Why Do Migrants Face Obstacles?

Oregon Trail What was the Oregon Trail? What were some obstacles? How did people deal with these? How has the time-space convergence influenced this? How are things different today?

Major Historical Obstacles Getting there- transportation Disease Starvation/Dehydration Lack of knowledge of terrain/world/land/other areas Financial limitations Time Geography/nature Political restrictions Nativism

Modern Obstacles The commute/travel/getting there was one of the biggest before the 1900s- it is still a big obstacle today- distance decay is evident in this. Still the travel is certainly more manageable and doesn’t take too long (back of a truck, coach on an airplane, on board a smaller ship- most immigrants are working class) Gaining permission to enter a new country Hostility towards foreigners (nativism) Money- financial limitations

Obstacles Most countries have adopted policies to control immigration and workers from foreign countries wishing to enter a country The US uses a quota system to limit the number because we have such overwhelming numbers of would-be immigrants as well as time-contract workers Many other countries like in Western Europe and the Middle East permit guest workers in to work but not stay indefinitely

Guest Workers in Europe Fig. 3-9: Guest workers emigrate mainly from Eastern Europe and North Africa to work in the wealthier countries of Western Europe.

Obstacles In 1882, the US limited Asian immigration with the Chinese Exclusion Act In 1904, we signed the Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan to limit which Japanese could enter our country Up until 1945, most Asian immigration was severely limited In 1921 the Quota Act was passed and in 1924 the National Origins Act was passed These two established quotas (a maximum number of people who could immigrate to the US in a year)

Obstacles Those 1921 and 1924 acts said that 2 percent of the number of people from each different country living in the US already (according to the 1910 census and then an earlier census) could enter the US each year So if there were 10,000 people from one country living in the US in 1910, then in 1924, 200 people from that country could enter the US This was fine for Western Europeans whose numbers had been high, but it really limited Eastern European migration (which was a goal of the acts- nativism)

Obstacles The Immigration Act of 1965 in the US spurred the quotas for individual countries being eliminated in 1968 (Civil Rights Movement product) and replaced it with hemisphere quotas In 1978, the hemisphere quotas were replaced by a global quota of 290,000 (a max of 20,000 from any one country) The current law has a global quota of 620,000 with no more than 7 percent from one country There are far more people than that that want entry into the US

0bstacles People with family here get precedence People with certain skills/seeking employment actively get precedence A visa is given to these people- a pass that allows them to legally be in the country If they want to become citizens, they must either be born on US soil or be naturalized (often takes several years) Refugees are not part of the quota- they are usually admitted today if they are genuine refugees

0bstacles Many other countries get upset with our preference for highly-skilled immigrants It creates a brain drain on their countries

Temporary Migration for Work Many people aren’t permanently allowed into a country but can come in temporarily to work People who go to Europe and the Middle East to work are called guest workers They are protected by minimum wage laws, labor unions, and laws Many countries in Europe have very high numbers- over 700 thousand enter legally, over 500 thousand illegally each year They usually work low-status and low-skilled jobs that locals won’t work (like many illegal immigrants in the US)

Guest Workers Many guest workers in Europe come from North Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia Germany has an enormous number (3/4 of a million Turks)

Turkish Kebab Stand in Germany

Time-Contract Workers These are workers recruited to work for a period of time in low-skill, often high-risk jobs like railroads, mines, ships, etc…. They often stay in the country they work in after the time expires The Chinese did this in large numbers during the 1860s and 1870s in America to work on railroads They often work for less (sometimes less than ½) of native workers and work jobs hard to fill by native workers

Refugee vs. Economic Migrant Hard to distinguish In the US, big problem with Haitians, Cubans, and Vietnamese The two groups are treated differently (economic migrants only get in if they have close relatives already here or possess specific work skills) Cubans have been considered political refugees since 1959 when Fidel Castro turned Cuba communist In 1987, the US decided to permit 20 thousand Cubans a year

Refugee vs. Economic Migrant Haitians saw how Cubans were allowed in and many tried to come to the US- Haiti’s dictatorship drove many out The US, however, did not treat them the same because Cuba was allies with the USSR which we viewed as a bigger threat In 1991, a coup overthrew Haiti’s elected president with military leaders so many tried to leave and have come to the US- they were accepted as refugees The US invaded Haiti in 1994 to put the president back in power, and the UN helped them conduct elections the next year (this limited refugee acceptance) Most are now economic migrants (the earthquake has mixed this up some more)

Vietnam After the war, the US accepted many Vietnamese refugees because those that had helped South Vietnam were heavily persecuted by the new Communist government Neighboring countries like Laos and Cambodia were also communist so many came to the US (over 800,000 total) Most today are for economic reasons though Those in the 70s and 80s could be considered political refugees

Migration of Vietnamese Boat People Fig. 3-11: Many Vietnamese fled by sea as refugees after the war with the U.S. ended in Later boat people were often considered economic migrants.

Emigration from China Fig. 3-10: Various ethnic Chinese peoples have distinct patterns of migration to other Asian countries.

US Attitude Toward Immigrants A huge obstacle to immigrants is hostility towards foreigners (nativism) They are particularly ill-received in times of economic trouble Most resentment is from lower/working classes because they represent competition Congress has passed many laws over the centuries at the behest of those opposing immigration People fear “contamination” of different cultures Most do not commit crimes, but when one does, it hurts all of the immigrants and how people treat them Illegal immigration also causes more resentment in the US

Global Attitude Toward Immigrants Many view them negatively in all countries (it’s not just a US issue!) They are competition for lower/working classes They often bring new ideas They often cannot speak the language There have been lynchings, there have been unfair trials and executions, there have been attacks, and there have been protests and attempts to limit or halt immigration

Anti- Immigration Protest in Spain Spanish youths attacked Moroccan immigrants in El Ejido, Spain after an alleged murder.