Title: Immigration – Challenges For New Americans – Legends of America
Headings: Immigration – Challenges For New Americans
Immigration – Challenges For New Americans
“We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”
— Jimmy Carter
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Content: It also allowed then President John Adams to deport any “alien” considered to be “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.” By 1800, the sentiment behind the acts had diminished but would revive decades later as German and Irish immigrants came to the United States in larger numbers. German and Irish immigrants left their homes for a variety of reasons, ranging from famine to political repression. However, some native-born Americans resented these new arrivals. In 1849, some organized into an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant political group famously called the “Know-Nothings,” which derived its name from the secrecy of its members. Citizen Know Nothing by Sarony & Co., 1854
Know-Nothings believed that native-born Americans were superior to the newly arrived immigrant groups on the basis that Irish and German immigrants tended to be poorer and Catholic, which Know-Nothings took as traits of cultural and economic backwardness. The Irish, in particular, became economic scapegoats during periods of economic uncertainty, a pattern that would repeat itself during subsequent waves of immigration. Resentment toward the Irish began to abate after the Civil War when Irish American communities became more established. In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, land and job shortages, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity.