Nativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants.^[1] It may also include the re-establishment or perpetuation of such individuals or their culture.

Nativism typically means opposition to immigration or efforts to lower the political or legal status of specific ethnic or cultural groups because the groups are considered hostile or alien to the natural culture, and it is assumed that they cannot be assimilated.^[2] Opposition to immigration is common in many countries because of issues of national, cultural or religious identity. The phenomenon has been studied especially in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, as well as Europe in recent years. Thus nativism has become a general term for 'opposition to immigration' based on fears that the immigrants will distort or spoil existing cultural values.^[3] This may be expressed through criticism of multiculturalism.

In situations where the nativistic movement exists inside of dominant culture it tends to be associated with xenophobic and assimilationist projects. At the other end of the spectrum, in situations where immigrants greatly outnumber the original inhabitants or where contact forces economic and cultural change,^[4] nativistic movements can allow cultural survival. Among North American Indians important nativist movements include 1762 Neolin, 1808 Tenskwatawa, 1889 Wovoka and the broader renewal prophecy movements.

In scholarly studies "nativism" is a standard technical term. However, in public political discourse "nativist" is a term of opprobrium usually used by the opposition, and rarely by nativists themselves (they call themselves "patriots."^[5]). Anti-immigration is a more neutral term that may be used to characterize opponents of immigration.

[edit] By country

[edit] Nativism in the United States

Heroes of the Fiery Cross 1928, published by the Pillar of Fire Church

In the United States, anti-immigration views have a long history. For a while Benjamin Franklin was hostile to Germans in colonial Pennsylvania. In 1798 the Alien and Sedition Acts limited the ability of immigrants, especially radicals from France and Ireland, to gain full political rights, and they became a major political issue in the 1800 election.^[6]

Nativism gained its name from the "Native American" parties. In this context "Native" does not mean indigenous or American Indian but rather those descended from the inhabitants of the original 13 English colonies. It impacted politics in mid-19th century United States because of the large inflows of immigrants from cultures that were markedly different from the existing American culture. Thus, nativists objected primarily to Irish Roman Catholics because of their loyalty to the Pope and also because of their supposed rejection of republicanism as an American ideal.^[7]

Nativist movements included the Know Nothing or American Party of the 1850s, the Immigration Restriction League of the 1890s, the anti-Asian movements in the West, resulting in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the "Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907" by which Japan's government stopped emigration to the U.S. Labor unions were strong supporters of Chinese exclusion and limits on immigration, because of fears that they would lower wages and make it harder to organize unions.^[8]

[edit] 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 City on a Nativist ticket, receiving 1,496 votes. In New York City, an Order of United Americans was founded as a nativist fraternity, following the Philadelphia Nativist Riots of the preceding spring and summer, in December, 1844.^[9]

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).^[9]

The Nativists went public in 1854 when they formed the 'American Party', which was especially hostile to the immigration of Catholics 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 denounced them as "bigoted nativists." Former President Millard Fillmore ran on the American Party ticket for the Presidency in 1856. The American Party also included many ex-Whigs who ignored 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 immigrants and German Lutheran immigrants who were not native at all and can hardly be called "nativists."^[10]

This form of nationalism is often identified with xenophobia and anti-Catholic sentiment (anti-Papism). In Charlestown, Mass., a nativist mob attacked and burned down a Catholic convent in 1834 (no one was injured). In the 1840s, small scale riots between Catholics and nativists took place in several American cities. In Philadelphia in 1844, for example, a series of nativist assaults on Catholic churches and community centers resulted in the loss of lives and the professionalization of the police force. In Louisville, Ky., election-day rioters killed at least 22 people in attacks on German and Irish Catholics on Aug. 6, 1855, in what became known as "Bloody Monday.".^[11] Nativist sentiment experienced a revival in the 1890s, led by Protestant Irish immigrants hostile to Catholic immigration.^[12]

[edit] Anti-German nativism

From the 1840s to 1920 German Americans were distrusted because of their separatist social structure, their love of beer, their German-language schools, their attachment to their native tongue over English, and their neutrality in World War I.

The Bennett Law caused a political uproar in Wisconsin in 1890, as the state government passed a law that threatened to close down hundreds of German-language elementary schools. Catholic and Lutheran Germans rallied to defeat the incumbent Republican Governor, William D. Hoard, the leader of the nativists. Hoard attacked German-American culture and religion:

"We must fight alienism and selfish ecclesiasticism.... The parents, the pastors and the church have entered into a conspiracy to darken the understanding of the children, who are denied by cupidity and bigotry the privilege of even the free schools of the state."^[13]

Hoard, a Republican, was defeated by the Democrats. A similar campaign in Illinois regarding the "Edwards Law" led to a Republican defeat there in 1890.^[13]

In 1917-1918, a wave of nativist sentiment attacked German American culture in the United States, Canada and Australia. There was little violence, but many places and streets had their names changed (The city of "Berlin" in Ontario was renamed "Kitchener" after a British hero), churches switched to English for their services, and German Americans were forced to buy war bonds to show their patriotism.^[14] In Australia thousands of Germans were put into internment camps.^[15]

(See also: World War I Anti-German Sentiment)

[edit] Anti-Chinese nativism

This section requires expansion.

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 to harm railroad owners if they hired any people who were Chinese.^[16][17] 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.^[18] Ironically, the exclusion of the Chinese caused the western railroads to begin importing Mexican railroad workers in greater numbers ("traqueros").^[19]

[edit] Anti-Catholic nativism

Guardians of Liberty 1943 by Bishop Alma White

In the British Empire, traditions of anti-Catholicism in Britain led to fears that Catholics were a threat to the national (British) values. In Canada, the orange Order (of Irish Protestants) campaigned vigorously against the Catholics throughout the 19th century, often with violent confrontations.^[20] The Orange Order was much less influential in the U.S., especially after a major riot in New York City in 1871. Also in Canada, British nationalists opposed French Canadians from Quebec, who were expanding beyond Quebec. In Ontario (and other provinces), vigorous measures were attempted to prevent the establishment of French-language Catholic schools.

[edit] 20th- and 21st-century anti-immigration movements

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 first decade of the 21st century (focused on immigrants from Mexico and Central America).

The second Ku Klux Klan, which flourished in the U.S. in the 1920s, used strong nativist rhetoric, but the Catholics led a counterattack.^[21]

Following the Mariel boatlift influx of immigration from Cuba in 1980, a number of communities in the southeastern U.S. struggled to accommodate the sudden inflow of Marielitos. The following years saw an increase in racial and ethnic tensions, a decrease in non-Hispanic residents in south Florida, and later-repealed English only laws.^{[22][23][24][25]}

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.

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 United States'Mexico border, is the more pressing concern for most immigration reductionists. Authors such as Samuel Huntington have also seen recent Hispanic immigration as creating a national identity crisis and presenting insurmountable problems for US social institutions.^[26]

[edit] Language

Language was a political and an emotional issue as early as the 1750s, when Franklin complained briefly; he changed his mind and printed German materials. American nativists have promoted English and distrusted German and Spanish usage. English Only proponents in the late 19th century proposed an English Language Amendment (ELA), a Constitutional amendment making English the official language of the United States, but have won little political support.^[27]

[edit] Nativism in Canada

Nativism was common in Canada (though the term originated in the U.S.). It took several forms. Hostility to the Chinese and other Asians was intense, and involved provincial laws that hindered immigration of Chinese and Japanese and blocked their economic mobility. In 1942 Japanese Canadians were forced into detention camps.^[28]

Throughout the 19th century, well into the 20th, the "Orange Orders" in Canada attacked and tried to politically defeat the Irish Catholics.^[29] The Ku Klux Klan spread in the mid-1920s from the U.S. to parts of Canada, especially Saskatchewan, where it helped topple the Liberal government. The Klan creed was, historian Martin Robin argues, in the mainstream of Protestant Canadian sentiment, for it was based on "Protestantism, separation of Church and State, pure patriotism, restrictive and selective immigration, one national public school, one flag and one language--English."^[30]

In World War I, Canadian naturalized citizens of German or Austrian origins were stripped of their right to vote, and tens of thousands of Ukrainians (who were born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire) were rounded up and put in internment camps.^[31]

Hostility of native-born Canadians to competition from English immigrants in the early 20th century was expressed in signs that read, "No English Need Apply!" The resentment came because the immigrants identified more with England than with Canada.^[32]

[edit] Nativism in Australia

Australia was intensely hostile to Chinese immigrants (thousands of whom came to the gold fields), and tried to block their entry until well after World War II. When the nation of Australia formed in 1901, the national policy became "White Australia", and quickly most of the Pacific Islanders were deported, while the remainder were forced out of the sugar fields where they had worked for decades.^[33]

During World War I, Australia put German citizens in internment camps.^[34]

Hostility of native-born white Australians toward British and Irish immigrants in the late 19th century was manifested in a new party, the "Australian Natives' Association."^[35]

[edit] Nativism in Taiwan

Nativism flourished in Taiwan in the 1970s as a reaction against the influx of mainland Chinese to the island after the Kuomintang's defeat in 1949. Nativists felt that the political influence of mainland Chinese was disproportionately large. The term is especially found in the field of literature, where nativist literature was more traditionally minded than the modernist literature written largely by mainland Chinese.

[edit] Nativism in Europe

Regarding the Irish in Great Britain, Lucassen (2005) argues the deep religious divide between the Protestants and Catholics was at the core of the ongoing estrangement of the Irish in British society. In the case of the Poles in the mining districts of western Germany before 1914, it was nationalism (on both the German and the Polish sides), which kept Polish workers, who had established an associational structure approaching institutional completeness (churches, voluntary associations, press, even unions), separate from the host German society. Lucassen find that religiosity and nationalism were more fundamental in generating nativism and inter-group hostility than the labor antagonism. Once Italian workers in France had understood the benefit of unionism and French unions were willing to overcome their fear of Italians as scabs, integration was open for most Italian immigrants. The French state, always more of an immigration state than Prussia/Germany or historical Great Britain, fostered and supported family-based immigration and thus helped Italians on their immigration trajectory with minimal nativism. (Lucassen 2005)

Many observers see the post-1950s wave of immigration in Europe was fundamentally different from the pre-1914 patterns. They debate the role of cultural differences, ghettos, race, Muslim fundamentalism, poor education and poverty play in creating nativism among the hosts and a caste-type underclass, more similar to white-black tensions in the U.S. (Lucassen 2005) Algerian migration to France has generated nativism, characterized by the prominence of Jean-Marie Le Pen and his National Front. (Lucassen 2005)

[edit] Anti-immigration arguments

Anti-immigration sentiment is typically justified with one or more of the following arguments and claims about immigrants:.^[36]

• Government expense: Government expenses may exceed tax revenue relating to new immigrants.^[37]
• Language: Isolate themselves in their own communities and refuse to learn the local language.
• Employment: Acquire jobs which would have otherwise been available to native citizens, and suppressing wages.
• Patriotism: Damage a sense of community and nationality.
• Environment: Increase the consumption of scarce resources; their move from low to high pollution economy increases pollution
• Welfare: Make heavy use of social welfare systems.
• Overpopulation: May overpopulate countries.
• Culture: Can swamp a native population and replace its culture with their own.
• Housing: Increase in housing costs: migrant families can reduce vacancies and cause rent increases.

The claim that immigrants can "swamp" a local population is noted to be related to birth rate, relative to nationals. Historically this has occurred, but with immigrants whose societies were more technologically advanced than the native populations. Examples include the immigration of Europeans to North America, the Han Chinese migration in western China, and the Bantu migrations in Africa. The opposite has also occurred, where small groups managed to dominate and culturally change much larger groups. Such cases include the Romans, Asian Bulgarians and Slavic populations dominating the natives of Thrace, the Mongols in China and India, and the Germanic peoples during the migration period such as the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, etc. over native Romanized populations, as well as the Turks in Anatolia. Usually, conquering Germanic barbarian forces were in the beginning foederati assisting the Romans.

Contemporary opponents of immigration blame it for such problems as unemployment, crime (especially through gangs), harm to the environment, and overwhelming social services such as hospitals, police.

[edit] Driving forces behind nativism

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with USA and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page.

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.

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, or engage in illegal activities like drugs or prostitution. The allegation dates back to the Irish American 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 backlash in response to the attacks. In Europe, however, there has been a considerable growth of anti-Islamic feeling after the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent attacks in London and Madrid.

[edit] See also

• Anti-Catholicism
• Criticism of multiculturalism
• Illegal immigration to the United States
• Immigration to the United States
• Immigration reduction
• Immigration reform
• National conservatism
• Rivers of Blood speech
• Xenophobia
• Hyphenated American

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Alexseev, Mikhail A. Immigration Phobia and the Security Dilemma: Russia, Europe, and the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2005). 294 pp.
• Jensen, Richard. "Comparative Nativism: The United States, Canada And Australia, 1880s-1910s," Canadian Issues / Thèmes Canadiens, Spring 2009, pp 45'55

[edit] United States

• Allerfeldt, Kristofer. Race, Radicalism, Religion, and Restriction: Immigration in the Pacific Northwest, 1890-1924. Praeger, 2003. 235 pp.
• Anbinder, Tyler. "Nativism and prejudice against immigrants," in A companion to American immigration, ed. by Reed Ueda (2006) pp 177'201 online excerpt
• Barkan, Elliott R. "Return of the Nativists? California Public Opinion and Immigration in the 1980s and 1990s." Social Science History 2003 27(2): 229-283. Issn: 0145-5532 Fulltext: in Project MUSE,
• Franchot, Jenny. Roads to Rome: The Antebellum Protestant Encounter with Catholicism (1994),
• Higham, John, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925 (1955), the standard scholarly history
• Hueston, Robert Francis. The Catholic Press and Nativism, 1840-1860 (1976)
• Luebke, Frederick C. Bonds of Loyalty: German-Americans and World War I (1974)
• Schrag Peter. Not Fit For Our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America (University of California Press; 2010) 256 pages;

[edit] Canada

• Houston, Cecil J. and Smyth, William J. The Sash Canada Wore: A Historical Geography of the Orange Order in Canada. U. of Toronto Press, 1980.
• McLaughlin, Robert. 'Irish Nationalism and Orange Unionism in Canada: A Reappraisal,' Éire-Ireland 41.3&4 (2007) 80-109
• 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
• Miller, J. R. Equal Rights: The Jesuits' Estates Act Controversy (1979). in late 19c Canada
• Palmer, Howard. Patterns of Prejudice: A History of Nativism in Alberta (1992)
• Robin, Martion. Shades of Right: Nativist and Fascist Politics in Canada, 1920-1940 (University of Toronto Press, 1992);
• See, S.W. Riots in New Brunswick: Orange Nativism and Social Violence in the 1840s (Univ of Toronto Press, 1993 - ).
• Ward, W. Peter. White Canada Forever: Popular Attitudes and Public Policy toward Orientals in British Columbia (1978)

[edit] Other countries

• Betz, Hans-Georg. "Against the 'Green Totalitarianism': Anti-Islamic Nativism in Contemporary Radical Right- Wing Populism in Western Europe," in Christina Schori Liang, ed. Europe for the Europeans (2007)
• Chinn, Jeff, and Robert Kaiser, eds. Russians as the New Minority: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Soviet Successor States (1996)
• Finzsch, Norbert, and Dietmar Schirmer, eds. Identity and Intolerance: Nationalism, Racism, and Xenophobia in Germany and the United States (2002)
• Groenfeldt, D. "The future of indigenous values: cultural relativism in the face of economic development", Futures, Volume 35, Issue 9, November 2003, Pages 917-929
• Lucassen, Leo. The Immigrant Threat: The Integration of Old and New Migrants in Western Europe since 1850. University of Illinois Press, 2005. 280 pp; ISBN 0-252-07294-4. Examines Irish immigrants in Britain, Polish immigrants in Germany, Italian immigrants in France (before 1940), and (since 1950), Caribbeans in Britain, Turks in Germany, and Algerians in France
• Liang, Christina Schori, ed. Europe for the Europeans (2007)
• Mamdani, M. When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and the Genocide in Rwanda (2001)
• Wertheimer, Jack. Unwelcome Strangers: East European Jews in Imperial Germany (1991)

[edit] External links

• Kearney
• Henry A. Rhodes, "Nativist and Racist Movements in the U.S. and their Aftermath"
• Kearney, President, and H. L. Knight, Secretary, 'Appeal from California. The Chinese Invasion. Workingmen's Address,' Indianapolis Times, 28 February 1878.
• "A Nation or Notion", by Patrick J. Buchanan, op-ed, Oct. 4, 2006. A conservative defense of nativism.
• PoliticosLatinos.com Videos of 2008 US Presidential Election Candidates' Positions regarding Immigration
• "Anti - Immigration Groups and the Masks of False Diversity". False Diversity in Anti-Immigration organizations.
• A Defense of Nativism, Conservative Heritage Times.