Immigration Then and Now

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in 1900, it was widely acceptable to express prejudice openly, and many people who were well-established as Americans often shared prejudicial beliefs. By 2000, American society had come to a more enlightened place, and it was socially unacceptable to casually dismiss whole groups of people because as individuals they exhibited specific negative traits. The paper examines how these changing attitudes affected the lives of immigrants in the United States.

From the Paper:

"While the United States is a country built from immigrants, the experience of immigrants have varied greatly over time. By 1900, the country had experienced several large waves of immigration, such as that caused by the potato famine in Ireland. Most of the immigrants stayed close to where they had disembarked (Claghorn, 1901), making lower Manhattan congested and packed with people who often had little in the way of means. It was easy for those who had come perhaps only one or two generations before and see themselves as markedly superior to the new immigrants, and since the new residents were living in a congested and easily observed area, it was easy to develop stereotypical ideas about each group."

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