David M. Reimers

Post-World War II Immigration to the United States: America's Latest Newcomers

During the 1920s, Congress drastically curtailed immigration from Europe and barred Asians. The Johnson- Reed Act of 1924 completed the restictions and established the national origins system. After World War II, Congress reaffirmed that system with the enactment of the McCarran- Walter Act in 1952. But Congress also began to liberalize im migration policy, largely on a piecemeal basis. In 1965, Con gress repealed the national origins quotas and restrictions against Asians and substituted a preference system based upon family unification, occupations, and refugee status. Still other changes in the 1970s modified the immigration laws further and permitted additional immigrants to enter. The changes in policy led to an increase in the number of immi grants arriving and also led to shifting patterns of immigration. Immigrants coming after 1945 were more apt to be refugees and to be of higher skills than before. And the majority were now female. From 1945 to 1965, most European immigrants were from northern and western European countries, but by the 1970s, southern and eastern European nations supplied the bulk of European immigrants to America. After 1965 another important shift was apparent: Third World nations re placed Europe as the major sending regions, and by the late 1970s, the vast majority of Americas latest newcomers were from the Third World.

More Liberal Than We Thought: A Note on Immediate Family Member Immigrants of U.S. Citizens

Since the enactment of the Hart-Celler Act of 1965, a growing number of persons have achieved immigrant status because they were “immediate family members” of United States citizens (defi ned as spouses, unmarried minor children, and parents of adult U.S. citizens). Entering as an immediate family member has a huge advantage: there was no limit in numbers compared to the regular preferences. For some nations, many of the regular categories were backlogged for years, but immediate family members could usually be approved in less than one year. In 1968, the year the Hart-Celler Act became eff ective, immediate family members totaled 43,670, which was not too far from the number predicted when the legislators were debating the new immigration law. 1 Yet the growing number of immediate family members quickly became a major source for immigration. In 1996, immediate family members of U.S. citizens totaled 300,439, about one-third of the immigration for that year. 2 By the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst century, immediate family members had become the major source for immigration. Th e table below indicates this pattern for the years 2008–10. Immediate family members accounted for over 40 percent of immigrants, and were nearly one-half in 2009.

Book Review: Immigrant Life in New York City 1825–1863Immigrant Life in New York City 1825–1863. By ErnstRobert. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1994. Pp. 331.

As is often the case with an edited book, the quality of chapters included varies ftom the excellent to the merely passable. Despite this unevenness, the contributions ftom a wide range of disciplines naturally makethe book appealing fur anyone interested in the general phenomena ofimmigration and multiculturalism. Myersopening chapter offersa ftesh perspective on how the United States has constructed a dominantlywhite-majority society by having fashioned its immigration policy against supply-and-demand-determined market forces in the past. It also touches on the idea of international distributional justice, that the enterprising ancestors ofthe European race have succeeded in taking an earlier commanding control of the spacious New World. The concrete chapters on the blacks, the Southeast Asians, the Central Americans, the Cubans, the Ethiopians, and the Koreans imbue the thought that they are distinct from the mainstream white Americans, but that they themselves are quite heterogeneous within each group. This reviewer, a resident of Canada, is attracted to comparative approaches between the similar two North American countries. However, surprisingly little is mentioned about Canada. On the other hand, a piece on the Southern Pacific, which seems to be out of place in the book on the United States, is inserted as a point of comparison. It isworth pointing out that this book has many typographical errors, some of which even afkct the substantial content. While it presents us with rich empirical data, critical readers are left with deep so-what questions in the disciplines of social sciences. Does the change which has taken place in American society urge us to rethink the tools of analysis? What is the relevanceoftaking up subcultures as different? Does this culture-sensitive approach go against the universalist conception ofhuman being?

South and east Asian immigration into the united states: From exclusion to inclusion

Asians were the first immigrants to be excluded from migrating to the United States. Congress banned the Chinese in 1882, and the Gentlemens Agreement (1908) limited Japanese migration. Further restrictions came in 1917 and with the passing of the Oriental Exclusion Act of 1924. By the time of the Second World War it appeared as if Asians would not be able to emigrate to the United States. Yet by the late 1970s Asian immigration reached a new high point and accounted for about 40 per cent of the total immigration. Changes in immigration law, beginning with the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Acts in 1943 and culminating with the 1965 amendments to the basic laws, opened the door again for Asian immigration. Growing ethnic and racial toleration, a healthy economy and foreign policy considerations made it possible for reformers to change the law. Yet Congress did not foresee how Asians would be able to use the new preference system. Nor did the legislators foresee the fall of the American‐backed government...

Book Review: Today's Immigrants, Their StoriesToday's Immigrants, Their Stories. By KessnerThomas and CaroliBetty. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. Pp. 317.

Todays Immigrants, Their Stories is intended for a general rather than a scholarly audience, though the book has value for scholars, too. Basically an historical narrative and analysis combined with oral history, it contains a brief bibliography, a useful appendix, but no footnotes. What these two authors have done, and with great success, is to present, in proper perspective, oral histories of recent immigrants to New York City. Although the style, form and contents are quite different from Beyond the Melting Pot, because of its New York City focus, it does bring that book up-to-date in some respects and explains the ethnic changes in New Yorks newcomers since the 1965 Immigration Act. Like Beyond the Melting Pot, Todays Immigrants includes blacks, Hispanics, Irish, Italians and Jews. But the new Jewish immigrant is from the Soviet Union, the black is a West Indian and the Hispanics are not Puerto Rican. The authors excellent selections reflect the major shifts in migration to New York, for in addition to the above mentioned groups, they have included Greeks, Koreans, Indochinese and Chinese. In their introduction Kessner and Caroli have explained clearly and accurately the changes due to the new legislation and present world pressures for immigration to the United States. They have also integrated the history of particular groups to their most recent immigration. Writing the introduction was no easy task, and on the whole the authors have done a good job of being both concise and informative while placing recent immigration in proper historical perspective. Oral history sometimes suffers from a lack of informative introductions and explanations, but that is not the case with Todays Immigrants. Ultimately a book containing so much oral