The Importance Of Immigration To The United States

This book would be more easily reviewed when separated by chapters, as each chapter focused on a specific aspect of Third World immigration. The introduction and first chaper discussed briefly immigration prior to World War II and then how immigration shifted post-war. Prior to World War II, there were few immigrants from Third World countries. Third World immigrants then mainly came from China and Japan and not until the mid-19th century. At that time, the U.S welcomed the immigrant labour (as Chinese worked on the rail road and in gold mines), but barred social contact with them. Americans were then particularly hostile to the Chinese, with hostility ranging from anti-Chinese policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 , which was

Railroads, steamship lines, and later planes were attributed to providing information to Europeans about America. Additionally, American occupation was also credited, with Koreans becoming more aware of American culture during the Korean War. Media played a large part as well, with American TV shows and consumer goods becoming bountiful in Asia and Latin America. Not only were the impressions of American attractive, but the travel was relatively inexpensive. Excluding refugees, which will be discussed next, this showed an obvious pull factor for immigration. American goods reflected the American life that so many immigrants desired, and modern transportation made it easier to

This changed after 1960 and the U.S saw great number of Cubans and Vietnamese come to the U.S. as refugees as refugee problems in Europe significantly decreased. It began with Cuba when Fidel Castro took power in 1959 and great waves of Cuban immigrants came to the U.S. The numbers were so great that by 1962, approximately 3,000 Cubans were arriving weekly. Additionally, the U.S policies towards immigration shifted to anti-communism. As it was America's intention to wipe out communism in foreign countries, it became important to assist refugees trying to escape it. Although considered Third World, Cuban refugees included a large number of people that had high levels of education, income, and occupation (and also, as the author stated, disproportionately white). Although the 800,000 Cubans were the largest single nationality post- World War II Third World refugees, they were closely followed by the 700,000 Indochinese arriving in the mid 1970's and 1980's. The U.S was obviously deeply involved in the Vietnam War and although initially the U.S was not prepared to accept them as refugees, this quickly changed. Initially the change was mainly for Vietnamese orphans and was supported by the majority of Americans. The feeling towards the Indochinese in general was not as impressive, with only 36 percent of Americans favoring the idea of their