Lawrence H. Fuchs

An Agenda for Tomorrow: Immigration Policy and Ethnic Policies

Since 1980, the Congress of the United States and three Presidents have vastly expanded immigration, mostly from Asia and Latin America. The expansion, having come as a result of policies enacted in 1980, 1986, and 1990, has stimulated a growing movement for immigration restriction. Even if that movement is partly successful, immigration is likely to continue at high levels, and it is important to pay attention to public policies that will help unify immigrants and their children as Americans. A civic unity policy agenda is suggested for the new Clinton administration that will promote civic unity while protecting ethnic diversity.

Cultural pluralism and the future of American unity: the impact of illegal aliens.

This essay explores the question of the impact of illegal migration on American unity and cultural pluralism in the United States. Assuming that over time the descendents of undocumented workers now in the United States will behave substantially like descendants of those who immigrate legally, the author concludes that the long-term impact of illegal migration barely will be noticeable provided it is reduced substantially in the future. The process of acculturation will work in the same way for both groups as it has for other ethnic groups in the past, given comparable levels of education and length of family residence in the United States. The author takes special notice of the illegal migration of Spanish-speaking workers and hypothesizes that the behavior of their descendants will not differ from the descendants of other immigrants, legal or illegal, in ways that disrupt fundamental patterns of American political unity and cultural pluralism.

What We Should Count and Why

The data on race and ethnic group collected in the U.S. census are examined. The author describes the changes that have been implemented over time in the information collected the problems involved in collecting this kind of information the reasons for collecting it and the utility of the data collected. (ANNOTATION)

Introduction: Migration Research and Immigration Policy.

When the International Migration Review was published in 1964, the most ardent immigration expansionist would never have dreamed ofthe changes that would take place in American immigration and refugee policy during the next quarter century. In Fiscal Year 1964, fewer than 300,000 immigrants were admitted; in Fiscal Year 1991, the United States admitted the highest numberin history, 1,827,167, ofwhom 1,123,162 had been legalized under the Immigration Reform and Control Act. In 1964, fewer than 2,000 refugees were admitted to the United States; in 1991, more than 100,000 refugees arrived and 139,079 other refugees adjusted their status to permanent resident alien, including a record number of22,664 asylees. Although the absolute numbers are startling, it is important to remember that the annual average number of immigrants admitted between 1982 and 1991 (including the 1990-1991 years of adjustment for newly legalized aliens) was 3.5 immigrants per 1,000 U.S. residents, compared to an annual rate more than three times as large during 1905-1914. As journalists like to emphasize, the changes1n composition of immigration to the United States since 1964 are even more startling than the increase. It seems hard to believe now but, in the 1960s, there were more French nationals than Koreans admitted as immigrants, more than twice as many Germans as Filipinos, and eight times as many Italians as Asian Indians. Many changes were the results of laws and executive decisions largely uninformed by scholarly research. Indeed, one ofthe most intriguing aspects of policy-making in this field, as in several others, is the extent to which decisions have been driven by political factors without much reference to research. Examples include the ending ofthe bracero program on December 31, 1964 and, in 1965, the end of the national origins system for

Book Review: The Dilemma of American Immigration: Beyond the Golden DoorThe Dilemma of American Immigration: Beyond the Golden Door. By CaffertyPastora San Juan, ChiswickBarry R., GreeleyAndrew M., and SullivanTeresa A.New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1983.

tribesmen and created a supply that was tapped for Queensland plantations (Graves); the introduction of steam transportation and the importation of cotton manufactures destroyed the livelihood of many Chinese who then became available for labor in South African mines (Richardson); and the opening of Western Hemisphere mines decimated the demand for Cornish tin and copper thereby releasing Cornish miners for employment in those same New World mines (Gilles).