immigration policy debates Goshen High School June 23 2011 Dr Steven M Nolt The big picture Patterns of immigration in US history and some implications for today ID: 677586
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Slide1
Historical context for today’s
immigration policy debates
Goshen High School June 23, 2011
Dr. Steven M. NoltSlide2
The
big picture
:
Patterns of immigration in U.S. history and some implications for
today
Immigrants then and now:
Five similarities and differences
Origins of immigration restriction and the beginning of legal/illegal immigration (1882-present)Current (1965) framework for immigration policy: Changes and unintended consequences
Outline of presentation:Slide3
CLARIFYING TERMINOLOGY:
•
Authorized immigration/unauthorized immigration
• “Immigration” and choiceSlide4
THE BIG PICTURE:
Patterns
of immigration in U.S.
history
Immigration is a multi-sided process
Push factors, pull factors, and means of travel
Talking about U.S. immigration policy is one part of a larger international puzzleSlide5
Movement of people,
movement of borders:
Two examples:
Example 1: In the 1600s and 1700s, supply and demand for labor resulted in a great deal of forced immigration from Africa and EuropeSlide6
Status of immigrants to what would become the United States (%)
Years
Slaves Prisoners
Indentured Free
servants
labor1607-1699 17 1 49 331700-1775 47 9 18 26Source: Aaron S. Fogleman, “From Slaves, Convicts, and Servants to Free Passengers: The Transformation of Immigration in the Era of the American Revolution,”
Journal of American History
85 (June 1998), 43-76.Slide7
Example 2: In 1848, the U.S. border crossed about 75,000 people living in northern Mexico.Slide8
Immigration has been a major factor in the U.S. population and economy from the 1600s to the 2000s
Two exceptional periods when immigration was less common: 1775-1815 and 1925-1965
Every year, more people have entered the U.S. than have left, except for 1932-1935Slide9
Another part of the pattern: Reverse migration; people leave the U.S. to return to their country of origin
For many European immigrants, coming to America was a strategy to make money to send back or take back to country-of-origin
Between 1860-
1930, somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of all immigrants to the
United States did not stay permanently.Slide10
Remigration Rates: 1890-1930
Bulgarians
87 %
Romanians 66 %Russians
65 %Greeks 54 %Hungarians 47 %
Italians 46 %
Slovaks 36 %
Poles 33 %French 24 %Finns 22 %Examples from Thomas Archdeacon, Becoming American: An Ethnic History (New York: Free Press, 1983), p. 139.Slide11
A final pattern:
For much of U.S. history, the percentage of the U.S. population that was foreign born was a constant 13-14%Slide12
Foreign born as percentage of U.S. population
1860 13.2 %
1870 14.0
1880 13.3
1890 14.7 1900 13.6 1910 14.7
1920 13.2
1930 11.6Slide13
The lowest point in the foreign-born percentage of the U.S. population was 1970
In 1970, only 4.7 % of the U.S. population was foreign born (and they were disproportionately elderly)Slide14
Foreign born as percentage of U.S. population
1860 13.2 %
1870 14.0
1880 13.3
1890 14.7 1970 4.7 %1900 13.6 1910 14.7 1990 7.9
1920 13.2 2000 11.1
1930 11.6 2009 12.5Slide15
Immigrants then and now:
Five
similarities and differences
1. ORIGINS: 1820-1920
– 85% from
Europe Today – 75
% from Latin America and Asia 40% of today’s immigrants come from five countries:MexicoIndiaChina
Philippines
Vietnam Slide16
Immigrants then and now:
Five similarities and differences
2. AGE AND FAMILY PROFILE:
1820-1920
–
Overwhelmingly single young adult men
Today
– Still disproportionately youth and young adult, but more balanced sex-ratios and more familiesSlide17
Immigrants then and now:
Five similarities and differences
3. EDUCATION LEVEL:
1820-1920 – Typically had
less formal education than general population
Today
–
Typically have less and more formal education than general populationSlide18
Education level of
immigrants (age 25
+) in New York
City, late 20th century
Source
: Nancy
Foner
,
From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration
(Yale, 2000
).
Education completed by post-1965 immigrants aged 16-64, and native-born population.Slide19
Immigrants then and now:
Five similarities and differences
4
. SOCIALLY:
A similarity between 1820-1920 and today – the most recent immigrants
face
resistance or resentment from other
AmericansSlide20
Immigrants then and now:
Five similarities and differences
5
. POLITICALLY:
Prior to 1920 in many
places,
immigrant men could vote even if they were not naturalized. This is a difference between then and now, and gave European immigrant communities a bit more political influence in shaping the society that they were joining.Slide21
Origins of immigration restriction and the beginning of legal/illegal immigration
Immigration and the Constitution
1875 U.S. Supreme Court: immigration is exclusively federal domainSlide22
1882 CHINESE EXCLUSION ACT
Began a process of seeking to limit immigration to “desirable” populations
1907 ban on Japanese immigration
1917 general ban on immigration from all of Asia (except Philippines)Asians were “aliens ineligible for citizenship”Slide23
OTHER EXAMPLES OF RESTRICTING IMMIGRATION
1891 barred insane, paupers, those persons
suffering from
contagious
disease, felons, polygamists, and (after 1903) anarchists. In
percentage terms,
few turned away for any of these reasons (less than 1%)
1917 Literacy testRestriction movement culminated in National Origins Act (1924) that banned immigration from Asia and severely limited immigration from eastern and southern Europe. No numeric limits on Canada or Latin AmericaSlide24
After 1882, with immigration limited for the first time, it was now possible to have unauthorized entry (illegal immigration)
—
Excluded Europeans and Asians went to Canada or Mexico and crossing into U.S.Slide25
U.S. Supreme Court grappled with the constitutional implications of
restricted
immigration: Did government have the power to deport, and if so, on what grounds?
1893 Fong Yue Ting v. U.S.
Federal power to deport, but it is a civil proceeding not a criminal one1924 creating of U.S. Border PatrolSlide26
Special situation of immigration from Mexico
• Combination
of legal welcome and ill-treatment (
examples from 1910s and 1930s)Congress repeatedly exempted Mexico from immigration restriction
measures Congressmen from Western states and Texas very much wanted Mexican workers and wanted an open trade border with MexicoBracero
program for ‘guest workers’ (1942-1964
)
4.7 million participants“Operation Wetback,” 1954Slide27
Our current framework
for immigration policy:
Changes and
unintended consequencesCold War political pressure to reform immigration policy culminated in 1965
Hart-Celler Act:Did away with the 1924 racially-discriminatory categories for the Eastern Hemisphere,
but
placed Western Hemisphere under quota limit for the first time.
Ended Bracero program.Retained a cap on number of immigrants each year, but now allotted visa slots in a way that deemphasized work skills and employment preferencesSlide28
Consequences of 1965 immigration reform
Immigration
from Asia swelled
Immigration from Latin America was suddenly restricted in significant ways
Employment-based visa allotments do not match labor supply and demandBy the late 1970s, unauthorized immigration had become a major political debateSlide29
Federal policy debates
President Ronald Reagan combined tighter border enforcement with path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants (1986)
Since 1990, emphasis has been on border enforcement. Not much interest in changing visa allotments. Not much attention to the larger push-and-pull factors behind immigration