Why Do Migrants Face Obstacles?

Key Issue #3

OLD/NEW

• OLD obstacles:– Long, and expensive passage over land or by sea– Cramped and unsanitary conditions endured by

19th century immigrants• NEW obstacles:– Gaining permission to a new country– Face hostile attitudes of citizens once they have

entered the new country

Quota Act of 1921/National Origins Act of 1924

• Quota Act of 1921/National Origins Act of 1924:– Established maximum limits on the number of

people who could immigrate to the United States during a 1 year period

– For each country that had native-born persons already living in the United States, 2 % of their number (1910 census) could immigrate each year

– Limited Eastern Hemisphere to 150,000 per year, virtually all of whom had to be from Europe

– Continued until 1960s without modifications

Immigration of 1965

• Immigration Act of 1965– Eliminated quotas for individual countries and placed

quotas on hemispheres– 170,000 from Eastern Hemisphere, 120,000 from

Western Hemisphere• 1978 Numbers:– hemisphere quota replaced by global quota of

290,000, including a maximum of 20,000 per country– Currently 620,000 global quota, no more than 7%

from one country

Current Laws

• Current Laws:– Permits 480,000 family-sponsored immigrants– 140,000 employment-related immigrants– ¾ of the immigrants admitted to reunify families,

primarily spouses or unmarried children of people already living in the United States

– Skilled workers and expectionally talented professionals receive most of the remaining 1.4 of the visas

– Others admitted by lottery under a diversity category to people from countries that historically sent few people

Current of Laws

– Does not apply to refugees– Spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens are

admitted without limit– Many well-educated Asians enter the U.S. under

the skilled worker preference• Then bring in family under the family reunification act

Brain Drain

• Brain Drain: large-scale emigration by talented people– Well-educated young people leave their native

country for better job and teaching opportunities in North America and Europe

Temporary Migration For Work

• Guest Workers: citizens of poor countries who obtain jobs in Western Europe and the Middle East– Take low status and low skilled jobs– Provide essential services such as driving buses,

collecting garbage repairing streets and washing dishes

– Send money back home; stimulate home economy

Time-Contract Workers

• Time-Contract Workers: recruited for fixed periods of time to work in mines or on plantations, many settled in their new country

Migrant vs Refugee

• Migrant vs Refugee– United States, Canada and Western Europe treat

refugees and migrants very differently– Migrants: not admitted unless they possess special

skills or have a close relative already there’– Refugees: receive special treatment

Cuba

• Cuba:– Political refugees since 1959 revolution that brought

Communist government of Fidel Castro to power– Settled in Florida, become prominent in politics and economy– 1980: Castro allowed political prisoners, criminals and mental

patients to leave Cuba; 125,000 left for United States for political asylum

– Processed in Key West and transferred to camps– Sponsors were expected to provide food and shelter– Many lived in Orange Bowl until start of football season and

then transferred to army tents under I-95

Haiti

• Haiti:– Sailed to U.S. to flee “PAPA DOC and BABY DOC’s”

dictatorships– U.S. drew lines differently, Castro was an ally of

Soviet Union– U.S. officials claimed Haitians migrated for

economic advancement, not political refugee– Haitians sue government and govt admits Haitians

Vietnam

• Vietnam:– Fled South Vietnam after the North captures Saigon– Some were able to leave on U.S. helicopters to

escape capture form the North– Others left on boats and drifted to China and Laos– Some drifted out to sea to find U.S. Naval ships

• Once aboard ships could claim refugee status for the United States

– Another surge left in the 1980s and headed for Maylaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand

U.S. Attitudes toward Immigrants

• Americans always regarded new arrivals with suspicion but tempered their dislike during the 19th century, helped build and expand the frontier of the United States

• Opposition increased when the majority of immigrants ceased to come from Northern and Western Europe– German and Irish faced harsh prejudice from so-called

“Native Americans”– Italians , Russians, Poles and other Southern and Eastern

Europeans who came in the 1900s faced much more hostility

U.S. Attitudes toward Immigrants

• 1911 study reflected these ideas towards immigrants:– Racially inferior– “inclined toward to violent crime”– Resisted assimilation– “drove old-stock citizens out of some lines of

work”

U.S. Attitudes toward Immigrants

• More Recent:– California citizens and other states have voted to

deny undocumented immigrants to most public services, schools, day-care centers, and health care services

– Difficult to enforce: reflects the unwillingness on the part of many Americans to help out needy immigrants

Guest Work in Europe• Guest worker in Europe:

– Poor social conditions– Young man who arrives in the city alone– Little money for food, housing, or entertainment– Primary job is to send as much money as possible– Lead a lonely life– Unfamiliar language and cultural activities– Spend free time at local railway stations– Disliked by many Western Europeans and oppose government

programs to improve their living conditions– Political parties are gaining support that support restrictions on

immigrants in may European countries

Guest Worker in Middle East

• Guest Worker In Middle East:– Fear that increasing number will spark political

unrest and abandonment of traditional Islamic customs

– Force migrants to return home if they wish to marry and prevent them from returning with wives and children

Anti-Immigrants

• Anti-immigrants Politicians:– “if all the immigrants were thrown out of the

country, then the unemployment rate would drop, and if all the immigrants were cut off from public programs , then taxes would drop”

– Little scientific basis and have racist overtones