Struggles Over Deracialization:A Study On The American Immigration Policy Reform,1952-1965

The criteria for choosing immigrants become the key issue of the immigration acts and policies in the United States,since the characteristics and attributes of immigrants,as the future American citizens,have been the focus of the Anericans.Based on American government documents and secondary resources,with the research methods and theories of history,politics,law and sociology,this thesis attempts to trace the debate and confrontation on imnigration policy reform from the Trunan administration to the Johnson administration,to reveal the changes of selection criteria from ethnic and national attributes to the individual characteristics of imnigrants,and to clarify the mechanism of these changes.The deracialization of American immigration policy demonstrates the development of post-war American social thoughts,economics,politics and diplomatic strategy,and reflects the new world political pattern.The thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter 1 traces the formation process of the American immigration policy system in the 1920s,focusing on the decline of Ameriean racism after the war,and the challenge of a series of special legislation during and after the war on the immigration policy,then sets the historical context of postwar immigration reform.Chapter 2 describes the first confrontation between the liberals and the conservatives at the beginning of the 1950s,focusing on the debates and struggles of both sides and exploring the factors helping the conservatives prevailed during the enacting of Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.Chapter 3 introduces the two stages of immigration policy reform during the Eisenhower administration,focusing on the debates,confrontation and compromises between the liberals and the conservatives during the enacting of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 and Refugee-Escapee Act of 1957.Chapter 4 explores the prevailing process of the liberal reformist since the 1960s,focusing on the final debates on the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 between the liberals and the conservatives,then discusses the benefits and problems of the postwar liberal reform.