Harvard article from 1938 shows undergrads were opposed to Jewish refugees
A number of resurfaced polls from the World War II era have ignited debate over whether the U.S. should admit Syrian refugees.
On December 14, 1938, The Harvard Crimsonpublished a short article titled “POLL SHOWS STUDENTS DON’T WANT REICH REFUGEES HERE.’’
The poll asked undergraduate college students across America: “Should the United States offer a haven in this country for Jewish refugees from Central Europe?’’
An overwhelming 68.8 percent of undergraduates said “no,’’ while 31.2 percent said “yes.’’
That poll, which was conducted by an organization of campus editors called the Student Opinion Surveys of America, showed that Americans have a history of opposing people who want to take refuge in the U.S.
Earlier this week, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced that he’s one of 31 governors who are opposed to letting Syrian refugees enter their states.
Although The Crimson article began to circulate online after Baker’s announcement, the paper’s current president, Steven Lee, said the paper didn’t intentionally republish it this week.
“Several years back we uploaded all the stories we had (or at least tried) in print to online,’’ he told Boston.com “It seems as if some enterprising reader came upon the story and shared it on social media.’’
The undergraduate poll findings were similar to those highlighted by the Twitter account @HistOpinion, which tweeted out a poll that originally appeared in Fortune magazine in July 1938. Two-thirds of people surveyed agreed that the United States should try to keep out political refugees — most of whom were Jewish. Fewer than 5 percent of Americans surveyed thought the U.S. should encourage them to come even if it meant raising immigration quotas.
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As an article about the polls in The Washington Post pointed out, the U.S. was emerging from the Great Depression, which meant most people wouldn’t think kindly of immigrants who could cause economic competition. Still, the findings were similar in a January 1938 poll, which asked if the U.S. should permit 10,000 mostly Jewish refugee children to come in from Germany.
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The Post pointed out that there are many historical and contextual differences between World War II refugees and refugees today. And, it’s also worth mentioning that, despite Baker’s reluctance to admit refugees, he can’t technically stop them. Under the Refugee Act of 1980 governors cannot legally block refugees from settling in their communities.
While some state officials support Baker’s view that more careful review of refugees is necessary, including House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Stan Rosenberg, he hasn’t been without his critics. U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton wrote on Twitter: “It’s a shame Governor Baker doesn’t know the difference between refugees and those from whom they need refuge.’’
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