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America First, Immigrants Last: American Xenophobia Then and Now

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2019

Erika Lee
Erika Lee*
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: erikalee@umn.edu
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Abstract

Global mass migration was one of the most defining features of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. But so was intense xenophobia. This article offers a new definition of xenophobia and examines how xenophobia helped to drive some of the most defining features of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, including progressive reform, white supremacy, the expanded capacity and power of the nation-state, and the growth of U.S. global power and influence. It draws a connection to contemporary America, where, under the Trump administration, xenophobia is transforming a wide range of public policies, legitimizing racism and white supremacy, and impacting U.S. foreign relations.

Keywords

migrationGilded AgeProgressive EraxenophobiaracenativismTrumpwhite supremacy
Type
SHGAPE Address
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , January 2020 , pp. 3 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2019

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References

Notes

1 U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “2016 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics” (https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/yearbook/2016/table1, accessed Sept. 19, 2019); “Number of Immigrants and Their Share of the Total U.S. Population, 1850–2017” (chart), Migration Policy Institute (https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/immigrant-population-over-time?width=1000&height=850&iframe=true, accessed Sept. 19, 2019).

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26 Ibid.

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32 The Immigration Act of 1924, 68th Cong., Sess. I, Pub. L., No. 68–139, 43 Stat. 153 (May 26, 1924).

33 1892 Geary Act, 52nd Cong., Sess. I, Chap. 60, Sec. 7, 27 Stat. 25 (May 5, 1892); McCreary Amendment, 53rd Cong., Sess. I, Sec. 2, 28 Stat. 7 (Nov. 3, 1893).

34 The use of “immigrant identification cards” was first initiated under U.S. consular regulations on July 1, 1928. “Alien registration receipt cards,” commonly known as “green cards,” were the product of the Alien Registration Act of 1940, commonly known as the Smith Act (76th Cong., Sess. III., Chap. 439, 54 Stat. 670, June 29, 1940) and the corresponding INS Alien Registration Program.

35 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, 47th Cong., Sess. I, Chap. 126, Sec. 12, 22 Stat. 58 (May 6, 1882).

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