VSI Chapters 6 and 7 & Final Exam

For Wednesday's class, please read Chapters 6 and 7 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction. You can also have one more shot at blog posting Wednesday if you are short a blog post.

Our final project is due before midnight on the day our final exam is scheduled. Please write a reflection of approximately 1200-1500 words on information you find interesting on the government census website and the Macalester Today article. You might want to check out the site linked to the image below (or your own home county's site) as well. You should consider the historical political issues, including what questions have been asked and why, and consider proposing your own question(s).

VSI Chapters 3-5 Reading Questions

For Monday's class, please read Chapter 3 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction, and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• Why did World War II cause America to rethink its immigration policies? (45)
• What was the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952? (46)
• What was the refugee situation at the end of World War II? (46) And why did the U.S. feel the need to do something about it? (47)
• What is the Displaced Persons Act of 1948? (47)
• What is presidential parole power, and how did Eisenhower use it? (47)
• How were Cuban and Vietnamese refugees able to integrate so rapidly? (48)
• What led to the overturning of the quota system? (48-49)
• What did the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act do? (51-52)
• What were the unintended consequences of the law? (53)
• What does the book say studies have shown about the link between immigration and crime? (54)
• What caused the huge rise in illegal immigration from Mexico? (56)
• What attitudes changed and what laws were enacted because of the recession of the 1980s? (62)
• What did George W. Bush do? (63)

For Wednesday's class, please read Part II, Chapter 4 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction.

• What roles did mass literacy, cheap mass-produced publications, and state postal systems play in 19th and early 20th immigration? What plays those roles now? (66)
• What traits to immigrants have that lend themselves to economic and social integration and why do they have these traits? (67 and 85)
• How many people resided outside their birth countries in 2005? What percentage of the world's population is that? (68)
• Were, besides the United States, are people migrating to, and why? (69)
• What was the historical purpose of international migration between 1820 and 1924? (73)
• Why did peasants and traditional craftsmen end up living the proletarian life of wage earners in the slums of industrial cities? (75-79)
• In the 19th century, what drew immigrants to the United States? (80)
• What altered the character of immigrants after 1890? (81)
• How did Europeans who re-emigrated influence the immigration restriction debate? (83)
• What immigration was happening on the Pacific Coast at this time? (84)
• Is mass immigration chaotic or routine and predictable? (84)

Also for Wednesday's class, please review the Macalester Today article and the U.S. Census website, and have two relevant ideas/questions/approaches ready in writing for our final project (see the previous blog post for links).

For next Monday's class, please read Chapter 5 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction.

• What made the third massive wave of immigration to the United States possible? (86)
• List the three factors that have made the United States so attractive. (87)
• Describe the nationalization of immigration. (88-89)
• What is notable able Asian (90) and Hispanic populations (91)?
• What did the 1965 immigration law give high priority to in granting visas? (92)
• How does Mira Flores in the Dominican Republic relate to the Boston area? (92-93)
• How are most of today's immigrants different from those of the past? (93)
• If the popular image of immigrants is blue collar workers, what is the reality by numbers? (94)
• What are problems for those not in the country legally? (96)
• Why are women predominate in modern migration streams? (97) And how have gender roles changed as a consequence? (98-99)
• What has the Philippines done to encourage emigration? (98)
• Why do people immigrate only to take jobs for which they are over qualified (i.e. downward mobility)? (99)

Finally, A Very Short Introduction & Census Project

Census Project
We will have a collaborative project in lieu of a final exam that will explore (a) the background history, (b) issues related to the current (2020) census, and (c) our future ideal census. In addition to the readings listed below, please have a look at the US Census website and the Macalester Today article before class on Wednesday.

For Wednesday's class, please read the Introduction and Chapter 1 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction, and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• What binds the American people together if not a common genealogy? (1)
• What are the three great waves of immigration that reconfigured the population? (2)
• For what three reasons may things be different for recent immigrants? (3)
• What do "nativists" and "pluralists" argue about? (4)
• What is the question ultimately? (5) And what is the answer many cannot accept? (6)
• What are the three parts of the book? (12)
• Define "nativism" (15); are there legitimate reasons for restricting immigration? (16)
• What was the principal rationale for a liberal immigration policy for first 150 years of European presence in North America? (18)
• What are the provisions of the Naturalization Law of 1795 and the 14th Amendment? (19)
• What gave rise to reactive nativist policies in the mid-1800s?
• Why 21 year for naturalization? (22)
• Who was barred from entry by legislation passed between 1864 and 1917? (23)

For Friday's class, please read Chapter 2 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction, and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• What makes it clear that in post-Gold Rush California, arguments against immigration were racist? (27)
• Which Chinese were barred from immigration by the Chinese Exclusion Act and which were not? (28)
• How did Angel Island differ from Ellis Island? (29)
• What did the 1891 Immigration Act do, and what inspired it? (30)
• Why were Japanese immigrants seen as a threat? What action was taken in 1913? (31)
• Who was White? (32)
• What is the principle of derivative citizenship? (34)
• What was different about immigrants after the 1890s? (35-36)
• What were the three main sources calling for greater immigration restriction after 1890? (37-38)
• What did Eugenicists advocate? (39)
• What were the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 based on? (42-43)
• What were other countries doing? (44)

Chapter Seventeen Reading Questions

For Monday's class, please read Chapter 17 through page 422 and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• What has changed and what has stayed the same in American immigration since 1986?
• In the 2000 census, what percentage of the population was foreign born? How does that compare to the historical numbers? (Hint: check the tables in this chapter and in chapter 6.)
• According to the 2000 census, the largest numbers of immigrants came from what regions of the world? Where did most settle? What were their education achievements and income?
• Why is the data so misleading when the census data on immigrants is lumped together?
• What does Daniels say the responsible historian must try to do?
• Who are "nonimmigrant" immigrants?
• Who do experts think comprise the major portion of the illegal immigrants?
• What is the longstanding discrimination against Mexican as opposed to Canadian border crossers?
• Why are the government's estimates of the number of illegal immigrants so unreliable?
• If we accept the government's numbers, what, in Daniel's opinion, are the vast majority of the 1.8% of the U.S. population that is undocumented?

For Wednesday's class, please read Chapter Seventeen from page 422 to 451, and prepare written answers to the questions below.

This is the last of the Daniels book, and it is interesting to see what was going on just fifteen years ago, and what he predicted for the future. Was he right? After this we will focus on current issues and make our own predictions about the future of immigration.

• Why was there so much anti-immigrant rhetoric in the IRCA and the sixteen statutes affecting immigration passed during the 1990s? Were they really getting "tough"?
• Did Presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton reduce immigration?
• What replaced the concern about communists?
• Why was the money thrown at the INS during the 1990s largely wasted?
• What has been the corollary of increased border security?
• Do people caught at the border usually get deported?
• What is the INS record on prisoners?
• Why did naturalization increase so much in the 1990s? How much did it cost?
• What did the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform report (aka the Jordan report) not point out as the chief culprit in the illegal immigration dilemma?
• Who supported California Proposition 187? Was it effective? Why was George W. Bush (then the governor of Texas) against it?
• Layout the problems with the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the 1998 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
• What did Pope John Paul II say about immigration?
• How have Germany and Japan dealt with immigration in the past? What do those countries and many other developed countries have to worry about for the future of their economies?
• Why did organized labor completely reverse its policies on immigration?

Ancestry Project Due & Chapter Sixteen Reading Questions

Ancestry projects (paper and supporting documents) are due in class on Friday. 

Reminder: From the information you have mined from the Ancestry.com database about an immigrant or immigrant family, you will write a report on what you have found and how it compares to what you have learned from the textbook. The report should be roughly 2,000 words and should include full citations of the records you use from the databases (census, passenger list, death index, etc.). You must attach a properly formatted list of your sources as well as copies of the documents.
Students will share their research findings informally in class.

For Wednesday's class, please read Chapter Sixteen, and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• Why was their a resurgence of Nativism in the late 1970's? Why was "the image of gaining control" so popular?
• What were some recommendations of the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy?
• How did the nativism of the 1980's contrast with the nativism of the 1920's?
• What four major provision did the Immigration Reform Act of 1986 contain?
• How many illegal immigrants took advantage of the amnesty program, and who were they?
• What is the "essential hypocrisy" of the law?
• What was the "paradoxical effect" of the law?
• What is "white collar nativism"?
• Who are the exception to the rule that few Western Europeans wish to emigrate?
• Have you seen evidence to support the statement, "Some who celebrate their own immigrant roots the loudest are among those who express fears about present or future immigrant invasions"?

Chapters Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen Reading Questions

Please note the new reading dates below (these may shift):

For Wednesday, 10/23, please read Chapter Thirteen and be prepare written answers to the following questions:

• How did the Cold War effect immigration and immigration policy?
• What was surprising about who was admitted under the Displaced Persons Act of 1948?
• What did President Truman say was the greatest vice of the quota system and what was he specifically referring to?
• While immigration policy was still focused on Europe, who was really immigrating to the U.S. in larger numbers and why?
• What was revolutionary about the Immigration Act of 1965 and how did it fit with the national mood?
• What were the unanticipated results of the 1965 law?
• What is parole authority and how does it relate to the Refugee Act of 1980.
• How does a refugee differ from an asylee?
• How did American attitudes toward refugees change between WWII and 1980?
• What was the Mariel Crisis and how did it compare with Haiti's boat people?
• What's so interesting about the numbers of legal immigrants and the quota limits?

For Friday, 10/25, please read Chapter Fourteen and be prepare written answers to the following questions:

• What three things does Daniels say brought about a change in attitude towards Asian immigrants?
• What characteristics have led to Asian Americans being called the model minority?
• What are ABCs and FOBs and who are the "silent" Chinese of San Francisco?
• What are the three distinct increments of Filipino immigration?
• What profession niche do recent Filipino immigrants dominate and why?
• Who were the Koreans who came before the 1965 immigration act?
• What do Indian and Korean immigrants have in common?
• How and why do Vietnamese immigrants differ from other recent Asian immigrants?
• What was the total number of Vietnamese War refugees and their children, and what nationalities are included?
• Compare the population growth of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans since 1965. What accounts for the differences?

For next Monday's class (10/28), please read Chapter Fifteen and prepare written to answers to the following questions:

• Who are the majority of recent immigrants from Spanish-speaking America and who do their migration patterns most resemble?
• What became the Cuban American population center, what was their socioeconomic background, and what effect have they had on the part of America where they are concentrated?
• How has the Cuban Refugee program effected race relations?
• What percentage of the Dominican population came to the U.S. on tourist visas?
• Why are conditions so bad in Haiti, and why are Haitians not generally given refugee status in the U.S.?
• With the exception of Costa Rica, what kind of shape are the countries of Central America in and why?
• Why did the president of El Salvador ask the U.S. not to deport Salvadorans?
• What are the three classes of Central America refugees?
• What is the sanctuary movement?
• Why did Soviet Jews go to the head of the immigration line? What's the irony in this?

Every Day is a Holiday & Midterm Exam

I hope you all enjoyed the documentary, "Every Day is a Holiday." If you missed it, you can find the link to the video below.

Link to Video

The Midterm Exam will be on Wednesday, 10/16. It will consist of three (3) essay questions that will cover broad themes of immigration and ethnic history. The questions will require you to include evidence from more than one chapter of the textbook. The questions will take 15 minutes to answer on average.

The questions from last year were

1. What are the three myths of American immigration, and what are the real "laws" or tendencies?
2. Outline key immigration legislation up to World War II, and explain the what, when, and why of it.
3. What factors contribute to the cultural persistence of an ethnic group, and what factors lead to loss of cultural identity/assimilation? (give examples)

We can use these questions or create new ones on Monday when we review.

Ancestry Project documents are due in class on Monday, 10/21.

Happy Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day. Here's the article we talked about in class.