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Immigration Policies
Describe U.S. Immigration policies within a historical framework.
The current policies of the United States toward immigration are much different when compared to the historical strategies of the country. As: work was bountiful, immigrants were entering the nation in droves, and the availability of jobs was suited to employ the masses of people. The reason why is because historically, immigration was encouraged. This is because, it was considered to a part of building of a new country which required: many hands and individuals from different classes in society.
The earliest immigrants were either characterized as being from: Northern European countries or they were Africans, who were forcefully sent to the nation as slaves. This is because of the promise of better financial circumstances led many to relocate to America (in effort to seek out these opportunities). While this persisted for those emigrating from their places of birth, the perception of immigrants and the aspirations to encourage them began to dwindle for Americans in the late 19th century. What happened was shift occurred in where they were coming from. At which point, most immigrants on the East Coast were much darker such as: Italians, Slavs, and Eastern Jews. The West Coast began to see Japanese and Chinese immigrants arriving in droves (Benton, 2010, pg. 4).
One of the first limitations in immigration policy occurred in 1893, as this coincidentally involved deporting an Asian immigrant. As, the case Fong Yue Ting v U.S. marked the restrictions on immigration of those nationalities and groups...
This is important, because this allowed the federal government to become empowered in restricting not only Chinese immigrants, with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, but all races and ethnicities. As, specific groups that were targeted based on: the assumption that they were physically or morally unfit to adapt socially to American society (Hester, 2010, pp. 11-12).
This shift in U.S. policy toward immigration is partly through the reluctance of Americans to offer the same opportunities to: races and ethnicities deemed from lower social economic groups. Another reason is that the amount of immigrants increased the foreign portion of the population to 14.7%. This caused many Americans to become concerned. As they were surrounded by new nationalities, an abundance of languages, and they questioned whether these people should be allowed to live in the country. (Benton, 2010, pg. 4).
To counter the swelling growth of this group of the population, the Immigration Act of 1907 was approved by Congress. As this forbid, those individuals with Japanese passports the right enter the country. This law began the federal government's role in limiting immigration (Benton, 2010, pg. 8). What happened was literacy tests for immigrants and the exclusion of Asian immigrants were approved by Congress in 1917 (despite three presidential vetoes). (Benton, 2010, pg. 19). Quotas on immigration began in 1929 as the United States relished in the ideas of isolationism. Under this policy the total number of immigrants was limited to one tenth of the population. These limitations…
Bibliography
Androff, D. (2011) U.S. Immigration Policy and Immigrant Children's Well-
Being: The Impact of Policy Shifts. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare. 10 (5).
Benton, K. (2010). The Rude Birth Immigration Reform. Wilson Quarterly. 34 (3).
Hester, T. (2010). Protection not Punishment: Legislative and Judicial Formation of U.S.
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