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An Analysis Of 1965 Amendments To The Immigration And Nationality Act

Posted on:2015-04-16Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:D WuFull Text:PDF
GTID:2296330461455208Subject:International relations
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The United States is a nation of immigrants. Immigrants make significant contribution to the political, economic, and social development of America. The first half of the twentieth century witnessed the restriction period of immigration policy. It is until 1965 the U.S. Congress passed the 1965 immigration and Nationality Act that change the situation.1965 immigration act, also called Hart-Celler Act, is described as revolutionary. First, Congress removed race from the categories governing immigration and naturalization exclusion. This was the first federal statement about access to citizenship that did not say "Negro", "white", "Oriental", or something similar. It fundamentally altered the legal basis for choosing America’s citizen population. It allowed immigration form every country and gave each country the same numeral limits, which allowed significant Asian and Latin American migration for the first time. Second, this act changes the immigration law in the past and Americans for self-identity and self-identity concept. Immigration law in the past used "self and "other" to determine the American self-identity, and the philosophical concept of "other" often depends on other races. That is why the past immigration laws always set stick restriction to other races and ethnicities except the Anglo-Saxon. The 1965 Immigration Act introduced the concept of nation to define self-identity and used other nations as the philosophical concept of "other". In the other way, this act is profoundly conservative. Initially, the aim of the sponsors of 1965 immigration act was to attract immigrants from the Western Hemisphere, especially the Northwest Europe. But to legislators unexpected is that a lot of immigrants from Eastern Hemisphere came into the U.S. because of the changes in national quotas. Consequently, the issue of undocumented immigrants became so worsening that the congress had to take measures to solve this problem. For example, in 1976 the congress enacted the Amendments of 1965 Immigration Act and a series of immigration policies in 1980s.The paper consists of three parts:introduction, main body and conclusion, and the main body contains four chapters. The introduction part is mainly about the origin and the value of the topic, research review both domestically and abroad, basis framework and the background of 1965 immigration act.Chapter One details during the 1950s the reaction of 1952 the McCarran-Walter Act. In mid 1950s, the opposition of the McCarran-Walter Act increased because this act could hardly adapt to the U.S. foreign strategy of becoming the leader of the Free World and the domestic situation of the rising postwar liberalism. The opposition of the McCarran-Walter Act focuses on three aspects:whether should end the national origins quota, how to establish refugee system, and whether should set up the Western Hemisphere quota. Meanwhile, the three aspects were the main content of 1965 Immigration Act.Chapter Two mainly discusses the legislative process of the act. The legislative history of 1965 Immigration Act is complex and convoluted. It went through three session of government and was based on a series of temporary bill and program which undermined some provisions of the McCarran-Walter Act. Through the debate of 83rd Congress to 88th Congress, in 1965 President Johnson finally enacted the 1965 Immigration Act. In a word, the 1965 Immigration Act is based on a series of temporary bill and program.Chapter Three illustrates, mainly form the political and society perspective, the reasons of the passing of 1965 Immigration Act. Possible catalysts to pass the act during the 50s and mid60s are external or foreign policy developments, such as crisis creating Hungarian and Cuban refugees, decolonization and Vietnam War; and domestic developments such as the civil rights movement, multicultural movement, and Great Society legislation promoting domestic equality and redistribution of opportunity.Chapter Four analyses the in-depth impact of the new immigration act, especially of demography, economy and society. First, the remarkable impact is the change of demography because significant Asian and Latin American crowded into U.S. Meanwhile, this change influences the fiscal burden, economic structure and so on. Second, the new immigrants improve the multicultural development and boost inter-ethnical conflict. Third, the establishment of the Western Hemisphere Quota aggregates the issue of illegal immigrants, especially the Mexico illegal immigrants. Later U.S. has to take measures to solve this problem.The last part is the conclusion which mainly analyses the significant reasons of American immigration policies, namely, racialism and utilitarianism. These two factors impact immigration policies and acts profoundly, so does 1965 Immigration Act.
Keywords/Search Tags:American immigration policy, 1965 Immigration Act, Cold War, Internationalism
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