Immigration since 1920

After the First World War, migration from Europe was on a much smaller scale. In 1921 new rules restricted the number of immigration allowed from each country – and favoured northern Europeans. they allowed less than 6,000 people a year from Italy, but ten times as many from Britain – though the quotas were amended after 1929.

But soon the great depression then the Second World War, played their part in restricting the flow further still, and since then the small numbers coming from Europe have been very different from the earlier generations. Professors, engineers, scientists and doctors have come , particularly form Britain, to better conditions of work and much higher pay than they would find in Europe. Intellectuals and specialists of every kind have brought their special skills to reinforce American industry, commerce, education, research, arts and entertainment. Many of these people have received their education and training at the expense of the taxpayers of their own home countries.

Even among these well-qualified people, some have been refugees from persecution. It would have been hard one single group who have brought such benefits to America as the Jews who escaped from Germany and Austria, many of them after experiencing great difficulties, both at home and on the way.

Immigration from Europe has declined even more since 1950s, though the flow of doctors, nurses and scientists from Britain caused anxiety in that country about what is called the 'brain drain' to America. Fewer European settlers came in the 15 years form1970 to 1985 than in one year of 1907. One reason for the change is the increasing prosperity of Western Europe, another the difficulty of leaving Eastern Europe. But there are plenty of people living temporarily in the USA, with permits to work but not to stay indefinitely. There is not only a brain drain, but also a continuous flow both ways across the Atlantic as professors and managers make their careers partly on one side, partly on the other side, bringing America and Europe closer to each other. Meanwhile, the main sources of immigration have been increasingly outside Europe, mainly Central America and the Caribbean but also Asia, and to a lesser extent from Africa. By the 1960s quite large numbers had come from the American Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico, and then after 1959, many thousands of opponents of the new regime in Cuba were accepted as refugees. At that time it was widely felt that the old immigration policy had been racist. In response to this, quotas for countries in Africa and Asia were increased or allowed for the 1^st time.

One and a half million came from Asia in the 1970s, ten times as many as in the 1950s, and the flow from Asia grew in th 1980s. But the biggest source of immigrants since the 1960s has been Latin America, particularly Mexico – and among the people from Mexico the biggest element has probably been illegal. The 2 thousand kilometre border between the USA and Mexico is not very difficult to cross. There are no mines or other frightening obstacles. There are guards, but they do not shoot. Every year they catch tens of thousands trying to cross and send t hem back, but tens of thousands make their way without being caught. They are not all Mexicans, some come through Mexico from Guatemala or further south.

According to the official figures, the USA has lately been receiving about half a million immigrants a year. But the figures do not include the uncounted people who come from Mexico illegally. It is generally believed that the true figure is several times as great.

In 1987 a new form of indirect control of immigration was brought into effect, against the wishes of some business interests as well as humanitarian liberals. It became a punishable offence to employ people without proper documentation. As a result, the number of people caught trying to enter the USA illegally from Mexico declined, Meanwhile, people who can show that they have worked in the US for 5 years can apply for, and normally obtain documents entitling them to stay and eventually to apply for naturalization as US citizen.

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 776