United States Congress Joint Immigration Commission
The United States Immigration Commission was a bipartisan special committee formed in February 1907 by the United States Congress, to study the origins and consequences of recent immigration to the United States. It was a joint committee composed of members of both the House and Senate. It was known as the Dillingham Commission after its chairman, Republican Senator William P. Dillin…
What is the Dillingham Commission report?
Its multi-volume Reports is a treasure trove of information that remains profoundly useful to students of immigration today. The Dillingham Commission, named for Sen. William Paul Dillingham, front row, middle. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
How did the Dillingham Commission end mass immigration?
The commission’s reforms effectively ended mass immigration from 1924 to the passage of Hart-Cellar Act of 1965.” Katherine Benton-Cohen, Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission and Its Legacy (2018), 1.
What is the Dillingham Flaw?
Using oversimplified categorizations and imposing present-day sensibilities—the essence of the Dillingham Flaw—also can occur when individuals engage in demographic projections. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that Hispanics will comprise about 30 percent of the total U.S. population in 2050.
What was the Dillingham Commission report?
Dillingham, the so-called Dillingham Commission produced a voluminous 41-volume study which concluded that southern and eastern European immigrants constituted a threat to the nation's well being. It thus became an important foundation for the immigration restriction acts passed during and after World War I.
What is the Dillingham act?
It is also known as the Dillingham-Hardwick Act. It was intended to correct what President Woodrow Wilson's administration considered to be deficiencies in previous laws, in order to enable the government to deport undesirable aliens, specifically anarchists, communists, labor organizers, and similar activists.
Who wrote the Dillingham Commission?
Katherine Benton-CohenKatherine Benton-Cohen. Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission and Its Legacy. Harvard University Press, 2018. 342 pp.
What was the purpose of the Immigration Act of 1917?
Immigration Act of 1917 Bans Asians, Other Non-White People from Entering U.S. On February 5, 1917, Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act. Intended to prevent “undesirables” from immigrating to the U.S., the act primarily targeted individuals migrating from Asia.
What effect did the Dillingham report have on the American public?
Which effect did the Dillingham report have on the American public? It prepared public opinion to support new laws that would bring about an end to immigration.
What did the Dillingham Immigration Commission do?
The commission's reforms effectively ended mass immigration from 1924 to the passage of Hart-Cellar Act of 1965.” Katherine Benton-Cohen, Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission and Its Legacy (2018), 1.
Why was the Dillingham Commission created what was its goal?
The Dillingham Commission was formed in response to ever increasing political concerns about the effects of immigration in the United States and to report on the social, cultural, physical, economic, and moral welfare of the nation. The detailed 41 volume report by the Dillingham Commission was completed in 1911.
Why was the Dillingham Commission set up?
Dillingham (R-VT), was created in a compromise over whether the Immigration Act of 1907 should incorporate a literacy test included in the Senate bill. A crisis in California over Japanese immigration prompted the creation of a provision in the bill allowing the president to limit Japa- nese migration.
When was the Dillingham Commission?
1907-1910The U.S. Immigration Commission of 1907-1910, also known as the Dillingham Commission, was perhaps the most influential immigration commission.
What three tests did immigrants have to pass?
Immigrants in the early 1900s were examined for physical and mental illness, questioned about their ability to support themselves financially, and challenged on whether they held radical views. As part of the inquisition, the U.S. Public Health Service administered primitive intelligence tests.
What did the Immigration Act of 1921 do?
The Emergency Quota Act of 1921, also known as the Immigration Restriction Act and the Emergency Immigration Act, was the first piece of legislation of its kind. It established a national origins formula that calculated a 3% quota on each nationality entering the United States based on foreign-born population data.
Who did the Immigration Act of 1917 ban?
The 1917 Asian exclusions did not apply to those working in certain professional occupations and their immediate families: "(1) Government officers, (2) ministers or religious teachers, (3) missionaries, (4) lawyers, (5) physicians, (6) chemists, (7) civil engineers, (8) teachers, (9) students, (10) authors, (11) ...
Why was the Dillingham Commission set up?
Dillingham (R-VT), was created in a compromise over whether the Immigration Act of 1907 should incorporate a literacy test included in the Senate bill. A crisis in California over Japanese immigration prompted the creation of a provision in the bill allowing the president to limit Japa- nese migration.
What did the Immigration Act of 1921 do?
The Emergency Quota Act of 1921, also known as the Immigration Restriction Act and the Emergency Immigration Act, was the first piece of legislation of its kind. It established a national origins formula that calculated a 3% quota on each nationality entering the United States based on foreign-born population data.
What did the Immigration Act of 1907 do?
Immigration Act of 1907 allowed the president to make an agreement with Japan to limit the number of Japanese immigrants. The law also barred the feebleminded, those with physical or mental defects, those suffering from tuberculosis, children under 16 without parents, and women entering for "immoral purposes."
What did the American Protective Association stand for?
The American Protective Association (APA) was an American anti-Catholic secret society established in 1887 by Protestants. The organization was the largest anti-Catholic movement in the United States during the later part of the 19th century, showing particular regional strength in the Midwest.
Who was the Dillingham Commission named after?
The Dillingham Commission, named for Sen. William Paul Dillingham, front row, middle. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Most of the work centered on “Immigrants in Industry,” but other topics of inquiry included “Immigrants in Cities,” “Children of Immigrants in Schools,” and a study of changes in immigrant physiology, ...
What year did the Dillingham Commission screen out undesirable immigrants?
In 1911, the Dillingham Commission Set a Half-Century Precedent for Screening Out 'Undesirable' Newcomers. A 1921 political cartoon portrays America’s new immigration quotas, influenced by popular anti-immigrant and nativist sentiment stemming from World War I conflict. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. By Robert F. Zeidel.
What was the Dillingham Commission's most extensive investigation of immigration?
In 1911, the Dillingham Commission produced perhaps the most extensive investigation of immigration in the history ...
What is the literacy test?
The literacy test, a requirement that most adult immigrants be able to read or write, became the preferred restriction. Supporters saw it as the best means of securing the “most desirable” migrants, while critics saw education as the product of opportunity, not character or potential.
Who proposed the literacy test?
This raised the question of which polices would produce the desired effect. The recommended literacy test, argued racial theorist Madison Grant , would exclude low-quality individuals lacking in social, physical, and mental capabilities and who added nothing of value to America’s moral or intellectual character.
Who developed the quota system?
William W. Husband, the Commission’s chief administrator, thereafter developed a quota scheme based on the 1910 census. Admission of immigrants belonging to a particular nationality would be limited to 5 percent of their total as reported in the census.
The past
Applying modern classifications or sensibilities to a time when they did not exist, or, if they did, had a different form or meaning, is one version of the Dillingham Flaw. For example, today's term British refers collectively to the people of the United Kingdom (the English, Welsh, Scots, and Scots-Irish ).
The present
Similar misconceptions can, and often do, occur in one's own time. Working from a false premise about past rapid assimilation and cultural homogeneity, some individuals employ what they believe is an objective comparison with the present scene, which they find troubling in its heterogeneity and supposedly non-assimilating groups.
The future
Using oversimplified categorizations and imposing present-day sensibilities—the essence of the Dillingham Flaw—also can occur when individuals engage in demographic projections. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that Hispanics will comprise about 30 percent of the total U.S. population in 2050.
