant workers often accepted lower wages
because they were desperate for work, and employers
took advantage of this cheap labour.
• Trade Unions believed that any positives they achieved in
terms of working conditions and wages was wrecked by
Italian or Polish workers who would work longer hours for
less money. They even backed the idea of a literacy test
for immigrants believing that many unskilled workers would
be denied entry into the USA.
• In 1919 during a wave of strikes over issues like post
war inflation, immigrants were often brought in as strike-
breakers which greatly angered many American workers &
created resentment towards immigrants

21. Economic Fears: Analysis
• When wages were low and work was difficult to find,
immigrants were used as scapegoats for unemployment
and reduced availability of work and when immigrants
were used as strike breakers it made many Americans
worry about their own economic situation, fuelling anti-
immigration feeling (analysis – economic )
• However, this was not the fault of the immigrants themselves, but
their WASP employers who chose to help direct anger towards
immigrants so they could continue to get away with paying lower
wages, showing they took advantage of pre-existing discrimination
to help change attitudes in their favour (Analysis+)

22. The Effects of WWI
• During WWI, many immigrants naturally had sympathies for
their mother country i.e. Germany, Italy, Austria who were
fighting against the Allies
• Germans in particular supported Germany in the war and this
created a huge divide when the USA joined the war against
Germany in April 1917
• Many also viewed Irish immigrants with suspicion as they were
seen to be anti-British due to issues between the countries,
especially if they were Catholic
• Many US citizens began to view anything ‘foreign’ with hostility –
German language teaching was banned in schools & colleges,
German people started changing their names and the German
dish Sauerkraut was renamed ‘liberty cabbage’
• Troops returned home seeking jobs in the already saturated
labour market; factories closed and people lost their jobs. Many
Americans were struggling for work or to make ends meet in the
‘hungry 20s’

24. The Effects of WWI: Analysis
• The wartime xenophobia (fear of foreigners)
continued into the 1920s and it was difficult for
many Americans to forget the anti-German rhetoric
and moves of the wartime period such as the banning
of German language, leading to racism and hostility
towards many European immigrants (analysis)
• The unemployment and financial difficulties of the
1920s were often blamed on immigration and many
Americans felt that they should be prioritised in the
Labour market over immigrants, leading to many
Americans calling for restrictions on further
immigration (analysis)
• However, Immigrants were encouraged to buy
Liberty Bonds to support the war effort and did so in
their thousands. This shows that America was in fact
reliant on the immigrants. (analysis +)

25. Essay Questions
• Immigration is an example of an isolated factor essay –
this means the SQA will ask you whether women got the
vote because of a specific factor (one of the 5 we
cover)
• You must talk about the factor in the question BUT you
do not need to agree it is the most important
• Examples
• How important was fear of revolution as a reason for changing
attitudes towards immigration in the 1920’s?
• To what extent was the effect of the First World War the most
important reason for changing attitudes towards immigration in
the 1920’s?

26. Introduction – 3 step plan
• Background (give 2-3 sentences of what
America’s immigration policy was like
before changing attitudes ‘Before the
1920s…’
• Factors (what are the factors in the
essay?) There were many important factors in
the changing attitudes towards immigration such
as (a list is fine)
• Argument (what will you be arguing is most
important?) It can be argued that the most
important factor was …because…

27. Conclusion – 4 step plan
• In conclusion, there were many reasons for
changing attitudes to US immigration in the
1920s.
• On the one hand… (you should take one key
factor here and explain why it was important)
• On the other hand… (now you should do the
same with another key factor to balance your
argument)
• Overall, the most important factor was… (keep
your strongest until last, backing up why it is
so important and it should be clear why it
outweighs the other factors)