Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I life my lamp beside the golden door. Emma Lazarus

Immigration Centers around the link between American ideals of citizenship, freedom, and independence -- and American realities of class and race. Americans' debates about "fitness" for citizenship, freedom, and independence and how those considerations and debates, in turn, shaped different immigrants' experiences. Immigration Restriction None, qualitative, quantitative . . .

Immigration International migration is the exception, not the rule, for two major reasons: The first and most powerful is inertia: Most people lack the desire and drive to leave home and move away from family and friends. The second is the fact that governments regulate movements over their borders: virtually every government has passports, visas, and border controls, and a significant capacity to regulate migration. However, migration is a natural and predictable response to differences between countries of origin and destination--differences in resources and jobs, in demographic growth, and in opportunities and human rights.

Immigration There are four major types of immigrants, historically: The largest category is relatives of U.S. residents. Of the 850,000 immigrants admitted in FY2000, 583,000 or 69 percent had family members in the U.S. who sponsored their admission by asking the the U.S. government to admit them. The second-largest category was employment-based, the 107,000 immigrants and their families admitted for economic or employment reasons (13 percent) The third group was diversity and other immigrants, 93,000 or 11 percent, most of whom were admitted because they entered a lottery open to citizens of countries that sent fewer than 50,000 immigrants to the United States in the previous five years The fourth group is refugees and asylees, the 59,000 foreigners who were granted a chance to start anew as immigrants in the United States because they faced persecution at home.

U.S. Immigration US immigration policies went through three major phases: laissez-faire, qualitative restrictions, and quantitative restrictions. During its first hundred years, from 1780 to 1875, the United States had a laissez- faire immigration policy- states, private employers, shipping companies and railroads, and churches all promoted immigration to the United States. The federal government encouraged immigration in various ways: subsidizing railroad construction - (recruitment of immigrant workers). High tariffs (kept out European goods, created a demand for workers) Fill the army (immigrants = third of the regulars in the 1840s, even higher proportion in state militias)

Immigration Waves in US History antebellum, 1840-1860—largely northern European, especially England, Ireland and Germany—approx. 4.5 million late 1890-1920—largely Southern and Eastern European, including Polish and Russian Jews, Italian, Greek—approx. 14.5 million also Asian immigrants in the late 19th-early 20th century, in much fewer numbers (for example, Chinese immigrants built US railroads) Immigration Act of 1924 establishes national quotas for immigration - immigration drops sharply after 1965 immigration act reform - immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia outnumber those from Europe

U.S. Immigration 1890-1924: Period of greatest immigration Ellis Island: 1892 – 1924: 5000 enter daily, maybe 1 in 50 rejected 12 million had entered by 1954 when the Center closed WWI generates Italian, Slav, Greek, Polish, Jewish immigrants (Southern Europe)

U.S. Limits Immigration 1924 - the Johnson Immigration Act severely limits based upon: Racial superiority of Anglo Saxons Immigrants cause lowering of wages Do not assimilate Threat to national identity & unity Limits immigrants to 2% of their national group in 1890, thus against south & east Europeans

Immigration Restriction > Annual Immigration Quotas, 1924 Germany - 51,227 Great Britain - 34,007 Ireland - 28,567 Italy - 3,845 Hungary - 473 Greece - 100 Egypt - 100

Rise in Legal Immigrants Modern Echoes Rise in Legal Immigrants 1950s: 2.5 million 1960s: 3.3 million 1970s: 4.5 million 1980s: 7.3 million 1990s: 9.1 million – biggest decade

Immigrants satisfy a U.S. demand In the 1990s: over half of US workforce growth was from immigrants. 2000-2005: immigrants accounted for 86% of increase in US employment (about 50% were Hispanics of which 50% Mexican). For next 20 years, no net increase is predicted in the number of prime working-age natives (ages 15-54).