What would America be like if immigration had stopped in 1890?

[Manolón]

And a very palatable country for Herr Hitler and his allies , probably of the former victims of the US...

[kevxu]

Our entire Mideast foreign policy would probably have been different. Jewish immigration to the U.S. began in earnest in 1880 and ended in the 1920's. (The amount of Jewish immigration prior to this period was not large.) Had immigration been cut off in 1890, there would have been a much smaller Jewish population in the U.S. in the future. Thus, U.S. direct involvement in the founding of Israel and in the affairs of the subsequent Israeli nation would most probably been on a far smaller scale, or even simply perfunctory.

Of course, without the support of a large and secure Jewish U.S. population, and the support of the U.S. government Israel itself might have easily failed.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by Packard fan

....Many illegal aliens would have come here through Canada though; I think mostly English, Scots and Irish since they already looked "American" and spoke English.

In the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century Canada received manyy English, Scots and Irish immigrants, like the U.S. Canada was very anxious to populate the present-day Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. In addition to the above groups, many Slavic groups immigrated and moved into the Canadian plains.

I would think with a closed U.S. as of 1890 that those immigrants who migrated to the U.S. after that date might well have found Canada a very desirable target.

[kevxu]

Originally Posted by majoun

....So, during one of the most racist periods of US history, US society is going to suddenly be more favorable towards blacks?

The racism should be even more amped up in a society that sees white immigrants as undesirable, at least for awhile. It could get even uglier than it actually did. Whether it would turn into Brazil or South Africa is anyone's guess, but it won't be like the US we know....

The Irish would have been the only major Roman Catholic group of immigrants, and, thus, the U.S. Catholic population would have been much smaller. There was already a period of virulent anti-Catholicism in the U.S., and with Catholics remaining a much smaller proportion of the population anti-Catholic sentiment might have been a feature of U.S. life well into the 20th century. And, perhaps, the infamous Democratic machines in major cities would have not arisen, as they counted strongly on the support of RC immigrants.

Jews would also have been a much smaller part of the U.S. population, anti-semitism might well have been long-lived in the U.S.

It is difficult to imagine the history of the Democratic party in the modern U.S. without the support of working class Catholics, and liberal Jews. It might have evolved as a far more conservative, and less pro-labor party.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by kevxu

The Irish would have been the only major Roman Catholic group of immigrants, and, thus, the U.S. Catholic population would have been much smaller. There was already a period of virulent anti-Catholicism in the U.S., and with Catholics remaining a much smaller proportion of the population anti-Catholic sentiment might have been a feature of U.S. life well into the 20th century. And, perhaps, the infamous Democratic machines in major cities would have not arisen, as they counted strongly on the support of RC immigrants.

Jews would also have been a much smaller part of the U.S. population, anti-semitism might well have been long-lived in the U.S.

It is difficult to imagine the history of the Democratic party in the modern U.S. without the support of working class Catholics, and liberal Jews. It might have evolved as a far more conservative, and less pro-labor party.

Definately a decrease in the numbers of Catholics and Jews in America, and less of a labor movement...

BTW, the Irish weren't the only source of Catholicism; many of the German immigrants from the 1840-1880s were Catholic ( those that weren't were largely Lutheran)..

[BIMBAM]

Along with the Irish, massive numbers of Catholics came to the US during the pre-1890's period in the form of French Canadian immigrants. They were the 19th century equivalent of Mexicans, a Catholic people with a very high birth rate who crossed the border on mass to New England in search of opportunity. I believe statistics from the period indicate as much as half of all French Canadians moved south.

[601halfdozen0theother]

Originally Posted by majoun

How would the US have become more white if most of the ancestors of today's white population couldn't have been allowed into the US?

You've said this before, and you are completely keeeerazy! Just take some time and read the 1880 census (an easy site to access it for free is www.familysearch.org). Most Western and Northern European immigrants were already here, some for centuries, by 1890. The majority of Southern and Eastern European immigrants didn't arrive until the 20th century. America has received more population from Western and Northern Europe than Southern and Eastern Europe. Most of today's "white" population are descended from Western Europeans.

Although I really didn't want to make this another boring conversation about "white".