Final answer:
Nativism significantly impacted immigrants in American cities by fostering prejudice, promoting segregation, and influencing anti-immigration legislation that sought to preserve a white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant vision of America. Nativist groups such as the American Protective Association pushed for policies that discriminated against immigrants, with lasting effects on immigration laws. The struggle for acceptance was difficult as immigrants faced both individual and institutional challenges.
Step-by-step explanation:
Nativism had powerful effects on immigrants to American cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nativist attitudes and policies created a challenging environment for immigrants, who were often viewed with suspicion and hostility. Immigrants faced both social and legislative discrimination due to the widely held belief that they were lesser than native-born Americans and the perceived threat they posed to American culture and job security.
At the height of the Great Migration, African Americans and new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe sought to escape persecution and poverty. However, upon arrival in large urban areas, they encountered prejudice, with many living in ethnically segregated neighborhoods. This segregation was often the result of nativist tendencies, which also contributed to the discrimination and stereotypes that painted immigrants as greedy, clannish, and reluctant to assimilate.
Organizations such as the American Protective Association and the Immigration Restriction League were formed on the basis of nativist ideologies. They proposed laws and carried out campaigns against those seen as "nonwhite" or "new" immigrants. Despite resistance from figures such as President Grover Cleveland, who vetoed a literacy test law, nativism persisted and would ultimately shape immigration policy in the United States, particularly during the 1920s when more restrictive laws were enacted.