So immigration seems to be a major issue in the United States and US politics today, but in the past it seemed all you had to do was sign your name in a book and you became a citizen. People moved to the United States pretty freely, but now there is a long drawn out process for it. Just wondering when and why this became an issue considering everyone, but native Americans, immigrated here in their first place.
The premise is not really accurate.
in the past it seemed all you had to do was sign your name in a book and you became a citizen.
Yes if you're a European from the right™ parts of Europe. Immigration has been heavily restricted throughout America's history, most significantly starting in the 1880s, and fueled by the exact same types of things that fuel it today. I've written about this extensively here in the past, with a particular focus on Chinese immigration, but really it was US attitudes toward Chinese immigration and the laws passed as early as 1880 that became the foundation for modern restrictive immigration laws.
In 1868 the US and Qing governments signed the Burlingame Treaty which, briefly, encouraged Chinese immigration and things like the Boxer Indemnity Fund encouraged Chinese students to study in America. However very soon after, China has become painted in the minds of the average American (who knew about China) along the lines of the Yellow Peril narrative. As soon as 30 years later, especially in places like California, white working-class Americans had turned hard against China, and in 1880 there was he Angell Treaty, which formally began US legislation against Chinese immigration. Actually, there were earlier restrictions. Five years prior there was the Page Act, but this was seen as less targeting as it was worded to prevent only unwilling migration. In other words, kidnapping women to sell into the sex trade. This was somewhat coded though, and anti-Chinese attitudes were already well underway then.
Chinese were targeted in large part because they were doing work for much less money and with much less complaint than white workers. Things were really bad in South China at the time, with famine and wars and rebellion, and so even with significantly lower wages in the US, a Chinese migrant worker could make considerably more money than back home. In most cases, they were migrant workers not immigrants, but the fear of immigration was always there.
Another major cause of tensions was that many Chinese migrants and later Japanese migrants were running restaurants, selling better food for less than their white counterparts. This sometimes led to violence, and the Immigration Act of 1924 formally banned Japanese migrants as well. In fact it barred just about anyone from any Asian country, and is often called the Asian Exclusion act as a result. That includes Indians, as well.
So at least for a huge portion of the global population, it was far from being as easy as just signing your name.
I'd love to write more on this but am on my way out the door. Instead if you're interested, I've written about this quite a lot over the past few years. Some previous posts: