Immigration
Basic Terms Immigrants Legal (with visa) Illegal (no visa or overstayed visa) Refugees Asylees Supply/Demand Dynamic Remittances
Evolution of Immigration Law Prior to the Civil War period: no restrictions 1875: prostitutes, convicts no allowed 1882: mental illness, retardation, people “likely to become a public charge” 1885: contract laborers 1903 and 1907: epileptics, vagrants, polygamists, political “radicals,” certain handicaps and unattended children
Evolution of Immigration Law 1920s: quotas on European immigration, not on Latin American immigration. Great Depression: repatriation from WII and the Bracero Program 1965: no more quotas, ceilings per country 1986: IRCA (see p. 204 in Weeks) 1996: IIRIRA (see p. 207)