Immigration History

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

A Grateful Immigrant Speaks (’47 Magazine, 1947)

An article by Atomic Age immigrant Juanita Wegner testifying as to her undying gratitude that she should be permitted to live in a nation with so many freedoms. Having spent much of her life on the run from the Fascists of Austria, Italy and Argentina, Wegner stated:

For all my life I’ve wanted to be an American. I’ve dreamed about it, studied, worked for it…I’ve been an American for only a few days. But if I could have one wish it would be to go up to everybody I meet and say: ‘Aren’t we lucky to have this chance! Let’s never forget it.’

A Grateful Immigrant Speaks (’47 Magazine, 1947) Read More »

Free Enterprise And The Assimilation of Immigrants (Readers Digest, 1923)

The testimony given in this column from the early Twenties is as true today as it was then. It was written by a 1905 immigrant who observed that the first word immigrants learn when arriving in America is BUY. When presented at every corner with products they’d never seen before in tandem with the smiling and encouraging face of the sales staff, the immigrant can’t help but feel an inner drive to join the American society:

And when he succumbs, why wonder that he grows more aggressive, demanding higher wages and striking when the demand is denied?

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Closing The Golden Door (American Legion Weekly, 1922)

If you’ve been in search of an historical article that clearly indicated that Americans were irked by white immigrants just as much as they’ve been bugged by non-white immigrants – then search no more. The journalist who penned this 1922 column chides the U.S. Government, and the people who granted them authority, for the difficulties that were placed in the path of all the various poor European migrants yearning to breathe free:

Whilst it does seem most expedient to curtail immigration, it ought to be done in a way which would impose least hardship on those who after all have had a supreme belief in America. One of America’s weaknesses lies in red tape, did it need to be said; another lies in a sort of contempt for the poor whites of Europe – the ‘Wops’ and the ‘K*k*s’ and the ‘Dagoes’ and ‘Hunkies’ and the rest. They are unfortunate – after all, that is the chief thing against them.

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Immigration and Labor (The Nation, 1917)

Literacy tests were used to exclude immigrants even during the uncertain period of war with Germany and Austria. Rather than rely on immigrant labor from Italy or Mexico, steps were taken to reduce the number of available foreign workers. So great was the need for labor in agriculture and industry that the daily wage rose quickly in the month following Wilson’s call to arms.

Immigration and Labor (The Nation, 1917) Read More »

1921 Saw Many Single European Women Moving to the U.S. (Literary Digest, 1921)

The death and disfigurement of over four million young men during the course of the First World War (1914 – 1918) created an enormous problem for the women of Europe:

A French statesman recently estimated that in his country there are now 1,000,000 women for whom there are no mates, while similar conditions exist also in England, Italy, Germany and Austria.

This article makes clear that in a quest for husbands, half a million women had arrived in the U.S. following the end of hostilities and it was further believed that by the close of 1921 another half million will have landed.

1921 Saw Many Single European Women Moving to the U.S. (Literary Digest, 1921) Read More »

Getting the Immigrant Vote (Vogue Magazine, 1917)

Upon learning that the Woman Suffrage Amendment passed the New York legislature quite handily, the Suffrage Party lost no time in solidifying their base and quickly set to work locating additional voters for future state elections. They discovered that there were five hundred thousand new voters in New York City alone; two hundred thousand of them were foreign-born women.

This VOGUE article is a fun read for a number of reasons, the first one being that it seems that nothing ever really changes in America and the second reason is because this article was written by a pampered patrician of the first order and when you read between the lines you get the sense that she would rather not breathe the same air as Italian and Jewish Immigrants:

As well-born American women, we can never out-vote the immigrant; we must make her an all-American citizen and voter.

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Illiterate Immigrant Soldiers (Current Opinion, 1920)

So deep were the ranks of khaki-clad immigrants who filled the U.S. military’s regiments and divisions throughout the course the First World War that our British allies would often refer to the U.S. Army as the American Foreign Legion; yet as grateful as the services were to have so many additional strong arms to deploy during a time of national emergency, it was not without a cost.

This article is all about how the army addressed the issue regarding the high number of illiterate immigrants who broadened their phalanx spanning the years 1917 through 1920.

Illiterate Immigrant Soldiers (Current Opinion, 1920) Read More »

Junk Science and Immigration Policy (Literary Digest, 1917)

The melting pot in this sense is applied to the race-conscious study of forensic anthropology. This article concerns the work of Dr. Ales Hrdlika (1869-1943) of the National Museum of Washington, and the records that he maintained regarding the physical features of the earliest European settlers compared to the Americans of the early Twentieth Century (read: Jews and Italians), following so many generations of immigration and intermarriage.


What is amusing is the illustration of The American Facestyle=border:none:

…the diagram drawn to scale from Dr. Hrdlicka’s data… shows the mean man of the old American stock. It is pointed out that the most conspicuous peculiarities of the type are the oblong outline of the face and the well-developed forehead.

Junk Science and Immigration Policy (Literary Digest, 1917) Read More »