Ethnic Groups and Immigration Policies

Birth rates, death rates and migrations have redistributed groups of our population in the past and these forces are at work among our ethnic stocks. Among Negroes death rates are about one and a half times as high as among whites. Death rates are also higher for the foreign born than for native born whites, although the differences are slight for those in the same income groups. Birth rates are somewhat higher among Negroes and foreign born whites than among native whites. The net result is that Negroes constitute a smaller proportion of the population than in earlier years and if present policies of restrictive immigration continue in force, the foreign born will be a declining element.

The present immigration policy of the United States not only regulates the quantity of the immigrant population but is selective as to quality. Designed to favor certain groups of nationalities, it encourages the Nordic racial types of northwestern Europe and restricts the Mediterranean and Alpine types of southern and southeastern Europe. This policy selects a physical type which closely resembles the prevailing stock in our country, for about 85 percent of the whites in the United States in 1920 were from strains originating in northwestern Europe where Nordics predominate. The immigration policy is inconsistent as applied to the non-white acres. The entrance of Chinese and Japanese is limited, but not that of the Filipinos or the Mexicans.

The question of racial selection is confused by doubt as to which of the so-called racial traits are inherited. Crime and sickness, for instance, are frequently a matter of environment. Many personality traits peculiar to certain peoples are also acquired in the early home environment. The assimilation of immigrants may result in the loss of distinguishing personality traits, unless there is some marked physical characteristic to brand the individual and so to encourage prejudice and psychological isolation. The persistence of these distinguishing traits is encouraged by social segregation, separate languages, family life, and religions, whereas the schools tend to modify them. They persist more stubbornly among non-white immigrants than among the various racial types of European origin. It may be questioned if the present basis of selection according to racial types is a more desirable policy than selection within a race according to the merits and defects of individuals. However, to a certain extent our immigration laws take into account individual qualifications, for example by excluding aliens with records of crime or insanity.

Source: Recent Social Trends in the United States, an examination of the social state of the United States at the end of the 1920s undertaken at the direction of President Herbert Hoover.