2009/07/01 by Daniel J. Wilson · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Canadian Identity and History #Race, History, and American Society #Latin American and Latino Studies
paper · doi:10.1093/maghis/23.3.35
openalex publication_date 2009/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
For many American schoolchildren in the twentieth century, the powerful words of the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus affixed to the base of the Statue of Liberty represented America's generosity in opening its door to all kinds of immigrants seeking refuge and a better future in the United States. I and many others in grade school memorized the hopeful words (1): Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Lazarus's verse suggested that all types of immigrants were welcome no matter how poor, tired, or wretched. But that was simply not true when it came to immigrants with certain contagious diseases or with disabilities. Beginning with the first major congressional law to regulate immigration, the Immigration Act of 1882,...