Immigration History

Learn about Immigration history with these old magazine articles. Find information on immigration in the 1920s.

Anti-Asian Riots (Harper’s Weekly, 1907)

The cheap yellow and brown men have driven out the Whites and Indians from the salmon fisheries and canneries, the farms and the mines.


– So reported the the Harper’s Weekly correspondent in the attached article that documented the 1907 anti-Asian race riots in Vancouver, British Columbia. Having visited San Francisco some time earlier, the journalist mused that similar mob-violence will result in the American West if the Federal Government does not take steps to soothe the racial tensions in some manner.

Anti-Asian Riots (Harper’s Weekly, 1907) Read More »

The Yellow Peril in Vancouver (Review of Reviews, 1910)

The Canadians of British Columbia were just as uncomfortable with Asian immigration as their American neighbors on the west coast. This article discusses the Canadian Prime Minister, at the time, Sir Wilfred Laurier, and what he planned to do about Asiatic immigration, such as placing a head tax on each Asian who migrated. The growth of the Indian Hindu population along the Canadian West Coast is also mentioned

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Race Riots in Vancouver (Harper’s Weekly, 1907)

A Harper’s Weekly correspondent filed the attached report that served as an eye-witness account of the 1907 anti-Asian riots that flared up in the Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia. The riot triggered countless acts of violence and arson targeting the Asian communities of that western city. The widespread Asian migration to the Dominion of Canada was a result of the diplomatic agreements between Japan and Great Britain (Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902–1922) resulting in a tremendous amount of racist tension among Canadian Whites.


Today, the surname Li is the most common last name in Canada.


Click here to read about the Japanese-American internment camps of W.W. II.

Race Riots in Vancouver (Harper’s Weekly, 1907) Read More »

The Anti-Asian Immigration Laws of 1924 (The Nation, 1927)

The Immigration Act of 1924 denied admission to the United States to wives of American citizens if these wives are of a race ineligible for citizenship. Hindus, Chinese and Japanese are ineligible. Hence the curious and cruel fact that while an Oriental merchant with his wife may enter America, the wedded wife of an American-born citizen is held at the coast for deportation.

The Anti-Asian Immigration Laws of 1924 (The Nation, 1927) Read More »

Deported From Ellis Island (Literary Digest, 1937)

Here is a 1937 article concerning those stout souls who thought they’d make their way into the United States illegally – but made it no further than Ellis Island:

Aliens who have sneaked into the country are, by the fact of their entry, lawbreakers… Out of gratitude to a country which has welcomed them, is it too much to ask the properly qualified alien to register, in order that his fraudulent countrymen me be detected and sent home?

Deported From Ellis Island (Literary Digest, 1937) Read More »

An Alien Anti-Dumping Bill (Literary Digest, 1921)

A 3 percent remedy’ for our immigration ills, real or fancied, will restrict the admission of aliens from May of this year to June, 1922, to 3 percent of the total of each nationality in this country when the Federal census was taken in 1910. As passed by the house, and expected to pass the Senate, the new measure, except for the time limit, is identical with the Johnson Bill passed in the last session of Congress and killed by pocket-veto of President Wilson.

But the Johnson Bill does not set up a permanent restrictive policy; it is intended merely to protect this country for the next fourteen months from a horde of Europe’s most objectionable classes.

An Alien Anti-Dumping Bill (Literary Digest, 1921) Read More »

For Want of Assimilation (Reader’s Digest, 1923)

If Facebook existed in 1923, their über censor meisters would see to it that the uncharitable opinions of U.S. Representative French Strother (1868 – 1930) would never appear upon their fair pages. Strother’s thoughts on the failure of the immigration system were shared by many of his countrymen and in this column he lists many examples illustrating the collapse of America’s ability to assimilate the new-comers:

In fairness to the aliens, be it said that some of them have brought rich gifts to our civilization. But what shall profit a nation if it gain the whole world, and lose it’s own soul?

For Want of Assimilation (Reader’s Digest, 1923) Read More »

Quotas in 1921 Immigration (The Independent, 1921)

One hundred years ago the U.S. Government processed immigrants through a quota system – entry would be granted if the applicants arrived before the quota amount arriving from their country had not been reached – and if they passed their physical examination. The immigration agents did not accept one nationality for citizenship officially while permitting hundreds of thousands from this same country to reside illegally, as is the practice today. The attached column pertains to how unfair the quota system was and how it tended to break-up families. President Harding’s response to this issue is quoted.

…many would-be immigrants arriving at the port of New York had been refused admission and been sent home again, because they had happened to arrive a few hours after their country’s legal quota for the month…

Quotas in 1921 Immigration (The Independent, 1921) Read More »