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Originally Posted by Guest
If these restrictions were in place, would your ancestors been allowed to immigrate? I know that my grandparents would not have because they did not speak English. However, before I was born, they learned to speak English and became proud citizens.
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My ancestors may or may not have met the standards. I do not know about their facility with English, nor if they had a job waiting when they arrived. I'm fairly confident that they were prepared to be self-sufficient because there was no welfare system when they arrived.
You see, they arrived in the mid-1700s, before the United States became a nation. (I have an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War.) They came from the German speaking (East) side of Switzerland. They came through the Port of Philadelphia and moved out along the southern Pennsylvania border. You may have heard of the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Lots of them are still there, as well as down in Virginia, in West Virginia, and in Ohio, where they initially settled. (I had relatives who fought on both sides in the Civil War.) These days they are scattered all over the United States.
But, that was a different era. I support the Merit System for our current situation.
Carl in Tampa