Seeing a lot of MAGA hatred for "illegal immigrants", but also knowing we are a nation of immigrants, and knowing that in the past some faction of Americans have hated various groups - groups they would not think about today - I wanted to get an overview of the immigrants Americans have hated since 1780. It is quite a list.
1780s to Mid 1800s
Irish Catholics: Small but growing numbers of Irish.
French refugees: Some fled the French Revolution and Haiti’s revolution.
Non-British Europeans: Early U.S. identity was tied to Anglo-Protestant roots. Germans, Dutch, and Swedes who didn’t fit this mold were sometimes considered outsiders.
Irish immigrants (1820s–1860s):
German immigrants (1830s–1880s):
Chinese immigrants (1850s–1882): Intense xenophobia led to the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) — the first major law banning a nationality.
Southern and Eastern Europeans (1880s–1920s): Italians, Poles, Russians, Greeks, and Jews faced discrimination for being Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish, and for perceived cultural and racial differences.
Japanese immigrants (1890s–1924): Faced hostility similar to the Chinese, culminating in the Gentlemen’s Agreement (1907) and later the Immigration Act of 1924, which effectively barred Asian immigration.
Mexican and Central American laborers (1910s–1930s): Welcomed during labor shortages but scapegoated during economic downturns (e.g., Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s, when up to 1 million were deported).
Eastern European refugees (post–WWII, 1940s–1950s): Some faced suspicion during the Cold War for alleged communist sympathies.
Puerto Ricans (1940s–1960s): Though U.S. citizens, they encountered discrimination and were often treated as outsiders in cities like New York and Chicago.
Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong refugees (1970s–1980s):
Haitian and Cuban migrants (1980s–1990s): Cuban arrivals were often welcomed for political reasons, while Haitians were labeled “economic migrants” and faced harsher treatment.
Middle Eastern and Muslim immigrants (1970s–2000s):
Latin American and Caribbean migrants (2000s–2020s): Especially from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Venezuela. Often targeted in debates over “illegal immigration.”
African immigrants (1990s–present):
South and Southeast Asian immigrants (2010s–present): Groups from India, Nepal, and the Philippines sometimes face visa discrimination and backlash related to job competition in tech or healthcare.
I would place a large bet that many MAGA are actually from one or more of the groups of immigrants mentioned above. (Irish, Eastern European, German, Italian, etc.) At one time, their ancestors were treated in the harsh and cruel ways they now treat Latinos - for no good reason.
janainaart
origamiaround
dailybridgerton
discoholicmusic
theartofmadeline
2087
ellievsbear
