History Analytical essay

Immigration Through the Turn of the 21st Century

Week 6

Agenda ➢ Lecture: “Immigration Through the Turn of the 21st Century”

○ Immigration Act of 1965 ○ Asian and Pacific Immigration post 1965

■ Filipinos ■ Indians ■ Koreans

○ Mexican Americans & Immigrants ■ Migrant Labor & Activism ■ Mexican American population 1970s-1990s ■ Operation Gatekeeper ■ Prop. 187

Moving Toward Reform ➢ Eisenhower called for reform related to

refugees ➢ Kennedy sent proposal to Congress in 1963

○ Phase out quotas over 5 years ○ No individual country receive over 10% ○ Immigration Board to advise president

■ President could authorize up to 50% of allocated numbers to persons disadvantaged by change & 20% to refugees

○ First come, first serve ➢ Lyndon Baines Johnson called for end of

National Origins Act in State of Union ○ Immigration was not most pressing

issue

- Sam Ervin

The McCarran-Walter Act was “like a mirror reflecting the United States, allowing the admission of immigrants according to a national and uniform mathematical formula recognizing the obvious and natural fact that those immigrants can best be assimilated into our society who have relatives, friends, or others of similar background already here.”

Immigration & Nationality Act, 1965 ➢ Ended national quotas ➢ 290,000 cap

○ 170,000 from Eastern Hemisphere ○ 120,000 from Western Hemisphere

➢ Retained many barriers ○ LPCs ○ Physical & Mental Health Requirements ○ Ideological Tests

➢ Signed into law Oct. 3, 1965 ➢ 1978 reform

○ Global cap of 290,000 with 20,000 per country

Changes from Reform ➢ Average of 333,000 enter US each year ➢ Since 1978, 500,000 each year ➢ Number of Immigrants from Asia Increased

○ 1977 (low) 398,089 ○ 1980 (high) 796,356

➢ Increase in refugees ➢ 20,000 cap applied unevenly

○ 1985 example ■ 61,000 from Mexico ■ 48,000 from Philippines ■ 35,000 from Korea

Immigration Change (?) Immigration & Nationality (McCarran-Walter) Act, 1952 Exempt from preference requirements and numerical quotas: spouses and unmarried minor children of US citizens

1. Highly skilled immigrants whose services are urgently needed in the US and the spouse and children of such immigrants, 50%

2. Parents of US citizens over age 21 and unmarried adult children of US citizens, 30%

3. Spouses and unmarried adult children of permanent resident aliens, 20%

4. Brothers, sisters, and married children of US citizens and accompanying spouses and children, 50% of numbers not required for 1-3

5. Nonpreference: applicants not entitled to any of the above. 50% of the numbers not required for 1-3 above, plus any not required for 4.

Immigration Act, 1965 Exempt from preference requirements and numerical quotas: spouses, unmarried minor children and parent of US citizens.

1. Unmarried adult children of US citizens, 20% 2. Spouses and unmarried adult children of permanent

resident aliens, 20% (26% after 1980) 3. Members of the professions and scientists and artists

of exceptional ability, 10% (requires certification from US Department of Labor)

4. Married children of US citizens, 10% 5. Brothers and sisters of US citizens over 21, 24% 6. Skilled and unskilled workers in occupations for which

labor is in short supply in the US, 10% (requires certification from US Department of Labor)

7. Refugees from communist or communist-dominated countries, or the Middle East, 6%

8. Nonpreference: applicants not entitled to any of the above (this has not been used)

Filipino Immigrants ➢ Upwardly mobile individuals

○ ⅔ professionals, largely in medical field ○ 20% of graduating nurses immigrated to

the US ➢ Majority women ➢ Majority Roman Catholic ➢ 46% settled in California

Indian Immigrants ➢ Almost no immigration before

1965 ➢ Diverse community ➢ Well-educated & trained

professionals ➢ Entrepreneurs

○ Often hired newly arrived relatives

Korean Immigrants ➢ 1950-1973

○ War Brides ■ 70% of Korean immigrants women

○ Religion ■ Buddhist ■ Recent converts to Protestant

Christianity ○ GI Babies

■ 6000 adoptions between 1955 and 1966

■ Often fathered by US servicemen ○ Students

Vietnamese & Southeast Asian Refugees ➢ Connected to Vietnam War ➢ 1970

○ ~10,000 Vietnamese living in US

➢ 1980 ○ 245,000 ○ Most came after 1974

➢ Southeast Asians 1990 ○ 1.25 million

➢ Young, limited education, & impoverished

➢ 46.2% settled in West; 34.8% in California; significant number in Gulf Coast

Wisconsin Historical Society

In the town of Plymouth in 1948, a Mexican woman and her six children stand on the porch of the

multiple-family housing provided to them by the pea cannery for which their husband and father

works.

United FarmWorkers

➢ Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta Organized National Farm Workers Association Sept. 1965 Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee began strike against 33 grape growers; NFWA joined.

➢ 1966 the two merged to form United Farm Workers

➢ Social justice and workers’ rights organization

Dolores Huerta

➢ Founder ➢ UFW Vice President,

1970-1973 ➢ Attention to “feminization of

poverty” among farm workers ➢ Resonated with public

Criticisms ➢ Nixon supported growers & tried

to break 1969 boycott ➢ Grape growers signed pacts with

Teamsters Union “sweetheart deals”

United Farm Workers Cont.

➢ 17 million Americans honored boycott

➢ Agricultural Labor Relations Act ○ Allowed workers to select

union by secret ballot ○ Allowed for agricultural

workers to union ➢ 1972 became United Farm

Workers of America, AFL-CIO ➢ Contracts had higher pay, health

benefits, and some pension benefits

1970s & 1980s ➢ Only 25% of Mexican

immigrants counted in 1980 census

➢ 1987: median Mexican family income $19,970 compared with median white family income of $32,270

➢ Urban ○ 1970s 85% of Mexican

Americans lived in cities

○ Men 3 times more likely to work in agriculture

➢ Most families used Spanish primarily at home but also spoke English

➢ Did not create their own Catholic schools

Operation Gatekeeper ➢ October 1994 ➢ Fortified San Diego border ➢ Decreased apprehensions by

76% between 1994 and 2004 ➢ People crossed at more

dangerous locations ➢ 1998-2019 7,500-12,000

deaths at southern borde

➢ California ➢ “Save our State” prop. ➢ Would have excluded undocumented

children from public schools and deny undocumented families health care and any public support.

➢ Intense support and opposition ➢ Passed with nearly ⅔ of the vote ➢ Caught in courts until Gov. Gray Davis,

who opted not to defend the prop.