Immigration Policies Sorry Folks, Park’s Closed

Countries have two basic ways of handling legal immigration, the first is a quota system. Immigration Act of 1965: quotas for individual countries eliminated in 1968 and replaced with hemisphere quotas 1978: Hemisphere quotas replaced by global quota of 290,000 with a max of 20,000 per country. Currently, the global quota is 620,000 with a 7% per country max. The system does establish preferences for family sponsored and employment-related immigrants. Refugees are handled separately. The current wait is about 5 years. QUOTA SYSTEMS Quota systems establish limits to the number of immigrants to a country annually. The US uses a quota system. Quota Act of 1921 and Origins Act of 1924: established quotas for immigration to the US… for each country with native-born people already living in the US, 2% of their number could immigrate annually. Immigration numbers dropped sharply with the end of unrestricted immigration. Xenophobic in nature, it ensured most immigrants would be European.

The second way to handle legal migration is a guest worker system. Migrants allowed to stay for a set period of time to work are called guest workers. Western Europe and the Middle East use this system. Some Asian countries also use a form of it called time-contract workers. In Europe, guest workers are protected by minimum wage laws and labor unions. Various countries use different amounts, but about 700,00 guest workers enter legally each year, about 500,000 illegally. As migrant workers do in the US, guest workers tend to take low-wage, low-prestige jobs that native Europeans wouldn’t. SENDING REGIONS - Most European guest workers come from North Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia. RECEIVING REGIONS – Northwest Europe (England, France, Germany & Scandinavian countries) & Middle East (UAE & Qatar) GUEST WORKERS

The second way to handle legal migration is a guest worker system. GUEST WORKERS The main push factor is poverty or joblessness. Sending regions have fewer industrial jobs, high rates of unemployment, faster growing populations. The main pull factor is the availability of jobs and the need for workers, higher wages and industrial development. Governmental agreements between Germany and Turkey also contribute to the flow between these nations.

The second way to handle legal migration is a guest worker system. GUEST WORKERS On the positive side, when guest workers leave it relieves unemployment pressure. Also guest workers send money home which stimulates the economy. On the negative side they can also be better educated than average and thus contribute to “brain drain.” Guest workers take low status jobs which local populations shun. They solve the problem of the unfavorable dependency ratio. Many of these jobs are essential, but lower paying - like cab drivers, street maintenance, etc. Guest workers contribute to the local economy by spending for essential services. Many guest workers never leave their new host countries and require services there. Their presence may be resented by local (often declining) populations and hostilities have occurred on occasions.

Asia’s version of the guest worker system. Time-Contract workers are usually hired to work in mines or on plantations. Millions of Asians migrated in the 1800s as time-contract workers but settled permanently when their contracts expired. Indians to Burma, Malaysia, Guyana, Africa, Fiji, Trinidad. Japanese to Hawaii and Brazil. Chinese to the US west coast to build the railroads. More than 33 million ethnic Chinese currently live in other countries (mostly in Asia). ¾ of Singapore’s population, 1/3 of Malaysia’s, 1/10 of Thailand’s. Migration patterns vary among China’s ethnic groups (>56 in all): Chiu Chinese to Cambodia, Loas, Singapore. Hakka to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand Hokkein to Indonesia and the Phillipines Most Chinese immigrants are from Guangdong and Fujian (Hokkien) provinces. TIME CONTRACT WORKERS

Kosovar Refugees entering a camp in Albania. Sudanese refugees in the Darfur Region. It’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between those seeking better economic conditions and those fleeing dangerous or violent political or cultural conditions. Doing so is important in countries like the US, Canada and Western European because they handle refugees differently than economic migrants. Some interesting case studies: Cuba: Fleeing Castro post (Mariel Boatlift) Haiti: Fleeing Authoritarians 1980 fleeing Duvaliers 1991 Fleeing Junta Vietnam: Fleeing Communism 1975 Boat people Again in late 1980’s ECONOMIC MIGRANTS OR REFUGEES?

ATTITUDES AGAINST IMMIGRANTS Many immigrants are faced with racism and xenophobia from their new host countries.