Selected Events in
__________________________________________________
Colonial times:
Simultaneous drive for religious homogeneity (especially in
1789:
Constitution gives Congress the right to establish naturalization law.
1790:
Naturalization law limits citizenship to immigrants who are free and white
1798:
Alien and Sedition laws give president the right to deport aliens. (Laws
expired soon thereafter)
1807:
Importation of African slaves made unlawful, effective 1808
1840s - 1880: First major wave of
immigrants, roughly 250,000 per year. (For many decades
before 1840 immigrants had probably numbered about 20,000 per year.)
Mainly Northern Europeans fleeing crop failures, but also Chinese attracted to
1875:
Second restrictive law (after elimination of slave immigration) -- no convicts
or prostitutes
1880s - 1920:
Second major wave of immigrants. Mainly Eastern and Southern Europeans
1882:
Chinese Exclusion Act prohibits admission of Chinese laborers
1882: Further restrictions: lunatics,
idiots, convicts (except political convicts), and people likely to become
public charges. More restrictions in 1891
(polygamists and those with loathsome or dangerously contagious diseases) and 1907 (imbeciles, feebleminded, people
with physical defects that might affect their ability to make a living, those
with tuberculosis [then a leading cause of death in the
1907:
Gentleman's Agreement eliminates immigration from
1919:
Red scare results in deportation of alien radicals
1921, 1924, 1927:
national origins quota system established, calibrated against 1920 census. Both
limits the volume of immigration and effectively restricts it to European
immigration
1930s:
the Great Depression -- net migration is negative
1942-1964:
Bracero contract labor program brings farm laborers
in from
1943:
Chinese immigrants become eligible for citizenship
1945:
War Brides Act permits admission of foreign-born spouses and children of American
servicemen and servicewomen
1948, 1950, 1953, 1957, 1960,
1975, 1980: various laws admitting various kinds
of refugees, usually beyond the quotas
1952: The McCarran-Walter Immigration
and Naturalization Act continues the national origins quota system while
establishing a system of preferences within quotas for skilled workers and
relatives of citizens
1960-today:
Third major wave of immigration (about 1.2 million per year). Mostly from the Western hemisphere (especially
1982:
Supreme Court in Phyler v. Doe rules that states cannot deny
children of undocumented immigrants access to public
schools
1986:
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA): 1) grants amnesty to undocumented
immigrants in US since before 1982, and 2) establishes penalties for business
that knowingly hire undocumented immigrants
1990:
Immigration Act of 1990 increases the overall immigration quota and raises the
number of employment visas
1996: Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) increases restrictions on undocumented
immigrants and asylum seekers; increases resources to tighten border control.
1996:
Anti-Terrorism Act increases the number of immigrants in detention
Sources:
Bischoff.
2002. Immigration Issues.
Levine,
Daniel B., Kenneth Hill, and Robert Warren (eds). 1985. Immigration
Statistics: A Story of Neglect.
Heer,
David. 1996. Immigration in
Green,
Nicole W. 2002. Immigration.
Weeks, John R. 2005.
Population: An Introduction to Concepts
and Issues. 9th ed.
Section of
“The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Source:
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Edited
by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by
Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton
Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. http://www.bartleby.com/59/6/givemeyourti.html
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