Chungus Maximus
Banned
this immigration act drastically cut immigration. How would it never existing impact the development of America?
Because they had come in, taken their licks, earned the right to be there. How dare these Johny-come-latelies think that they can get in so easily.With those congressional margins so huge, it seems like naturalized immigrants did not even feel terribly insulted by or mobilized against this legislation, nor did employers losing labor sources. Why? The minorities with some something to lose seem to have just rolled over with the herd. I can't think of anybody who opposed the legislation except for Manny Celler from Brooklyn.
Previous Northern European immigrants felt that they were far superior to the latest Southern and Eastern European immigrants.With those congressional margins so huge, it seems like naturalized immigrants did not even feel terribly insulted by or mobilized against this legislation, nor did employers losing labor sources.
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Business owners didn't have to worry about labor trouble, after they had been discredited by links to anarchists and Communists. By 1922, Labor was at 1890s levels. Labor didn't pick up till the Depression, and before that, the business owners thought they had 'won' and didn't need mobs of Scabs to bust Unions anymore. They had been busted.
OTL it was
- Passed the House by 323 to 71
- the Senate by 69-9
I have long since stopped thinking how horrible our ancestors were with these kinds of kick the foreigners out kind of reactions to bad times. Resource hoarding and looking after one's own is a logical response, even if the long term results are bad.
The current theory seems to be that population growth (natural or immigration) grows GDP and by extension standard of living.
This seems counter intuitive because the simple version is to have fewer eating the pie rather than more people growing the pie.
There is a similar point in my own country with the White Australia Policy. It is understandable why they did it, but afterwards standard of living and economic growth went from above the US to below. Now there are other factors at play (end of a mining boom, drought, national union accords) but it is an interesting point of change. Especially when compared to the last 30 years of no recession around the end of a mining boom and drought with the immigration gates held firmly open.
Or one would get a Ku Klux Klan that virtually rules the entire country except a small number of heavily Catholic states like North Dakota and lower New England. Then, there is the question of how such conflict between heavily Catholic “frost belt” states (and perhaps some others like Louisiana and New Mexico) would play out in the long term??You'd get an identical 1925 act.
It’s interesting to note that low levels of immigration seem to have a very strong correlation with advances for blacks. During a previous period of very low immigration analogous to the middle twentieth century, as shown by Mark Thornton in his ‘Slavery, Profitability, and the Market Process’ the free black population grew quite rapidly, but duirng eras of increasing immigration after about 1810 this declined with:1954-1965 advance of federally recognized civil rights – good thing
Maybe this wasn't his rationale but Wilson held high views of European immigrants.What was Wilson’s rationale for vetoing this obviously popular measure in 1917?
It's unfortunate that nobody has accepted the premise, and after me, probably nobody will, but I would say that the US would have many more Jews, Italians, and Slavs going to it. You'd see more prejudice towards them, but in time they'll be integrated. You'd see more neighborhoods based on those cultures and perhaps many more Americans will carry those types of last names. America would have a larger Jewish and orthodox religious demographic. Probably more references to the foods from those places, particularly from Eastern Europe. If the Midwest is seen as Germanic, then the North East is seen as Slavic/Romantic. I think Polish culture would be more prominent in American culture.this immigration act drastically cut immigration. How would it never existing impact the development of America?