What is the main idea of this passage ? One response to the growth of immigration was Nativism, or overt favoritism toward Native-born Americans. Nativism gave rise to anti-immigrant groups and led to a demand for immigration restrictions. Many German, British and Scandinavian immigrants thought that the bad immigrants that caused all the problems were “Slavs, Latin and Asian races”. Many Natives were Protestant and discriminated against Jewish and Catholics because they felt that those religions undermined democratic values. Many organizations launched vicious attacks on Catholic Organizations and many private colleges, jobs, and clubs refused to admit Jewish and Catholics.

In 1882 Chinese were willing to work on the railroads for lower wages, and American Natives were in an uproar because of this. So, in 1882, Congress slammed the door on Chinese Immigration for 10 years by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Act banned entry to the Chinese except students, teachers, merchants and government officials. In 1906, the local board of education of San Francisco segregated Japanese student from American Native students. The Japanese protested angrily. President Theodore Roosevelt worked out a deal, under the Gentlemens agreement, the Japanese government agreed to limit the immigration of unskilled workers in exchange for the repeal of the San Francisco segregation order.