When Mr. Stewart asked us today in class the impact of the Immigration Act of 1965, several students including myself answered that it made immigration tougher. We were wrong. As this post will describe, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 not only made the immigration process more fair, it also helped to further diversify our country.
To understand the impact and reason for the passage of this bill, we must first look at the law's predecessor, the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. Based on the National Origins Formula, the 1921 law restricted immigration on the basis of existing proportions of the population. The goal was to maintain the existing ethnic composition of the United States. As there were more northern Europeans living in America than southern Europeans, northern European immigrants had a significant advantage. Combined with the Immigration Act of 1924, these laws also prohibited immigrants from Asia and the Middle East.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act, abolished this unfair National Origins Formula and replaced it with a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or U.S. residents. Under this act, Asians, Mexicans, and Middle Easterners would all have the opportunity to immigrate to the United States as well. In a symbolic gesture, President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
This new and just Immigration Act helped open the doors to a wider range of immigrants and continues to diversify our country today. And finally, regarding Mr. Stewart's question about whether immigration became easier or harder, I will let you DBQ experts analyze the following graphs and form your own conclusions.
To understand the impact and reason for the passage of this bill, we must first look at the law's predecessor, the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. Based on the National Origins Formula, the 1921 law restricted immigration on the basis of existing proportions of the population. The goal was to maintain the existing ethnic composition of the United States. As there were more northern Europeans living in America than southern Europeans, northern European immigrants had a significant advantage. Combined with the Immigration Act of 1924, these laws also prohibited immigrants from Asia and the Middle East.
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act, abolished this unfair National Origins Formula and replaced it with a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or U.S. residents. Under this act, Asians, Mexicans, and Middle Easterners would all have the opportunity to immigrate to the United States as well. In a symbolic gesture, President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
This new and just Immigration Act helped open the doors to a wider range of immigrants and continues to diversify our country today. And finally, regarding Mr. Stewart's question about whether immigration became easier or harder, I will let you DBQ experts analyze the following graphs and form your own conclusions.
Nice post. It's crazy to see what an impact the act in 1995 had on the diversity of immigration to the United States. Before the act, Immigration was very restricted and didn't promote diversity in our nation.
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