| This dissertation seeks to grasp the history, the construction, the impact, and the fallout of the 19791981 Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. It does so using a combination of discourse analysis and historical memory techniques, following substantial analysis of U.S. immigration policy and the construction of immigration commissions generally.;The most major finding is a series of parallels between the SCIRP and previous major Commissions and Immigration Acts, where none has been previously recognized. Like the 1907-1911 "Dillingham Commission", both Commissions set out to seek a solution to what was widely seen as a downward trend for immigrant quality, and that both Commissions subsequently found themselves crafting policy that belied their internal agreements. And like the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, the SCIRP set out to craft a new set of policies that would enable the U.S. to gain control over the immigration from less-preferred sources, and to decrease immigration overall, only to ultimately craft policies that resulted in massive new inflows. Furthermore, the ramifications of the fallout from the SCIRP's recommendations on the IRCA is visible in the 21st century context as part of a move away from policymaking as technocratic endeavor to policymaking as an ideological brawl. |
