In 1924, the United States enacted a set of Immigration Quota Laws designed to limit the number of immigrants arriving from southern and eastern Europe. Writers involved in eugenics—a branch of philosophy and, more recently, pseudoscience focused on racial differences—had been promoting the idea that Southern and Eastern European immigrants were completely different from and inferior to Northern and Western Europeans. (People from the north and west of Europe were, of course, the original settlers of the thirteen colonies.) While such ideas are clearly offensive to us today, they actually gained traction during the early 1900s; a significant percentage of American citizens believed in eugenics, including prominent lawmakers and politicians.

Logo from the Second International Congress of Eugenics

Ironically, Mexicans were not included in the restrictions put in place Immigration Quota Laws, and for a very odd reason. While proponents of eugenics viewed Mexicans as inferior to Northern and Western Europeans, they also believed that they possessed, as a group trait, qualities that made them "docile" workers. Eugenics held that because of their mental inferiority, Mexicans would be both obedient and physically strong. Thus, they would diligently take on socially demeaning and physically demanding work that other laborers would avoid.

Mexican immigrants were also seen as temporary residents because the return to Mexico was relatively easy compared to, say, returning to Italy or Russia. And in reality, millions of Mexican laborers, both legal and illegal, did return to Mexico in 1929, when the Great Depression caused many jobs of all kinds to disappear. Still, while the number of immigrants from Europe dropped after 1924 because of the quotas, the number of Mexicans immigrating to the United States increased from 20,000 a year in the 1910s to between 50,000 and 100,000 a year during the 1920s.

Mexicans coming to the United States found jobs on railroad crews, in the mines of Colorado, and on farms in the Southwest and Midwest. Certainly, Mexican workers did take on jobs that some native-born Americans would not, and Mexican immigrants did prove to be hard workers. These immigrants, though, could and did fight for their rights; they successfully organized unions and less formal efforts to pressure employers for better pay and better working conditions.

Use the activity below to clarify your understanding of how Mexican immigrants were received.