In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, immigration was viewed as having a negative impact on America and its traditional ways of doing things. The third political cartoon is a good representation of early immigration views as well as some in today’s society. This brief discussion will cover the ways the cartoon expressed American opposition to immigration in the last two hundreds years in addition to the similarities and differences between the past and present views on immigration. This political cartoon depicts a sea of “riff raff immigration” that is flooding in on Uncle Sam, who is holding the American flag while trying to protect America from the incoming immigrants. On the mountain near where Uncle Sam is standing, it says “Danger to American ideas and institutions,” which is referring to immigrants. In the early stages of immigration, most immigrants were illiterate and brought poverty, disease, and anarchy with them (Tindall) This was the beginning of nativism, xenophobia, and racism. In the article, Immigration and Nativism, it states that “nativism, xenophobia, and racism are hardly uniquely American phenomena” (Schrag). It is clearly expressed that America was not the first to have these issues, nor …show more content…
For example, some Americans still believe that “immigrants take jobs and opportunity away from Americans” (Anchondo). This is not the case, but when asking the average American their views, this is one of the immediate responses they have. Another similarity is how Americans still believe that “immigrants don’t want to learn English or become Americans” (Anchondo). If this were the case, why do “more than seventy-five percent of immigrants speak English well within ten years of arrival?” (Anchondo) Our excuses for the reasons that immigrants are bad are flawed because we do not know the facts or are not willing to learn the truth. We are very set in our