1. Read the following claim:
Challenges such as nativism is one area that affected immigrants and other Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century.
2. Read the following document:
Document F: Excerpt from “Is America Too Hospitable?” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1923
Introduction
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist and an author. In this article, she summarizes her views on immigration. These are based on her belief that there is a wide gap between groups she refers to as “the old native” and “the new foreign.”
Primary Source
“Our swarming immigrants do not wish for a wilderness, nor for enemies. They like an established nation, with free education, free hospitals, free nursing, and more remunerative [high-paying] employment than they can find at home. The amazing thing is the cheerful willingness with which the American people are giving up their country to other people, so rapidly that they are already reduced to a scant half of the population. No one is to blame but ourselves. The noble spirit of our founders, and their complete ignorance of sociology began the trouble. They honestly imagined that one kind of man was as good as another if he had the same opportunity—unless his color was different. Consequently they announced…that this country was ‘an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations.’…Never was a nation founded at so high a level of political idealism. However, there were …things which our generous founders could not foresee…colossal selfishness ready to sacrifice the good of the country to private profit…[W]hen we scour Europe for “cheap labor,” deliberately seeking poor citizens instead of good ones …the resultant flood of low-grade humanity is not immigration at all, but sheer importation…We used fondly to take for granted that the incoming millions loved the country as we did, and felt eager to join it. Some of them do. Enormous numbers do not. It is quite true that we ourselves are a mixed race—as are all races today—and that we were once immigrants. All Americans have come from somewhere else. But all persons who come from somewhere else are not therefore Americans…The American people, as representing a group culture, brought with them from England and Holland and Scandinavia the demand for freedom and the capacity to get it…[They] were able to add to their inherited tendencies a flexible progressiveness, an inventive ingenuity, a patience and broad kindliness of disposition which form a distinct national character. It is precisely this American character which is taken advantage of by the ‘poor and oppressed.’…The present-day idealists have two main grounds of appeal in their defense of unlimited immigration. One is the advantage to us of the special gifts of the imported stock, the other is the advantage to them of the benefits of democracy. This last may be promptly disposed of. Any people on earth who want a democracy and are able to carry it on, can have one at home….But if they do not want a democracy, or are unable to carry it on, they are a heavy drawback to us….”
3.Reply with by citing evidence and placing in quotations (“) exact from the above document that shows What kinds of challenges did immigrants face in America?
One evidence from the document that shows the challenges immigrants faced in America is:
"The amazing thing is the cheerful willingness with which the American people are giving up their country to other people, so rapidly that they are already reduced to a scant half of the population. No one is to blame but ourselves. The noble spirit of our founders, and their complete ignorance of sociology began the trouble. They honestly imagined that one kind of man was as good as another if he had the same opportunity—unless his color was different."
This excerpt indicates that immigrants faced challenges related to the perception of the American people giving up their country to newcomers, and the belief that certain groups of people were not considered as good as others.