Federal Immigration Policy and State Development during the "Open Door" Era

David Ericson, Cleveland State University

Immigration scholars have typically studied federal immigration policy beginning with the Page Act of 1875 as the first legal barrier to people entering the United States. This view overlooks the 1807 slave-import ban, the series of passenger acts Congress passed in the 1819-1855 years, as well as the Civil War legislation both forbidding (Chinese) and permitting (European) contract-labor immigration. During this period, Congress also acted to encourage or discourage different categories of people from entering and exiting the United States through land policies and naturalization laws. Finally, federal officials pursued aggressive policies of territorial expansion that dramatically reshaped national boundaries and populations. In sum, federal officials deployed a variety of policy tools during this period to attempt to shape the character of the domestic population. In this study, I argue that the United States has never had “open doors” but rather doors that swing wide open for some, remain barely ajar for others, and are completely closed for still others.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 237. Migration, Regulation, Exclusion, and Control at and within Borders