The Employment of Intelligence Tests in the Control of Immigration (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Lawrence, G. Alfred

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1330203224 ISBN 13: 9781330203224

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

Testing Entry: How intelligence and medical screening shaped early U.S. immigration policy offers a close look at how we tried to gatekeepers to the nation.

This nonfiction work surveys how intelligence tests, medical exams, and legal rules were used to decide who could enter and stay in the United States. It connects statistics from Ellis Island with debates about public health, national safety, and the economy, revealing how policy shifted from broad welcome to selective screening.

The text traces how officials measured fitness for citizenship, the rise of literacy tests, and the role of psychiatrists in screening newcomers. It presents historical numbers on immigrants, the admitted and the barred, and the costs of care and enforcement. It also shows how concerns about mental illness, disability, and dependence influenced rules and practice.

• Learn the historical rationale behind immigration screening and the rise of rapid assessment methods
• See how statistics shaped policy decisions and the balance between safety and openness
• Understand the debate around mental health, eugenics, and public resources in early 20th‑century immigration
• Explore the lived process at places like Ellis Island and the daily work of inspectors and clinicians

Ideal for readers of immigration history, public policy, and the social history of the United States.

About this title

Product Description

Excerpt from The Employment of Intelligence Tests in the Control of Immigration

It is of vital importance to admit only those of sufficient intelligence, who, at their vocational level, can become good citizens and carry on successfully in their new environment and thus become an economic asset and not a liability or expense to the community at large.

The maudling sentiment that America should receive with open arms the poor and oppressed of all the other nations of the earth, regardless of their mental or phys ical qualifications should give way to the more sane and human view that only normal units, both physically and mentally, can make for a normal healthy efficient body politics or virile nation, and only such should be allowed to become prospective candidates for citizenship of our great Commonwealth.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Edition details

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1330203224
• ISBN 13: 9781330203224
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 36