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When using historic documents, researchers need to be aware of the language and terminology used within the publications. Much of the language is these documents is outdated and harmful, and while it it seen as socially inappropriate, many government documents continue to use this language today. Below, there is some context for the language and how the language has evolved into the terms we currently use. All terms that are bolded is language that is appropriate and preferred.
The term “alien” is seen in most government documents from the year 1790 to present (in many states).This term is not currently an appropriate term to refer to these individuals. California, Colorado, and New York are some of the states that have begun to take action to remove the word “alien” from their labor codes. In 2021, The Biden Administration began to seek the change of the word “alien” to “non-citizen” in recognition of the negative connotations behind the word. Currently the term most commonly used is “immigrant”.
The term “illegal” is a word that is still used to describe immigrants who have not yet obtained legal status. This term is not currently an appropriate term to use to refer to these individuals. Referring to individuals as “illegal”, places blame on the individual for an issue that is systematic. The discourse surrounding this change raises the question of the “legality” of the first settlers immigration. Currently the most commonly used term is “undocumented”.
A refugee is described as “a person outside his or her country of nationality who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of nationality because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”. However an asylum seeker or “asylee” is described with the same definition and criteria as a refugee but their process of gaining residency is very different as well as their entry into the US. Refugees must apply for refugee status outside of the US, while asylee must already be in the country or at a port of entry. Exiles are people who were forced to leave their country due to many of the reasons listed above and including economic or political conflict.
A displaced person is a person who has been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters. Unlike asylees, refugees, and exiles, a displaced person is still residing in their home country.
In many government documents, the term “Hispanic” is used interchangeably with “Latin Americans”. The government documents are not referring to the language but the people, so they are incorrectly utilizing the word Hispanic. The U.S Census also currently categorizes Hispanics and Latinos as one. Though many Latin Americans are also Hispanic, there are many that are not. Hispanic refers to people from Spanish speaking countries (Excluding Brazil and Haiti) and Latin American refers to people from Latin American Countries (Excluding Spain). Latin Americans is still a term used today along with Latinos, and recently with more inclusive terms such as Latines and Latinx. Hispanic is appropriate when referring to people from Spanish speaking origins, but not when referring to all people of Latin American heritage.
Women are often left out of immigration laws, as in certain instances, immigration laws specify male immigrants, and his wife and children. Many immigration laws pertained to men, as women's legal existence was tied to their husbands, meaning women were citizens of whichever country their husbands were from. An American woman would lose American citizenship if her husband was foreign, and foreign woman would gain American citizenship if their husband was American.
One of the first laws that pertained to women was the The Page Act of 1875, which was enacted to prohibit the immigration of women for “immoral purposes” but was specifically targeted towards Chinese women. Chinese women were heavily hypersexualized in the media and had been described as “lustful” and “sensual” and claimed to be prostitutes. Declaring them to be a threat to married white men, the The Page Act was enacted to prohibit them from entering the country unless they could prove they were “respectable women”.
Vanessa Garcia Vazquez has undergraduate degrees in English, with an emphasis in Technical Communications and Rhetoric, and Criminal Justice from Utah State University. During her time at USU, she was a student staff member of the Government Information Collection, part of Special Collections & Archives at the Merrill-Cazier Library.
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