Economic depression abruptly shifted business framing of immigrants from asset to threat
Evidence
The long downward plunge of the depression stopped this line of argument. The happy pastime of calculating the dollar value of each new arrival passed into neglect. Instead, businessmen reflected on how unemployed aliens burdened the community and enlarged the stagnant pool of unused manpower. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 414
Categorization
- DEFINE: A crisp before/after showing how an objective economic event triggered a re-framing, relevant to reader’s question about how manufactured enemies are refreshed when conditions change.
- XREF: connects to: Depression converted immigrants from assets into scapegoats in business eyes — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 414; Depression convinced many workers immigration threatened their livelihood — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 266; Frame-shifting immigration to central national problems lent anti-immigrant feeling intellectual respectability. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 228 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Depression converted immigrants from assets into scapegoats in business eyes
#corroborates(0.92) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 414 - Depression convinced many workers immigration threatened their livelihood
#expands(0.78) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 266 - Rank-and-file animus outpaced official union nativist policy during depressions
#expands(0.75) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 426 - A new nationalism rechanneled existing race feelings onto immigrant targets
#expands(0.74) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1012 - Frame-shifting immigration to central national problems lent anti-immigrant feeling intellectual respectability.
#expands(0.72) — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 228