Who’s Really Stealing Opportunity from Who?

America is a land built on immigrants. It is famously known for being the melting pot of cultures from all over the globe. Walking down a street in New York City, you will see faces of all different shapes, sizes, and colors. However, starting from the late 1800’s we see a huge shift in immigration policy and attitude. Americans went from wanting an open immigration policy to condemning the acceptance of new immigrants into the country. A huge factor in this new attitude was due to the fact that natives felt like immigrants were stealing their jobs. With the large influx of immigrants willing to take up any job for any pay, Americans felt threatened as they became easily replaceable. Over time, due to social norms and assimilation attempts, this narrative has changed. However, despite these changes, there are still unresolved issues that have caused certain implications to occur. Three groups of particular interest are the Chinese, Irish, and Mexicans as the three immigrant groups had completely different narratives, despite sharing the same immigrant stigma because of differences in race, gender, language, ethnicity, and immigration history.

The Chinese began their experience in America looking for work and a better life. American employers were desperately seeking immigrants for work because during this time, railroads were beginning to be built. Being poor and desperate, the Chinese immigrants took any job they could. Employers realized, “’that the Chinese are such excellent workers that bosses will have no other if they can get them…” (Peck 1988). The rise in excellent workers for lower wages threatened Americans as unfair performance demands became expected of Chinese workers, and Americans began to fear losing their positions (Leong and Tang 2016). This fear caused Chinese workers to be discriminated against and the stigma of them “stealing jobs” to arise.

The beginning of Mexican immigration occurred in the 1900s due to the Revolution in Mexico. With such horrific conditions occurring in their homeland, many of these immigrants were willing to take any job for any pay, making it easy for employers to take advantage of them, especially those who were undocumented. Mexicans were often lauded by employers for their work ethic and their willingness to take jobs most Americans would not (Arnold 2007).  Despite not wanting to fill the jobs the Mexicans were taking, the Americans still felt threatened. From these factors, Americans believed Mexicans were stealing their jobs. Due to religious persecution and the potato blight, a large influx of Irish immigrants came about in 1845. With such a large job-seeking population moving in, American workers became alarmed with Irish immigration and feared that “cheap Irish labor” would put them out of work (Peck 1988). Due to discrimination, the only jobs available to them were the jobs that no one wanted such as, coal mining, railroad building, and canal building. On top of being extremely low paying, these jobs were dangerous and often lead to work injuries and disease. The anti-Irish job discrimination became so prominent around the 1860s that American business owners would post on their windows, “NINA” signs which meant “No Irish Need Apply” (Jenson 2002). These signs were even mentioned in job ads posted in the New York Times, which show how strongly Americans wanted to deter the Irish from working as depicted by Figure 1. During this time, the Irish were not only discriminated against but were deprived of jobs because of the “job-stealing” stigma they were associated with.

Over time, key changes have occurred that have had positive and negative implications, as well as, a major influence on people’s perception of immigrants. The changes that have occurred focus on the Irish and the Chinese in terms of social norms, wealth, and education. For the Irish, they were able to overcome prejudice and take their place in the mainstream of American life (Peck 1988). They were no longer considered “job stealers”. The change occurred as a result of their language skills and political and religious power (Talty 2006). Advantages that the Irish had was their knowledge of English and their European background. The Irish were able to use their language skill to climb occupational and social ladders through politically appointed positions such as policemen, firemen, and teachers (“Planning” 2003). In these positions, the Irish earned respect and better wages. In addition, being white, Europeans helped the Irish assimilate faster, as they did not have to go through the same racial discrimination that Hispanic, Asian or any non-European immigrants had to endure. Their white skin helped them to identify better with the Americans in power which were citizens of white, European descent. Change also occurred through strong family connections and faith. The Irish overcame discrimination and prejudice through their close-knit communities and families that was held together by the Irish’s strong Catholic faith. The Irish took advantage of the American Catholic Churches to create a parochial school system for their children (Rapple 1995). With education, the later generations of Irish were able to further excel in social class and wealth. All in all, the Irish fought hard to go from “aliens who steal American jobs” to American citizens who contributed to the growth of America.

The Chinese immigrants were able to earn tolerance from Americans using settlement patterns, education, work-ethic, career success, strict parenting, and language acquisition. The passage of Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was passed which gave immigration rights to students, professors, and other academically strong foreigners, causing the Chinese immigrants in the United States to be highly educated (Bai 2015). Due to the education levels of the new waves of incoming Chinese immigrants, many of them were tolerated in predominantly white neighborhood and allowed to live in these communities. This allowed their children to go to quality schools as education in the United States offered opportunity to all, regardless of immigration status, ethnicity, and class (Bar 2015). Education often led to high-level career options which lead to economic success. The success of Chinese immigrant children is linked to the strict parenting practices of many Asian cultures that call for near perfection in any activity done at school. Lastly, language helped the Chinese because knowing English enabled communication with Americans and the learning of American culture. Learning English is also important because Americans believe that speaking the language is a key component of national identity (Schwab 2013). In total, the Chinese immigrants were able to earn tolerance by the Americans, however, the Chinese were not and still aren’t accepted as Americans due to certain factors.

Despite the progress the Chinese have made, they still haven’t reached a point of assimilation anywhere near that of the Irish and this is due to physical appearance and cultural background. A reason for the Chinese’s difficulty in assimilation relates to the idea of “normalcy” presented by Lennard Davis in his piece, “Constructing Normalcy”.  In Lennard’s piece, he talks about how societies create a “norm” that sets certain standards; those who deviate from the norm are isolated, while those who come close to achieving the norm are able to fit into society (Davis 1995). In this case, the Americans may have created a stigma against immigrants because they did not fit their idea of “normal”. The “American Norm” can be described as someone who is white, speaks English and has European features, explaining why the Irish had the easiest time of the three groups. The Chinese, on the other hand, do not have the whiteness or features of typical European like the Irish and those who are considered “American” do. In addition, the Chinese accents made it difficult for their English to be considered legitimate. The Irish avoided this issue as they worked extremely hard towards accent eradication from prior history with the English power dominance when England took over Ireland which brings up the next point. The Chinese lacked assimilation experience. The Irish, who had been previously taken over by the English dealt with the same discriminatory conditions in Ireland as they did in America. This explains why they were not only able to organize and advocate for their rights so quickly, but also why they had already gone through some initial changes towards assimilation. The Chinese on the hand had no idea what to expect coming into America, nor did they have the language skills or “American etiquette” to communicate or organize and fight for their rights like the Irish. Due to these setbacks and the American “norm”, the Chinese have been and continue to be on a rollercoaster ride of stigmas. Even today in present times, despite movements towards racial equality, the Chinese stigma that they steal jobs has reemerged. A prominent depiction of this reemergence lies in the doubt “Americans” have in Chinese-Americans really being American despite them having generations of family be born in the U.S. and little to no ties to Chinese culture. Another example is presented in President Donald Trump’s tweet responding to the implications of China would have if they chose not to accept his economic deal. The tweet was posted on December 4, 2018, and read, “I am a Tariff Man. When people or countries come in to raid the great wealth of our Nation, I want them to pay for the privilege of doing so. It will always be the best way to max out our economic power. We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN.” This tweet implies that the Chinese are taking wealth away from America and the only way that Trump would allow this to happen is if the nation is “compensated” for this “raiding of wealth”. Due to the Chinese appearance, they are always set apart and treated like foreign aliens.

Despite progress, change and evolution of the narrative of immigrants stealing jobs, some aspects of the narrative lay completely unresolved. The most prominent and alarming is the fact that Mexicans are still believed to be stealing American jobs despite efforts to assimilate. The reason why the Mexican narrative has stayed stagnant is due to their physical appearance, stereotypes associated with Mexicans and the belief that most Mexicans are undocumented. Just as the Chinese had a setback in assimilation due to the fact that their physical appearance deviated from the “American” norm, the same is happening for the Mexicans. Their lack of white skin and European features makes it easy for Americans to single them out and discriminate against them.  As for stereotypes, they alienate and cause further discrimination. The stereotypes include that Mexicans are lazy, they are mostly violent criminals, and that they are a drain on the U.S. economy (Stroud 2017). Proof of how these stereotypes are invalid lies in the fact that many American employers see Mexicans as ideal workers who will provide cheap labor, do jobs no one else will, and work harder than most Americans (Arnold 2007). These false stereotypes cause negative opinions that work only to justify the stigma that Mexicans stealing jobs. In addition, the stigma that most Mexican immigrants are undocumented also provides justification; people who are taking away jobs from the labor market who aren’t even supposed to be in the country are stealing as they are taking something away that they shouldn’t even have access to. These factors have stunted the progression of the Mexican narrative of stealing jobs from Americans.

These restrictions on the progression of the Mexican narrative have caused implications. The most prominent is on American opinion on immigration as it has become an issue in politics and in recent elections. Many Americans feel that immigration restrictions should be tightened, restricted further, and there should be an increase in immigration policies. These opinions can be seen in the plans of the current president Donald Trump. Trump’s immigration plan includes building a wall across the southern border between the United States and Mexico, fully enforcing current immigration laws and eliminating the illegal aliens from the country. The plans and actions already taken are causing many Mexican and other immigrant groups’ families to be ripped apart. Earlier in his presidency, Trump released the “zero tolerance” policy that separated children from their parents, relatives, and others who accompanied them in crossing the border. The policy involves prosecuting all adults who were detained at the U.S.–Mexico border, sending the parents to federal jails, and placing children and infants under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Horwitz et al. 2018). This is a serious implication as America is a country built on immigrants and instead of moving towards the acceptance of this idea and the immigrants that come accompany it, America is continuing to stay in its old ways of systematic discrimination and alienation of immigrants, especially those from Mexico. In a poem written by Jimmy Santiago Baca, an American of Mexican descent, Baca describes the hardships and reality of being labeled as a “job robber” as a Mexican in America. In his poem, he writes, “The children are dead already. We are killing them, that is what America should be saying; on TV, in the streets, in offices, should be saying, ‘We aren’t giving the children a chance to live.’ Mexicans are taking our jobs, they say instead. What they really say is, let them die, and the children too.” This alludes to the fact that there are bigger issues in America such as poverty, monopolization by big corporations, and uneven distribution of wealth, but the only thing America is worried about is “Mexicans are taking our jobs.” It shows how Americans are so stuck in this narrative that they willing to ignore other issues that have far more importance and relevance.

As a concluding thought, it can be said that the current narrative in regard to the Irish, Chinese and Mexican, stealing jobs from Americans is that there is no longer a belief that Irish immigrants steal jobs, but instead that they are a part of American society as over time they figured out ways to assimilate into the culture due to prior experience with the English and the advantage of fitting the “norm” of what is considered “American”.  As for the Chinese and Mexicans, the belief still lives that they are stealing jobs due to differences in their appearance, negative stereotypes, and stigmas regarding immigration status. However, it can be said that the Chinese have made more progress than the Mexicans through their push for education and eradication of cultural ties because, despite the discrimination they face, they are tolerated by Americans. The unsolved issue regarding the stagnant narrative of Mexicans cause implications but the main one lies in unnecessary increases in immigration restrictions and border policies, that are tearing families apart and preventing the very foundation of America from entering the country. From these three vastly different narratives, it can be said that the Irish had the easiest time assimilating and changing their narrative. It can be said that their ease in transitioning is mainly due to their white European appearance and background as they helped then fit the American “norm” and prepare for assimilation. Overall, the distinctness of these three narratives that all shared the same master narrative reveals a lot about the social structure, norms, and culture in America. It really makes you question, if the movement towards eliminating white supremacy in America has made any progress and if it can even be eliminated in the first place.

 

Works Cited

 

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