This module covers the Immigration Act of 1924 and the Immigration Act of 1929. In chapter one, students learn about eugenic theories and white nationalist ideologies and how they were enacted in policy as a reaction to shifting national demographics. In chapter two, students gain a deeper understanding of how the Immigration Acts in the 1920s drastically limited immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, effectively banned immigration from Asia, privileged immigrants from Northern and Western Europe, and created border patrol. Finally, in chapter three, students critically engage with the global impact of the American eugenics movement.
Learning Objectives Within Module
- Learn how ideas of race and belonging shaped immigration policy.
- Gain a deeper understanding of how the Immigration Acts of 1924 and 1929 integrated white nationalism into United States immigration law.
- Critically engage with how the “health” of a nation is a practice of white nationalism.
Reflection Questions within Module
- How have ideas of “race” and “nation” shifted over time?
- How does ideology affect policy?
- How have ideas of “belonging” shaped immigration policy?
- How has the narrative of Mexican migrants being “temporary” in the United States continued to haunt their treatment?
- What does it mean to control and criminalize through the lens of eugenics?
- Why is categorizing a tactic of the powerful? How do categories fail?
- What does it mean to be “healthy”?
- How does race, gender, and disability show up ways we continue to think about health?
- How might we think critically about our legal systems and who they work for?
- How has bodily autonomy continued to be controlled by the state?
Accompanying Assignments
Group Research
Contributing to an ongoing project about compulsory sterilization cases.
“…students wrote up the primary accounts, which were then edited and amended by Lutz Kaelber, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Vermont, who is solely responsible for its contents and any errors or omissions. Research that went into this project was supported in parts by grants of the College of Arts and Science’s Dean’s Office and the Center for Teaching and Learning, and by funds of the University of Vermont’s Honors College.”
Students can be assigned a state to study and present their findings.
Students can extend the literature review from 2011.
Context / content
In the module, students consider the additional context of war, technology, and legislation as it relates to immigration. What else is there?
Student Prompts
- What is missing?
- What other narrative arc can/should be added to this timeline in order to better understand immigration patterns to the U.S.?
Analyzing Metaphor
Why the tree? The power of metaphor usage in ideological messaging.
In these two eugenicist cartoons, one tree is healthy, and another is being chopped down by the KKK. How has the concept of a “tree” for how a family organizes itself continued in contemporary life?
Reading on the tree in scientific visual language:
MacFarlane, Ross. “Tree of Life.” Wellcome Collection, May 31, 2022. https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/tree-of-life.
Student Prompts
- Why is it important to understand the history of the tree in scientific visuals?
- Why should we care where a visual metaphor originates from?
- How does the eugenicist usage of the tree effect contemporary family life?
- How can the tree be leveraged against certain migrants?
Additional Teaching Resource
Political Cartoons in the Fiery Cross
“The Ku Klux Klan sought to spread their message of hate in public rallies and through their newspaper, the Fiery Cross. The cartoon below was published just 10 days before the Johnson-Reed Act went into effect. The act imposed tight quotas restricting immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe as well as Asia and Africa.”
“Europe Take Notice.” Cartoon. Fiery Cross (Indianapolis), May 16, 1924. Page 4. Accessed via Hoosier State Chronicles / Re-imagining Migration. https://reimaginingmigration.org/resource-items/primary-source-political-cartoon-europe-take-notice-fiery-cross/.