18 - Migration, War, and the Transformation of the US Population

Summary

Migration scholars frame the history of immigration to the United States in terms of “pre-1965” and “post-1965” to emphasize the major demographic changes that US society experienced after the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, also known as the Hart–Celler Act. After decades of rabid nativism, US society, the story goes, became the most diverse in its history after Congress repealed the draconian 1924 Immigration Act in 1965. The 1924 law imposed a near total ban on immigration from Asia and introduced the national origins quota system to curtail immigration from eastern and southern Europe. Scholars portray the years from 1924 to 1965 as a period characterized by a lull in immigration, isolationism, and xenophobia. Yet, the period was much more dynamic than it first appears and, especially after the late 1930s, ushered in many of the changes that led to the demographic shifts usually attributed to the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.