Observations
Dustin White

As I was writing about historical immigration in North Dakota, the topic of immigration also popped up in the U.S. Congress. Introduced to the House of Representatives, the new bill seeks to reform immigration policy. Curious, I decided to examine it in a couple of ways; in regards to whether or not I would be able to immigrate under the new policy, and how it would have effected historical immigration. And then being me, I also got a bit sidetracked.

The first task was simple. There are convenient websites that allow you to plug your data in, and then see if you achieve the 30 points needed to be considered for immigration. I didn’t pass. I was 2 points short.

In order to gain an extra two points, I’d need to get a Master’s in a STEM field, get a job offer of  nearly $78,000, or be able to invest $1.35 million.  The problem with the Master’s degree is that even if I was able to achieve such, it would take me more than a year and a half, which would push me to being 31 years old, and I’d lose 2 points. So I’d still be short.

I could possibly find a job that pays $78,000 a year, but I assume I already would have done that if it was easy. I’d simply be out of luck, and if I wanted to really immigrate to North America, I’d probably go to Canada.

On the bright side, I wouldn’t be alone.



With my failure with being able to immigrant, I wanted to see how historical North Dakotans would have fared. It wasn’t any better. If this policy was in effect in 1900, North Dakota wouldn’t have been settled. Our ancestors, for the most part, would not have come to the United States.

Criteria
The first factor that is looked at is age. 26-30 is the ideal age, scoring a total of 10 points. Under 18, you couldn’t apply, and above 50, you get zero points. One thing that North Dakota had going for it was a relatively younger population. However, only about 30% of the population fell into that golden range.

Those who had higher education was much lower. In 1900 just a little over 6% were high school graduates. Of those, just 36% had a bachelors degree. To be fair, the education system in the United States, especially the west, was still forming. At the same time though, there were 8 institutions of higher education in North Dakota.

At this point, the vast majority of those wanting to immigrate to North Dakota would have found it impossible under the new immigration bill that is being proposed. Coupled with around 35% of the population in 1900 having a poor English ability (around 25% not being able to speak English at all, and another 10% not being able to read and/or write), virtually no one would have immigrated to the North Dakota. And North Dakota isn’t really unique in that regard.

Obviously, the immigrants that are wanted today were not the same immigrants that made this country. So I’m okay with not qualifying for legal immigration, as I’m in good company.

Sidetrack
Not being qualified to immigrate today, I wanted to see in what time period I would have qualified. Up until the early 1920s, there would have been no problem. Unless you were Asian, and specifically Chinese, there was little worry about not being qualified to living in the United States. There was little worry about gaining citizenship as well, as simply being white and living here for a short time was nearly all that it required.

Interestingly enough, searching through the 1900 census, the vast majority of individuals living in North Dakota were not listed as being naturalized citizens. The situation really isn’t that surprising though as the United States historically struggled to get immigrants to complete the requirements, which wasn’t much.

In 1921, the laws really begin to change. A quota was enacted, which limited the number of immigrants to just 3% of those already in the United States. Coupled with the Immigration Act of 1924, immigration became increasingly harder. These policies would largely continue until 1965. Under those policies, my chances of having immigrated to the United States was exceptionally low.



The immigration laws of 1920 largely favored individuals who were from northern and western Europe. On my father’s side, I would be fine; largely Norwegian and Irish. Not so fine on my mother’s side though.

From my mother’s side, the family immigrated from Russia. Like many in the area, they were Germans from Russia, but the part that made a difference was that they were immigrating from Russia; eastern Europe.

An additional problem was that my family also had Jewish heritage. Working through my families genealogy, I discovered that while in Russia, the daughter or a Jewish Rabbi had married into the family. While later generations would forget about such, those in Russia were well aware. It also meant that immigration was less likely.

Ironically, during the Great Depression, thousands of Americans would leave the United States and immigrate to Stalin’s Russia.

Even if I had been able to immigrate, North Dakota may not have been an ideal location. As a German from Russia, there would have been a desire to preserve some of the culture. Digging through various oral histories of early settlers, a common theme appears. At home, there was a need to speak German, or the German Russian hybrid language that had formed. It was a part of their identity.

However, not everyone was thrilled with this. Throughout the early 1900s, there was a growing anti-German sentiment brewing. There became an effort to stamp out the German language. There was a call for the government to not only stop the teaching of German, but to ban the publication of German newspapers throughout the country.

This sentiment only grew as the World Wars broke out. So much so that Germans were rounded up and placed in internment camps during World War II. If my family had moved here just one or two generations later, instead of setting up a farm in North Dakota, they could have easily found themselves locked up.

By 1965, things did loosen up a bit. However, with quota limits on immigration, the mass population boom that North Dakota experienced early on would have been impossible. Many of us would never have immigrated. Which for a large number would have meant perishing either through war, gulags, persecutions, etc.