With a growing number of immigrants in the first half of the 19th century, mostly from Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia, and China, many local Americans started supporting the nativism views. The latter is characterized by the opposition to immigration and the desire to preserve the local culture and traditions which newcomers threaten. Consequently, such sentiments had significantly shaped the country’s political agenda for several decades until the public interest was not attracted to the issue of slavery and greatly impacted the lives of the immigrants.
There are generally three major reasons that caused a spread of nativism in the country during that period, namely higher competition on a job market, increased rates of poverty and criminality, and religious xenophobia. As for the former, the immigrants were ready to work harder than the locals and for less money, which greatly influenced the average wage rate. Such trends existed both in the labor market that required low-skilled labor – which was mostly provided by the Chinese and Irish – and the one that required skilled employees – prevalently Germans. Also, poor immigrant neighborhoods were the places where criminality and prostitution thrived, which further increased anti-immigrant sentiments. Finally, most of the newcomers from Ireland and more than one-third of foreigners from Germany were Catholics – the religious tradition that was harshly opposed by many Protestants.
As a result of growing nativism, the immigrant communities had to suffer from substantial political restrictions, psychological pressure, and even physical aggression. For instance, in 1798, John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts bill, which considerably reduced the opportunities to receive citizenship for the newcomers. Also, due to growing labor competition, Irish workers were excluded from the right to work in certain industries (Global Boston, n.d.). Finally, there were several cases when local Protestants destroyed or burned the Catholic churches.
Without a doubt, such an attitude from nativists led to the formation of certain opposition both from the newcomers as well as other Americans. Mostly, immigrants intended to show their contribution to American society in order to be accepted. For example, one of the arguments that Irish people could make in their favor is that their ancestors or they personally served in the American army and participated in a number of military conflicts. Another type of opposition existed in the political sphere where discriminated groups sought to promote their own candidates and, thus, fight back their rights.
References
Global Boston. (n.d.). Nativism, racism, and immigration restriction. Web.