Economic Crisis and Xenophobia

The great waves of immigration and revive generate xenophobic sentiments of many citizens and politicians. Feelings that are translated into policies and anti-immigrant laws.

Although some think that these attitudes and behaviors are new and exclusively aimed at Latin Americans, the same thing happened against the Chinese after 1880 and against the Europeans in the early last century. Like today, the economic crisis then exacerbated xenophobia.

Since 1850, tens of thousands of Chinese came to California to work in gold mines and the transcontinental railroad. They could choose to become permanent residents but not citizens. However, when the economic situation began to deteriorate after the Civil War, unemployment increased dramatically and many began to blame the Chinese, whom they saw as competition 'unfair' because they accept work for less. Then, groups were formed anti-Chinese and local laws were issued expressing this xenophobia. In 1871, twenty Chinese were lynched in Los ANGELES. In 1877, a mob attacked three days huge Chinatown in San Francisco. In 1882, Congress issued the Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibited the arrival of Chinese workers.

Since the 1880s, the economic conditions of countries in Eastern Europe and South forced many residents to migrate to the United States. In the first decade of the century, reached millions of Italians, Russians, Poles and Greeks, among others.

The Italians were discriminated against for their religion, poor living conditions on arrival in the country, and were stigmatized as criminals. They were also subject to the policies of assimilation to become "one hundred percent American." Although the Italians were part of the U.S. Army during the First World War, were affected by the imposition of immigration quotas by nativists to promote exclusive immigration from Britain and northern Europe. In 1917 the government banned the entry of the illiterate. Approved quotas limited the number of Italians in 1600 only three per year.

In 1847 the U.S. had about 50 thousand Jews from Germany, driven by poor economic conditions in that country. In the 1930's, many came to escape religious persecution of ethnic and Nazi Germany. However, poverty and discrimination also affected them on U.S. soil. They were seen as another threat in the labor market, especially in times of economic crisis. The rich Jews were also victims of discrimination. They were accused and persecuted by "communists?. With the new quotas and laws, the number of Jewish immigrants was reduced by eighty percent in just three years.

They also reached hundreds of thousands of Irish to America between 1850 and 1890 British laws and taxes, for the plague that affected the cultivation of potatoes and the resulting famine. In five years, starved a million people in Ireland.

However, the Irish Catholics and were victims of religious discrimination in America. Nativist politicians said that the Irish immigration ruin the "purity? population and that their loyalty to the Pope of Rome was a danger to the nation. These biases explain the anti-immigration laws passed in the 1920's.

Between 1900 and 1920 entered the U.S. about fourteen million foreigners, mostly Europeans. Is that a sign that American society had been open to immigration? Did the four million Mexicans who have crossed the border in the 1980 and 1990 testify to this "opening? towards immigrants?

In fact, the current sluggish economy means more raids and new laws against those who seek the opportunities that exist in their countries.

Carlos A. Mendoza

ccs@solidarios.org.es