1882

• Chinese Exclusion Act– Restricts all Chinese laborers– Bars Chinese naturalization

• Immigration Act of 1882– Specifically made regulation of immigration the

duty of the Federal Government (Treasury)– Barred those likely to become public charges

Asian Immigration

• Pre 1882 Chinese immigrants• 1882-1907 Japanese• 1907-1934 Filipinos• 1882-1923 Punjabi Sikhs

1892

• Chinese Exclusion Act was renewed,• Extended indefinitely in 1902.• Australia excluded Chinese in 1901.• Canada restricted Chinese in 1923.

Immigration Act of 1917

• Instituted Literacy Requirement• Created “Asiatic Barred Zone”. Barred all

immigration from Asia. • Expanded powers of immigration officers to

exclude or deport people.• Public Health Service to do screening for

diseases.

Dillingham Commission

• 1907-1911– 42 Volumes– Recommended restriction of immigration.– Contained a great deal of debate and testimony

about the “racial” inferiority of immigrants from Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe

Movement to Restrict Immigration

• Racial origins of Southern and Western Europeans

• Worries about Socialists and Communists• Religious prejudice against Jews and Catholics• Concern about immigrants undermining

wages and organized labor• Immigrant advocates advocated a “pause” for

assimilation to occur.

1924 Johnson Reed Act

• Limited immigration from the Eastern Hemisphere to 154,000 per year.

• Created visas, and screening by consuls abroad.

• Created Border Patrol• Did not limit the Western Hemisphere• Used 1890 Census Figures to determine

national origins quotas

1924 Johnson Reed Act

• 83% of immigrants were to come from North and West Europe

• 15% were to come from Southern and Eastern Europe

• 2% were to come from the rest of the world• Barred all people who were ineligible for

citizenship. Asiatic Barred Zone

Controlling Immigration

• INS created in 1924 – In Labor Department until 1942

• Laws limiting public charges• Depression: 400,000 Mexicans--”Voluntary

Repatriation” 50% of deportees were born in US and thus citizens.

Mexicans and Immigration Restriction

• Dillingham Commission heard a lot of racist testimony about Mexicans and Southern Central and Eastern Europeans.

• Congressman testified:– Illiterate, unclean peonized masses…a mixture of

Mediterranean blooded Spanish peasants with low grade Indians who did not fight extinction but submitted and multiplied as serfs. The influx of Mexicans creates the most insidious and general mixture of white, Indian and Negro blood strains ever produced in America.

Immigration from Mexico

• 1848 Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican American War.– United States annexed CA, AZ, NM, CO, TX

• 1910-1917 Mexican Revolution and economic development created push factor in Mexico.

• Border 2000 miles long. History of back and forth movement.

• No restrictions except for “public charge” restriction which was used to deport people during the depression

Bracero Program

• 1942-1964 FARM Labor• US underwrote travel costs• Guaranteed just and equitable treatment• 5 million people came. Meant to be

temporary. Many stayed.

1965 Law Hart-Celler Act

• Replaced Quotas with Uniform Limit Per Country. Preference System

• Limited Western Hemisphere for first time• Came along with Civil Rights Legislation. Introduced

by Kennedy. Passed under Johnson.• Principles: Family Reunification. Employment.

Refugees.• Unintended Consequences. Asian and Latin American

immigration.

President Johnson Signing 1965 Law on Liberty Island

Intended Consequences

• Law was intended to end racial discrimination:• Lyndon Johnson:

– This system violates the basic principle of American democracy—the principle that values and rewards each man on the basis of his merit as a man. It has been un-American in the highest sense, because it has been untrue to the faith that brought thousands to these shores even before we were a country. 1965

• See more at: http://www.lbjlibrary.org/lyndon-baines-johnson/timeline/lbj-on-immigration#sthash.sgXhlwqu.dpuf

Unintended Consequences

• Lawmakers argued it would not increase numbers of immigrants or the ethnic mix.– Attorney General Robert Kennedy:

• I would say for the Asia Pacific Triangle it immigration would be approximately 5,000 Mr.Chairman, after which immigration from that source would virtually disappear; 5,000 immigrants would come the first year, but we do not expect that there would be any great influx after that.

Unintended Consequences

• Rep. Emanuel Celler– Immigrants from Asia and Africa will have to compete and

qualify in order to get in, quantitatively and qualitatively, which, itself will hold the numbers down. There will not be, comparatively, many Asians or Africans entering this country. Since the people of Africa and Asia have very few relatives here, comparatively few could immigrate from those countries because they have no family ties in the US.

• August 25, 1965.

Unintended Consequences

• Senator Edward Kennedy:– The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants.

It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs. Feb 10, 1965.

Legacies of the Law

• Created three categories of people– Immigrants (Family/Employment)– Refugees/Asylees– Illegal/Undocumented Immigrants

• Family Chain Migration is Unlimited.• Large increase in immigration• Immigration increases from Latin America,

Asia and the Caribbean.

0

10

20

30

40

1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Foreign-Born Population (millions)

Percent Foreign-Born of Total

Immigrant Numbers Peak in 1930 —Still Shrinking by 1970

14.2 Million

9.6 Million

Source: Compilation from Decennial Censuses, 1850-2000;Pew Hispanic Trends, 1995-2012 (Passel, et al. 2013).

0

10

20

30

40

1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Foreign-Born Population (millions)

Percent Foreign-Born of Total

Immigrant Numbers Grow Rapidly—Doubling by 1990

Source: Compilation from Decennial Censuses, 1850-2000;Pew Hispanic Trends, 1995-2012 (Passel, et al. 2013).

19.8 Million14.2 Million

9.6 Million

0

10

20

30

40

1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Foreign-Born Population (millions)

Percent Foreign-Born of Total

Immigrant Numbers Continue Growing — Doubling Again by 2007

Source: Compilation from Decennial Censuses, 1850-2000;Pew Hispanic Trends, 1995-2012 (Passel, et al. 2013).

40.5 Million(2007, adj.)

14.2 Million

9.6 Million

19.8 Million

Refugees• 1951 International Law on Refugees• Definition: Someone with a well founded fear of

persecution based on race, religion, national origin, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

• Refugees apply from a third country, not their home country, but they are not in the US.

• Someone seeking asylum, an asylee, applies after arriving in the United States.

• US ratified that law in 1968. 1980 Refugee Act adopted that international definition as our own.

• Refugees get government assistance. Program of resettlement. Legal status.

2011 Refugees

• 56,384 refugees– Burma (30%)– Bhutan (27%)– Iraq (17%)– Somalia (6%)– Cuba (5%)– Eritrea (4%)– Iran (4%)

Refugees

• Number set each year according to State Department and world conditions– 1970’s 1980’s some years over 200,000– 1990’s 2000’s less, peak year 1992 it was 142,000

• 2000 to 2007 cap was 70,000

Asylees

• 24,988 in 2011– China (29%)– Venezuela (7%)– Haiti (6%)– Egypt (6%)– Ethiopia (4%)

Current Immigration

• Worldwide cap of 675,000 visas per year.• 480,000 for family reunification• 140,000 for employment• 55,000 for diversity• 120,000 for refugees (outside cap)• Per country ceiling of 25,600 visas includes family

and non family immigrants. (But immediate family is not included in the numbers adding to the ceiling.).

2009 Statistics

• 1,130,818 legal immigrants• Estimate: 500,000 undocumented• 33.7 million non immigrant arrivals

Immigration Categories

• 2006• Immediate Family 46%• Extended Family 17%• Employment 13%• Diversity 3%• Refugees 17%

Current Preference System• FIRST: Priority Workers. Outstanding ability. Managers.

Professors. Multinational Executives 40,000• SECOND: Professions holding advanced degrees. 40,000• THIRD: Skilled labor (two years training) 40,000. (5,000

can go to unskilled)• FOURTH: Special immigrants, including ministers.

(10,000)• FIFTH: Investors 500,000 to 3 million to invest. Employ

10 workers (10,000)

2006

• 1, 266,264 people got Legal Permanent Residence (LPR).

• (In 2000 it was 841,002)• 45.8% were immediate relative of US citizen.• 17.5 % came through a family sponsored preference• 12.6 % came through an employment preference• 17.1% were refugees or asylees• 3.5 % won the diversity lottery

2006 Non Immigrant Admissions• 33.7 million (not counting Mexicans and

Canadians with border cards)• Number of arrivals, not persons.• Temporary admissions 29.9 million (89%)

– 24.8 million tourists– 5 million business

• Temporary workers and trainees (incl. spouses and children– 1, 709, 953 (5% of total)

• Students and their families– 1,168,020 (3.5%)

1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

Source: bcs.e.8

Other Nonimmigrant Admissions

<

1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

Source: bcs.e.7.4

Foreign-Student ArrivalsNumber

Why Do Americans Care About Undocumented Immigrants?

• Why do some Americans feel so strongly about undocumented immigrants?

U.S. Undocumented Immigrants

• Before 1965 it was not really an issue.• 1974 “Discovery” of 4-12 million.• Delphi Method: 8 million.• Apprehensions as main source of data.• 1986 IRCA Law

– 1.75 million people working since 1982– special agricultural workers 1.27 million

Changes in the Debate

Bush vs Reagan 1980http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYHMwEdvIk

Ronald Reagan 1984• http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfHKIq5z80U