Immigration to the United States from 1870 to 1920 (2004) – Essay by G. Stolyarov II – The Rational Argumentator

In New York City in 1910, for example, three-fourths of the population consisted either of immigrants or children of immigrants.

Small business dominance:

During the past two centuries, small businesses comprised over three-fourths of America’s economy. Small businesses were a sector most crucial and unique to America, as, with scant initial capital, any intelligent man with a profitable idea could quickly rise to financial security.

The small-business field was, without exaggeration, dominated by immigrants. In every U.S. census from 1880 onward, immigrants accounted for a greater percentage of small business owners than natives. These businesses greatly expanded the country’s productivity and job openings, creating jobs for immigrants and natives alike.

Echoes of today but with the (now deemed harmless) Chinese:

But on the Pacific coast, Chinese immigrants did not fare so well. Bigoted sentiments and laws that began during the Gold Rush era culminated in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, wherein Chinese immigration was forbidden for ten years. This law would be renewed and rendered permanent in the twentieth century and would last until 1943.

There was even a court case deciding whether children of Chinese immigrants born on American soil would be granted citizenship.

Even echoes of the "scientific racism" which tries to paint the immigrant as inferior:

There was substantial discrimination against the Chinese in terms of wages and employment conditions in the West, but this passage by historian John Higham refers to some of the more brutal attacks on their freedoms.

“No variety of anti-European sentiment has ever approached the violent extremes to which anti-Chinese agitation went in the 1870s and 1880s. Lynching, boycotts, and mass expulsions…harassed the Chinese.” (Higham 1963)

Of course, in order to make these actions seem more tolerable in their eyes, nativists tried to justify them by conceiving of Asian immigrants as inferior beings. They could back down somewhat and grant some degree of equality to foreign whites, but this would enable them to play a powerful race card which contained some vicious stereotypes.

Good stuff Phoxy. You're posting too much shit, I like to enjoy my free time with recreation, not just read studies all day! :p

How am I supposed to keep up with this shit? :p