Nativism (politics)
''For other uses, see
Nativism (disambiguation)In
politics,
Nativism is the fear that certain new immigrants will inject alien political, economic or cultural values and behaviors that threaten the prevailing norms and values. It usually involves restrictions on immigrants and sometimes includes policies that favor the interests of established inhabitants (i.e. "natives") over those of immigrants. The term has most often been used in the United States, but the concept is also relevant in other countries, especially ones which have experienced intensive immigration and associated rapid societal change.
Anti-immigration may be used to describe individuals, groups or movements which oppose significant levels of
immigration into their countries.
Anti-immigrant may refer to those who are opposed to specific
migrant groups, or as a pejorative for those who are anti-immigration. The terms often have negative connotations in a political context, particularly in the
West, where politicians generally avoid giving explicit support to anti-immigration platforms or describing their policies as "anti-immigrant". Nevertheless,
opinion polls demonstrate that many people across the
developed world are uncomfortable with, if not outright opposed to, immigration. Similarly, many other people support immigration.
Anti-immigration sentiments are typically justified with one or more of the following arguments, claiming that immigrants:
*
Language: Isolate themselves in their own communities and refuse to learn the local language.
*
Employment: Gainfully acquire jobs which wouldn't have otherwise been available to native citizens.
*
Nationalism: Damage a sense of community and nationality.
*
Consumption: Increase the consumption of scarce resources.
*
Welfare: Make heavy use of social welfare systems.
*
Overpopulation: May sometimes overpopulate countries
*
Ethnicity: Can swamp a native population and replace its culture with their own.
* In some cases deplete their countries of origin of badly needed skills (known as the "
brain drain").
The claim that immigrants can "swamp" a local population is noted to be related to
birth rate, relative to nationals. Historically this has actually happened, but with immigrants whose societies were more technologically advanced than native populations —
English,
German, and
Irish immigration to
North America,
Han Chinese migration in western China or
Bantu migrations in Africa, etc.
Opponents of
immigration blame it for such problems as
unemployment,
crime, harm to the
environment, and detoriating
public education.
In response, others points out that:
*the "isolation" and "swamping" arguments have
racist undertones as they are typically directed at immigrants from
developing countries. However, those immigrants usually have fewer skills than immigrants from
developed countries.
*
expatriates from
developed countries are just as likely to be isolationist, and refuse or otherwise fail to learn the language of the societies in which they live. In the U.S., there are only very small numbers of current immigrants from developing countries, but a large number from
developed countries.
*the argument that immigrants "steal jobs" always overlooks the fact that the jobs being "taken" are typically menial and/or low paying positions which "natives" generally do not wish to perform, creating a demand for labour which is met by immigrants. However, without a ready supply of low-wage, low-skill labor, those jobs would be done by citizens at a higher rate. Or, inefficient industries would be forced to modernize rather than relying on that low-skilled labor. Some very inefficient industries - such as lettuce production - would be forced to relocate overseas, which may end up being in the best interests of the economy.
*the argument that immigrants are an economic burden is unproven and the reverse appears to be the case: immigration is correlated with an improvement in economic conditions, because immigrants spend money on products and services just like everybody else. Many immigrants also send a large percentage of their pay back to their home countries via
Remittances*with regard to the "heavy use" of benefits and services such as
publicly-funded health care,
welfare and other forms of
social security, immigrants are often ineligible to receive such assistance, or their eligibility is otherwise restricted in some way (eg. they may only become eligible after a lengthy period of time); furthermore, the effect of such restrictions is to reduce the economic contribution immigrants can make. In most U.S. states, public agencies are forbidden by law from inquiring about someone's immigration status. Illegal immigrants are also users of emergency care.
*in countries with a declining, ageing, population, immigrants tend to provide additional young residents who will, effectively, later help to support the ageing native population. Indeed, population projections show that some countries who consider themselves to have a problem with excessive immigration will in fact face severe difficulties in future decades wihout immigration.
Commentators also point out that the problems which are purportedly caused by immigrants equally exist amongst native-born populations as well, and that politicians often use immigration as a convenient
scapegoat to distract the public from real social, political and economic problems.
Threats involving language, jobs, pay-scales, control of the government, control of borders (and fears of invasion), moral values, and loyalties to racial and ethnic groups, are involved in nativism, with the exact ingredients varying widely.
For example, economic competition and national security are currently (2006) at issue in the United States. However, it has been pointed out that the poor people who are most economically hurt by illegal immigrants are not usually those who are complaining about it.
In his book "The Party of Fear" David H. Bennett asserts that nativist movements have occurred in the U.S during periods of major social, economic, or political upheavals. During these difficult times, American nativists blamed the troubles that America was experiencing on recently arrived immigrants or ethnic/religious groups.
While the distinguishing feature of nativism is the opposition between established inhabitants and recently arrived immigrants, the specifics of each situation creates different dynamics.
Often, there are economic tensions caused by the fact that the immigrants are often willing to work harder for less pay, or spend less (saving more and sending money to their home country). Often it is alleged the newcomers form violent gangs that seize control of work, or engage in illegal activities like drugs or prostitution. The allegation dates back to the
Irish canal gangs (1840s), Chinese gangs (tongs) in 1880s, Italian ("
Mafia") (1890- present), and more recently to Russian and Hispanic gangs. The established inhabitants perceive an economic threat caused by lowered wage scales and lower standards of living.
Linguistic, religious, moral, racial/ethnic and cultural differences might be factors. While there was nativist sentiment in the late 19th century against Catholics from Eastern and Southern Europe, much of this sentiment had subsided by the 1950s as these immigrant groups assimilated into American society and culture. The nativism of the 1880s focused on Chinese. In 1890-1920 the focus was on European immigrants.
In some instances, national security concerns can stir up latent nativist tendencies that are not directly associated with economic competition. Examples of this are the sentiment against
German-Americans during both World Wars and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Although the internment of
Japanese-Americans was not directly motivated by economic factors, many Californians took advantage of the situation to profit financially at the expense of the internees.
Despite the national trauma inflicted by the 9/11 attacks, there has been remarkably little nativist sentiment in the US targeted against immigrants from Islamic countries. This can largely be attributed to a vigorous campaign by governmental and civic leaders to discourage a nativist backlash in response to the attacks. In Europe, however, there has been a considerable growth of anti-islamic nativism after the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent attacks in London and Madrid.
Language
Language was a political and an emotional issue as early as the 1750s, when British settlers in Pennsylvania began to fear and resent the fact that a third of their fellow Pennsylvanians were German speakers. Since that time, American nativists have sought to eradicate minority languages and discourage bilingualism wherever it could be found. Complaints about non-English-speakers became all too common in the last quarter of the 19th century, and again during and after World War I, when the fear of immigrants and their languages prompted protective English-only legislation. Many Americans deemed non-Anglophones to be subhuman. In 1904, a railroad president told a Congressional hearing on the mistreatment of immigrant workers, "These workers don't suffer--they don't even speak English."(Shanahan, 1989.) Today, there is still opposition to nonanglophones and bilinguals. The result is the proposed
English Language Amendment (ELA), a Constitutional amendment making English the official language of the United States.
Economics
Another issue concerns
free trade; immigrant rights advocates believe it is hypocritical and inhumane to allow goods and money to freely cross borders yet impose numerous requirements on people to do the same thing. It has been argued that this constitutes a form of
class warfare against workers, who are not free to move with changing economic conditions in the same manner that businesses can move their capital. (See also
capital flight.)
Anti-immigrant rhetoric in the US frequently mentions that foreigners take "American jobs", yet the
US Constitution does not guarantee employment for anyone, and free flow of capital means that business owners have no legal obligation to keep jobs in the country. To this end, many immigration opponents/reductionists offer
protectionist solutions to economic problems, and there was considerable criticism of
NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) among them. Many proponents of these policies do not otherwise tend to support the modern welfare state.
Politicians and commentators have contrasted the
developed world's immigration controls with what they see as uncontrolled movement of people throughout the
Third World. This is inaccurate; many poor countries indeed have numerous restrictions on immigration, and there has been little apparent economic gain from these policies.
In the
United States, anti-immigration views have a long history.
U.S. nativism appeared in the late 1790s in reaction to an influx of political refugees from France and Ireland. After passage of the
Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 it receded.
Nativism first gained a name and affected politics in mid-19th century United States because of the large inflows of immigrants from cultures that were markedly different from the existing Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture. Thus, nativists objected primarily to Roman Catholics (especially
Irish American) because of their loyalty to Rome.
Nativist movements included the
American Party of the mid-
19th Century (formed by members of the
Know-Nothing movement), the Immigration Reduction League of the early
20th Century, and the anti-Asian movements in the West, resulting in the
Chinese Exclusion Act and the so-called "
Gentlemen's Agreement" aimed at the Japanese.
Anti-Catholic nativism in the 19th century
Nativist outbursts occurred in the Northeast from the 1830s to the 1850s, primarily in response to a surge of Irish Catholic immigration. In 1836,
Samuel F. B. Morse ran unsuccessfully for
Mayor of New York on a Nativist ticket, receiving 1,496 votes. In
New York City, an Order of United Americans (OUA) was founded as a nativist fraternity, following the
Philadelphia Nativist Riots of the preceding spring and summer, in December, 1844.
In 1849–50 Charles B. Allen founded a secret nativist society called the
Order of the Star Spangled Banner in
New York City. In order to join the Order, a man had to be twenty-one, a Protestant, a believer in
God, and willing to obey without question the dictates of the order. Members of the Order became known as the
Know-Nothings (a label applied to them because if asked they said they "know nothing about" the secret society).
The Nativists went public in 1854 when they formed the 'American Party', which was anti-
Irish Catholic and campaigned for laws to require longer wait time between immigration and naturalization. (The laws never passed.) It was at this time that the term "nativist" first appears, opponents of Americanists denounced them as "bigoted nativists." Former
President Millard Fillmore ran on the American Party ticket for the Presidency in 1856. The American Party included many ex-Whigs who rejected nativism, and included (in the South) a few Catholics whose families had long lived in America. Conversely, much of the opposition to Catholics came from Protestant Irish and German Lutheran immigrants who can hardly be called "nativists."
This form of
nationalism is often identified with
xenophobia and
anti-Catholic sentiment (anti-Papism). In the 1840s, small scale
riots between Catholics and nativists took place in several American cities.
Nativist sentiment experienced a revival in the 1880s, led by Protestant Irish immigrants hostile to Catholic immigration. The
Orange Order was the center of nativism in Canada from the 1860s to 1950s.
Anti-German nativism
From the 1840s to 1920
German Americans were distrusted because of their separatist social structure, their opposition to prohibition, their attachment to their native tongue over English, and (in World War I), their neutrality toward the war.
Anti-Chinese nativism
In the 1870s
Irish American immigrants attacked Chinese immigrants in the western states, driving them out of smaller towns. Denis Kearney led a mass movement in San Francisco in 1877 that threatened harm to railroad owners if they hired any Chinese.[
1] [
2] The
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first of many nativist acts of Congress to limit the flow of immigrants into the U.S. The Chinese responded with false claims of American birth, enabling thousands to immigrate to California.
[ Erika Lee, At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 (2003) ] Ironically, the exclusion of the Chinese caused the western railroads to begin importing Mexican railroad workers in greater numbers ("
traqueros").
20th-century USA
Fear of low-skilled immigrants flooding the labor market was an issue in the 1920s (focused on immigrants from
Italy and
Poland), and in the 2000s (focused on immigrants from Mexico and Central America).
The second
Ku Klux Klan, which flourished in the U.S. and Canada in the 1920s, used strong nativist rhetoric. In 1928, nativist fears helped defeat Democratic Presidential candidate,
Alfred E. Smith, a devout Catholic.
After the fall of South Vietnam in 1975, the resulting influx of Vietnamese refugees caused some racial tension to flare up as host communities struggled to adapt to the cultural differences between the new arrivals and the existing American culture.
When Fidel Castro opened the doors to Cuban emigration, a number of U.S. communities in the Southeast struggled to accommodate the sudden inflow of Cuban immigrants ("Marielitos"), many of whom were mentally ill or criminal elements.
An
immigration reductionism movement formed in the
1970s and continues to the present day. Prominent members often press for massive, sometimes total, reductions in immigration levels.
However, as most Americans are themselves descended from immigrants, many feel that it is hypocritical to criticize those who enter the country through legal means, and neither of the two major parties has proposed curtailing the number of visas given out annually.
American nativist sentiment experienced a resurgence in the late 20th century, this time directed at
illegal aliens, largely
Mexican resulting in the passage of new penalties against illegal immigration in 1996.
Illegal immigration, principally from across the
U.S.-Mexico border, is the more pressing concern for most immigration reductionists. Authors such as
Samuel Huntington (famous for the "
clash of civilizations" thesis) have also seen recent Hispanic immigration as creating a national identity crises and presenting insurmountable problems for US social institutions. In the May 2005 Spanish edition of
Foreign Affairs magazine, he lists the size, illegality, cultural roots, and poverty of this recent wave of migration as most problematic.
The political effects of anti-immigration/immigration reductionism movements have been embodied in the
US welfare reform bill of 1996 and initiatives such as
Protect Arizona Now in 2004. The
Minuteman Project, launched in 2005 with several hundred volunteers patrolling the Mexican and
Canadian borders to assist authorities in spotting illegal immigrants, have also been influenced by opposition to illegal immigration. Some members also support reductions in legal immigration.
VDARE is an editorial collective website which advocates for reduced immigration, including heightened selectivity in legal immigration into the United States.
American Patrol, an organization run by Glenn Spencer, posts news and media articles about crimes that illegal aliens and their alleged sympathisers have committed.
In the wake of
H.R. 4437 and the
2006 U.S. immigration reform protests, a large segmented of public opinion vented nativist sentiments in claiming that illegal aliens were flooding the U.S., taking advantage of
social welfare programs, and overwhelming state and federal governments. In July 2006 Democrats and Republicans in Colorado agreed on legislation that curtailed state benefits to illegals, penalized employers who hired them, and required citizens to provide proof of citizenship before they could receive benefits--a policy that alarmed relief agencies that dealt with disorganized clients who had no documentation whatever.
Anti-immigrant hate crimes
After the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, an increase in
Islamophobia was perceived by some, directed towards individuals perceived to be either
Arab or otherwise
Muslim. An example of this behavior is the murder of
Balbir Singh Sodhi, a
Sikh Indian living in
Mesa, Arizona who was gunned down by native-born US citizen
Frank Roque in September 2001. Roque had also shot at several other Sikhs (who were unharmed), apparently because he incorrectly associated their
turbans with Islam. The Maricopa County Superior Court sentenced Roque to death in 2003.
Recognizably nativist movements have since arisen among the
Boers of
South Africa, and in the 20th century in France, Germany, Australia and the United Kingdom. In Australia, nativism was manifested in the
White Australia policy. In Germany, nativism has targeted "guest workers", particularly those of Turkish descent. In France and the United Kingdom, the targets of nativism have typically been Indians and those from Islamic countries.
Nativism arose in
Tokugawa-era Japan in response to the strong influence of Chinese culture. This phenomenon was called "kokugaku" (literally, country culture). To this day, the Japanese are often eager to emulate Western ways but resistant to assimilating foreigners into the inner circles of their society.
Nativism is often leveled as a negative charge for the purposes of political rhetoric. As such, it can sometimes be used hypocritically. For instance, while Mexican President Vicente Fox faults the US for not opening its borders, Mexico simultaneously cracks down harshly on "undocumented migrants" who breach her southern borders from other Central American countries. However, there is little public discussion accusing Mexico of being nativist in immigration policies.
Opposition to immigration in Mexico
In the first eight months of 2005 alone, more than 120,000 people from
Central America have been deported to their countries of origin. This is a higher number than the people deported in the same lapse in 2002, when 130,000 people were deported in the entire year [
3] Many women from
Eastern Europe,
Asia,
United States and Central and
South America are also offered jobs at
table dance establishments in large cities throughout the country causing the
National Institute of Migration (INM) in Mexico to raid
strip clubs and deport foreigners who work without the proper documentation [
4]
Mexico has very strict immigration laws pertaining to both illegal and legal immigrants.[
5] The Mexican constitution restricts non-citizens or foreign born persons from participating in politics, holding office, acting as a member of the clergy, or serving on the crews of Mexican-flagged ships or airplanes. Certain legal rights are waived in the case of foreigners, such as the right to a deportation hearing or other legal motions. In cases of flagrante delicto, any person may make a citizen's arrest on the offender and his accomplices, turning them over without delay to the nearest authorities.
The country's instability and endemic
corruption, ranked higher as of
2006 than in several past years, mean that many laws are selectively enforced. The frequent violence between police, military, and
drug gangs along the
U.S. border, sometimes with collaboration between these groups, adds another dimension to problems which fuel mass
emigration. Critics of Mexican social policy also consider severe rural poverty to be caused by international competition with US exports, and another cause of illegal immigration. Many immigration restrictionists in the United States have also accused the Mexican government of
hypocrisy in its immigration policy, noting that the Mexicans are demanding looser immigration laws in the United States while at the same time keeping restrictions on immigration into Mexico itself tight. The country's 1910 constitution guarantees citizens "freedom of movement".
Current anti-immigration views in
Europe seem particularly directed towards the recent influx of
Muslims from
Turkey and
Northern Africa. Prominent European opponents of this migration include
Jörg Haider,
Jean-Marie Le Pen, and
Pim Fortuyn (murdered). Anti-immigration views are held by virtually all
neo-Nazi, and ethnic and
racial separatist movements in Europe and the US, although the vast majority of people with anti-immigration views have no connection to such groups.
Modern contention over ancient ethnic occupation of areas in
Eastern Europe, the
Balkans and the
Caucasus, sometimes based on tenuous linguistic and
place-name hints, is given added urgency by assumptions that an
urrecht (
German term meaning "ancient right") of the earliest local population can justify nativist stances towards more recent arrivals. These issues are rarely assessed in terms of "nativism".
Opposition to immigration in Spain and Portugal
Popular attitudes include such examples as the majority of Spaniards who currently see immigration into their country as excessive (see
article mentioning El Pais survey). Fascist parties, such as Movimiento Social Español, openly campaign using nationalist or anti-immigrant rhetoric. Everyday racial harassment of Africans is sometimes a problem - a notorious incident being the
November 2004 Spain-England football (soccer) friendly. Popular media sometimes portray American
Black culture and
music negatively for humor, though there exists also an active following of such music
in Spain as well.
Portugal was long a dictatorship and had little immigration until a sudden influx in the 1970s, as ex-colonists returned. Today Lisbon has mixed native-born, African, and Middle Eastern neighborhoods. The rural areas have just recently begun to see many new arrivals. The country has right-wing parties that support curbs in immigration quotas. (Any resident of a Portuguese-speaking country is free to live and work in Portugal, and vice-versa.)
Opposition to immigration in France
In
France, the
National Front opposes immigration. Major media, political parties, and a large share of the public see the possibility of anti-immigrant sentiment due to the
2005 civil unrest in France.
Opposition to immigration in Germany
A major anti-immigrant political organization in Germany is the
National Democratic Party. The
Nazi Party is now banned there, but Nazi sympathisers have carried out attacks against immigrants.
Opposition to immigration in the United Kingdom
Anti-immigrant perspectives in the
United Kingdom have to do with the many
South Asians, particularly
Pakistanis and
Indians, who have moved there in recent decades. Current concerns also involve
Africans,
Eastern Europeans,
East Asians,
Middle Easterners, and numerous others have become part of the estimated 4.3 million of the UK's population that is foreign-born (see BBC piece,
"Analysis: Britain's Modern Face"). Like other countries, public attention is on their perceived refusal to assimilate, sheer numbers,
illegal immigration, and
Islamist terrorism. Abuse of
asylum policies is also a frequent discussion topic.
*Bennett, David H.,
The Party of Fear; From Nativist Movements to the New Right in American History (1988)
* Billington, Ray Allen.
The Protestant Crusade, 1800â€" 1860: A Study of the Origins of American Nativism (1938)
* Franchot, Jenny.
Roads to Rome: The Antebellum Protestant Encounter with Catholicism (1994),
*Higham, John,
Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925 (1963).
* Hueston, Robert Francis.
The Catholic Press and Nativism, 1840-1860 (1976)
*Melton, Tracy Matthew,
Hanging Henry Gambrill: The Violent Career of Baltimore's Plug Uglies, 1854-1860 (2005)
* Mclean, Lorna. "'To Become Part of Us': Ethnicity, Race, Literacy and the Canadian Immigration Act of 1919".
Canadian Ethnic Studies 2004 36(2): 1-28. Issn: 0008-3496
*
Dennis Kearney*
Henry A. Rhodes, "Nativist and Racist Movements in the U.S. and their Aftermath"*
Dennis Kearney, President, and H. L. Knight, Secretary, "Appeal from California. The Chinese Invasion. Workingmen's Address," Indianapolis Times, 28 February 1878.*
Immigration to the United States*
Immigration reduction*
Immigration reform*
Producerism*
Anti-Catholicism*
National conservatism*
Ku Klux Klan*
Rivers of Blood speech*
Xenophobia
