Laws against immigrants now are not that much different than a hundred or more years ago. It's too bad we don't learn from history. - - Donna Poisl
By Alexander Zou
Arizona’s recent and harsh anti-immigrant bill reminded me of another law passed a while ago. Commonly called the Bennett Law, it aimed to make teaching English mandatory at all public and private schools in Wisconsin. Like Arizona’s law, it constituted a political response to a large wave of immigration that was ignited by nativist sentiment.
The Bennett Law reacted on the basis of anti-immigration feelings similar to those present in Arizona today. Many people saw these immigrants as unwanted foreigners taking away American jobs. They did not speak English and were accused of refusing to learn how to do so. They had a different culture and did not assimilate well into American society. They seemed less loyal to the United States and more loyal to their homeland. At the core, they seemed “un-American.”
I am speaking, of course, about German immigrants in Wisconsin.
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