On a Sunday in July, fifty men went into Toledo’s immigrant workers’ homes, told them and their families to pack their things, and led them to vehicles that were ready to take them away.
They asserted that the immigrants stole employment from local Oregonians and labored for inadequate pay.
Does that sound familiar? In fact, the scene took place in 1925. The majority of the millworkers were from Oregon, and among them were 27 Japanese, four Filipinos, and one Korean. As they departed, the villagers yelled: String them up!As is the case throughout America, Oregonians have always had a mixed relationship with immigration. Although many immigrants have prospered, regulations and discrimination have occasionally restricted privileges or outright prohibited members of particular ethnic groups.
One of the few states to outright ban African Americans, Oregon’s history demonstrates a particularly difficult battle with the race of immigrants, which manifested itself in pervasive dread and discrimination as their numbers increased.
According to Bob Bussel, a historian and director of the Labor and Education Research Center at the University of Oregon who studied immigration history, there have been two attitudes to immigrants that have mirrored our state and national sentiments: arms length and open arms. When it comes to welcoming certain cultures, Oregon has struggled greatly.
With laws and attitudes that favored northern and central Europeans, the state threw out its arms to white immigrants. According to historian David Peterson del Mar, author of Oregon’s Promise, the groundwork was established by Oregon’s treatment of Black people.
Oregonians believed that excluding all Black residents was the best way to prevent racial issues even after the state was joined to the Union as a non-slave state. They claimed that by doing this, the disparities between the rich and the working class would be eliminated. According to historical records, in 1844, Missouri pioneer Capt. R.W. Morrison declared, “I’m going to Oregon, where there gonna be no slaves, and we’ll all start even.”
Later, immigration of other races were barred on the same grounds: they would create inequality and lower wages.
All three generations of the Robles family are U.S. citizens and lawful residents of Northeast Portland, Oregon. (From left): Ruby, daughter; Cesario, father; Cesar, son; Cesar Jr., grandson; Anthony, grandson; Nancy, daughter; and Irene, mother. Over 50% of Latinos in Oregon were born in the United States, and many more are either legal residents or naturalized citizens of the United States.Nakamura Motoya/The Oregonian
According to Peterson del Mar, white Oregonians have linked persons of color to inequality and hierarchy. You had an unfair edge if you owned slaves. There were many who believed that affluent individuals would use immigrants and Black people to increase their wealth at the expense of ordinary white men.
While other states made it difficult for Black people to move there, Oregon was the only state admitted to the Union with a black exclusion statute in its constitution. Similar laws had already been passed in Illinois and Indiana. The state reversed its ratification of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which gave citizenship to all people born in the country, regardless of color. The 15th Amendment, which granted African Americans the right to vote, was not ratified by Oregon until 1959.
Arrivals from China, Japan, and other Asian nations were also denied citizenship and the right to vote. William Toll, a historian, author, and adjunct professor at the University of Oregon, claims that the West Coast’s distinct waves of Asian immigrants contributed to the definition of its racial context. Asian emigration to the East and South was much lower.
According to an editorial in Jacksonville’s Oregon Sentinel, Chinese immigrants bring nothing to our shores and contribute nothing to the nation’s long-term prosperity.
Segregation prevailed both legally and practically throughout the early 20th century. Only white people were permitted on the first floor of Portland’s Broadway Theater, while Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, and African Americans sat on the balcony. Chinese residences in Northwest Portland were invaded and set on fire by mobs. Signs like “No Japs wanted” or “Filipinos and dogs not allowed” were up in Oregon businesses. There were allegations of increased criminal activity against young Italian and Jewish men.
However, Toll claims that all immigrants who were poor, unskilled, and non-white suffered the most. Eastern and Southern Europeans were perceived as a separate and inferior racial group—too culturally different, inferior, and stealing jobs—just as this happened elsewhere in the United States.
Some residents of Oregon defied the trend. Following World War II, Methodist clergyman Sherman Burgoyne spoke out for Japanese Americans in the Hood River Valley.
In 1893, U.S. judge Walter Gresham of the 7th Circuit wrote to Governor Sylvester Pennoyer, requesting that he shield Chinese immigrants from violence following the extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Gresham is the name of the city that bears his name.
There has undoubtedly been improvement, but aside from a contemporary twist, the immigration debate hasn’t changed much in recent years. Bussel, a historian at the University of Oregon, claims that the focus on legal status—both in Oregon and globally—is novel. The majority of Latinos, particularly Mexicans, are grouped together with illegal aliens, who are accused of stealing American employment and utilizing government resources.
Even though racism is rarely acknowledged nowadays, tensions related to race, class, and culture nevertheless simmer beneath the surface. He claims that although Oregonians are less judgmental of immigrants and more sensitive to racial issues, racial issues surface when tensions build.
Bussel continues, “History seems to repeat itself, and there seems to be a real sense of threat associated with immigrants from Mexico because of their large numbers.”
There are parallels between the history of Chinese and Japanese people in our state and the current discourse. He claims that because the Chinese and Japanese were foreigners, it was believed that they were unable to integrate.
He claims that the argument for limiting immigration is made using Oregon’s unique history as a pioneer state.
According to Bussel, there is a claim that if so many new people are moving here, our environment and infrastructure cannot be maintained.
But there are lessons to be learned from Oregon’s immigration past. According to Peterson del Mar, there is a double standard when it comes to self-righteousness regarding illegal immigrants breaching the law.
Remember, he continues, that the pioneers of Oregon we honor were people who came here, stole land, and were also breaking the law.
And if we harness the energy of our newest immigrants by easing their integration, Bussel says, their contributions can be as great as the generations of immigrants who came before.
We’ve done better than when we were oppressive and discriminatory, Bussel argues, when there have been obvious state and private attempts to assist immigrants in coming and integrating.
Most of us are immigrants, after all, even if several generations removed.
Introducing the most recent generation of Latino immigrants
They are Oregon s new Latinos: legal residents and U.S. citizens, multigeneration Hispanic families, blends of native and foreign-born. Latinos permanently settled, who do not migrate between the U.S. and Mexico. Bilingual and bicultural, loyal workers, homeowners, community volunteers.
The Robleses are one example of a typical family. Irene and Cesario, both in their 40s, hail from the same small village in Mexico. They come from large, poor families. Like thousands of immigrants who arrived before them, the couple say Oregon offered a unique opportunity to thrive and give their children and grandchildren a better future.
We never imagined this would be us, Irene says. To have a home, a title, to interact with so many people. This is what this state gave us.
Latinos have seen the largest growth among Oregon s immigrants in the past 20 years. In total, Latinos now make up 9 percent of Portland, 18 percent of Gresham and 23 percent of Hillsboro, according to the American Community Survey. Their numbers are higher than those of any other immigrants before them — although their share of the population is smaller than that of other groups at the turn of the century.
More than half of Oregon s Latinos are U.S. citizens or legal residents. And experts say new arrivals account for only part of the growth. A second factor is the birth rate among the second generation of Latinos, says Risa Proehl, demographic analyst at Portland State University s Population Research Center.
Like the Robleses, many Portland-area Latinos have sprung multiple generations, well-rooted into Oregon soil. Irene and Cesario live in their own trailer home in Northeast Portland with their two daughters, while their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren share a nearby trailer. Latino children, such as the three Portland-educated Robles children, represent nearly one of five Oregon students.
Irene will make you instant coffee in her tidy, elegant kitchen and tell you how Oregon changed her family s life. She will point out the luxuries — running water, electricity, nice furniture — that she could only dream of in Mexico, where only rich people have them.
Poverty was the way of life for Irene, one of 11 children. Her father died when she was 1 and her uncles crossed the border to the United States to help the family make ends meet.
Cesario, who had 10 siblings, spent his childhood in the United States. As a teenager, he went back and forth between the two countries, marrying Irene on one of the trips home. Soon, he took his wife with him to Los Angeles. She was only 17.
We had nothing when we got married, Irene says. In Mexico, it would have been impossible for us to make a living, or get a roof over our head, a home. I wanted more for my future children.
They lived as undocumented immigrants until amnesty in 1986 made them legal residents. Their three children were born in California. Then, Cesario s company — where he had worked for 19 years, starting when he was a teenager — was sold to Cardinal Aluminum, a Portland manufacturer of fireplace parts, and the family moved.
In Oregon, the Robleses didn t have the extended family and large Latino community they did in Los Angeles. So Irene ventured into her new community, to explore. She and her husband loved Oregon s mild climate, the calmness, and the nearby ocean, rivers and mountains. The couple took English classes.
Oregon was a rebirth for us, she says, an opportunity to grow.
Irene volunteered in her children s schools. She attended trainings on HIV and community meetings with Portland police. She volunteered with a clinic, a domestic violence group and a neighborhood watch group. Eventually, she worked with Juntos Aprendemos, a Latino Network program that helps children and their parents prepare for kindergarten.
It was in Oregon — and not in California — where she met diverse people: multigeneration Americans, as well as immigrants from Somalia, Russia and Cuba.
Irene now works as a home visitor at HIPPY, a parent involvement and school readiness program for Latinos. Her husband works with the same company. She has started GED classes. New Year s resolution? The couple plan to take their citizenship test this year.
Irene has become a bridge between the Portland school system and immigrant parents, says Catherine Moore, a supervisor at HIPPY. She helps Latino parents to start getting involved in their children s education at a young age.
With their mother s help, the Robles children — 10-year-old Ruby, 22-year-old Cesar, a welder, and 23-year-old Nancy, a medical office assistant — effortlessly linked their Mexican and American identities.
I like both parts of my culture, says Cesar. I ve been living in Oregon most of my life, my kids are from here, my parents live here, and I met my children s mom here. It s home.
But right now, Oregon and the rest of the country are putting a lot of pressure on immigrants, Irene says. She hopes immigration reform will help change attitudes, and Oregonians and immigrants will give one another more opportunities to meet.
Some people think we came to Oregon to take something away, she says, but we came to live together and to help others. Every person at one point had this opportunity, because this is a country of immigrants. Maybe some had more opportunities because of the color of their skin.
— Gosia Wozniacka,a Polish-born immigrant, covers immigration and Latino issues for The [email protected]
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