Two Major Obstacles Faced by Today’s Immigrants: 1.Getting permission to enter a new country 2.Hostile attitudes of citizens

Two Current Policies That Limit Immigrants: Quota System (U.S.) Guest workers (W. Europe, Middle East)

U.S. Quota Laws: Quotas—maximum limits on the number of people who can migrate to the U.S. from each country during a one-year period Established by the Quota Act (1921) and National Origins Act (1924) Quotas were designed to ensure that most immigrants to the U.S. continued to be Europeans

Immigration Act of 1965: Eliminated quotas for individual countries and set up hemisphere quotas -170,000 from East -120,000 from West In 1978, hemisphere quotas were replaced by a global quota of 290,000 -maximum of 20,000 per country Current quota in U.S. is 620,000 (2005) Quotas do not apply to refugees -must be judged as refugees -spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens are also admitted

Brain drain—large scale emigration by talented people Many highly educated people are leaving their home countries for economic opportunity in the U.S.

Temporary Migration for Work: Guest workers—workers who migrate to the more developed countries of Northern and Western Europe, usually from Southern and Eastern Europe or from North Africa, in search of higher paying jobs Protected by minimum wage laws, labor union contracts, and other support programs in Europe About 700,000 immigrants enter Europe legally, and about 500,000 illegally They take low-status, low-skilled jobs that local workers won’t accept driving busses, collecting garbage, repairing streets, washing dishes

Guest Workers Earn more money than they would at home Poorer countries can reduce unemployment by sending out these workers Most guest workers in Europe come from North Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia -most guest workers in Germany come from Turkey and Italy -750,000 Turks employed in Germany Many guest workers in France and Britain come from former colonies

Time-Contract Workers Millions of Asians migrated during the 1800s as time-contract laborers—recruited for a fixed period of time -when contracts expired, many settled in the new country More than 29 million ethnic Chinese currently live permanently in other countries -75% of total population in Singapore are Chinese -33% in Malaysia -10% in Thailand Much illegal immigration also occurring in Asia

Canada as an example

Distinguishing Between Economic Migrants and Refugees Refugees receive special priority over economic migrants in being admitted to the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe Emigrants from Cuba are considered political refugees

In 1959, Communist leader Fidel Castro became dictator of Cuba Cuban government took control of banks, factories, and farms Political opponents were jailed 600,000 left Cuba in early 1960s In 1980, Castro allowed political prisoners, criminals, and mental patients to leave the country -over 125,000 emigrated Most Cuban refugees have settled in southern Florida In 1987, U.S. agreed to allow 20,000 Cuban per year to migrate to the U.S. Cuba agreed to take back 2500 from the 1980 exodus

In Haiti, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier was dictator from 1957—1971 From 1971—1986, his son Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier took over as dictator

The U.S. government refused to accept Haitian migrants -claimed that they were leaving for economic opportunity Haitian emigrants sued the U.S. government -government settled the lawsuit by accepting the migrants In 1991, Jean-Bertrand Aristide led a coup and took over the Haitian government -thousands fled Haiti

Most fled to Guantanamo Bay, which is a U.S. controlled navel base in eastern Cuba U.S. government ruled that most of the Haitians were leaving for economic rather than political reasons Most were not accepted into U.S.

In 1994, the U.S. led an invasion of Haiti to try to reinstate Aristide as president UN issued economic sanctions against Haiti

The Vietnam Conflict ended in 1975, when Communist led North Vietnamese troops captured the South Vietnamese capital city of Saigon -renamed it Ho Chi Minh City Several thousand Vietnamese who supported the Americans during the war were evacuated as they faced political persecution Thousands more who could not be evacuated fled in small boats into the South China Sea

They were hoping to be saved by the U.S. navy

The navy officials wanted to save the boat people, but once on board U.S. ships, they were technically on U.S. territory and could apply for admission As a result, many boat people were not allowed to board the ships Hundreds died 1980—a second surge of boat people fled Vietnam Sought refuge in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Thailand These countries refused to allow the Vietnamese to enter -Thais actually pushed boats back into the sea -many boats capsized, many more died

International agreements transferred many of these migrants to the U.S., Canada, Australia, and France -they were considered economic migrants -they were placed into detention camps, surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by armed soldiers -in 1996, these camps were closed and the boat people were sent back to Vietnam Vietnamese migrant in Hong Kong detention camp

Over 800,000 Vietnamese have entered the U.S. since million more in other countries The pull of economic opportunity in the U.S. is a greater incentive than the push factor of political persecution

Cultural Problems Living in Other Countries: 1.Citizens may dislike cultural differences 2.Politicians exploit immigrants as scapegoats for local economic problems US Attitudes Toward Immigrants: Americans have always been suspicious of new arrivals Immigrants from all origins have faced racism in the United States -I.e.—in 1911, a study concluded that immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe were racially inferior and inclined toward violent crime

Attitudes Toward Guest Workers: Many guest workers suffer from poor social conditions Their primary objective is to send home as much money as possible Often leads to a lonely life -living in an unfamiliar culture, language Many Western Europeans dislike guest workers and oppose government programs to improve their conditions -sometimes they open grocery stores or restaurants -these businesses usually stay open when other local establishments are closed

Middle East Guest Workers Most guest workers come from Asia Petroleum exporting countries fear that increasing the number of guest workers will spark political unrest -they fear traditional Islamic customs will be abandoned Lower economic growth in the Middle East and western Europe have caused a reduction of guest workers

From 1879 to 1920, Britain brought many indentured servants to Fiji from India

Today there are almost as many Indians than native Fijians

These two groups coexisted peacefully until 1987 Then, Fijians rioted and took temporary control of the government A new constitution in 1990 now ensures that Fijians will hold a majority of seats in parliament Goodbye…from Fiji!!