Ellis Island was the first immigration quarantaine station to operate in the United States. Being located on the atlantic ocean coast of the United States, Ellis Island was a common and frequent destination for Europeans. In Ellis Island the immigrant demographic ranged from western,eastern, southern, and northern European. Typically, the immigrant who was white, able bodied, and had at least a middle socio-economic class was favored to become American citizen candidates. In Galusca’s scholarly research paper, she explains this by, “Health, economic status, and race were central to anti-immigration discourses that labeled immigration as either “poor” or “good,” with the evident implication that immigrants of poor health, poor economic status, …show more content…
In an era of emerging scientific thought and economic growth, the eugenics movements emphasized on framing disability as a medical issue. In the United States in the early 1900s, disability was also framed disability in politics. At the front of immigration policy, as seen in the rhetoric of the Immigration Act of 1907, disability was a key issue. Disability was seen as an issue that was intertwined with national security in which the government had to provide measures to ensure the “safety” of the citizens. Scientific thought coupled with a resistance toward acceptance of immigrants, used immigrant “studies” to quantify the level of feeble mindedness associated with immigrants of certain races for the use of political campaigns and policies that targeted the exclusion of immigrants who faced intersectionality between race, class, and disability. “(Goddard) His study showed that fifty percent of all immigrants were feeble minded” (Galusca, 156). Goddard’s study would influence society's view to immigrants, ultimately influencing policies that would purposely exclude intersectional immigrants that would cause “public charge” since they did not have any social or economic …show more content…
As put by Baynton, “The laws forbidding entry of feeble minded were motivated in part by the desire to limit immigration from inferior nations, and conversely, it was assumed that the 1924 act would reduce the number of feeble minded immigrants.” (Baynton, 48). Disability was clearly seen as a flaw and the government politicised this issue as one that can be resolved by the implementation of laws such as immigration restriction and quotas. As analyzed by Dolmage, presidential candidate Harding in the 1912 election, framed his campaign around immigration restriction relying on the same rhetoric that excluded intersectional immigrants from American society that appealed to American citizens. (Dolmage, 51). Disability was seen as an economic and social burden in this American society, turning the issue of national safety to a justified political movement rooted in eugenics that completely excluded and pathologized intersectional immigrants from American