Huffington Post (Op-Ed)
By Kathleen Weldon
July 13, 2015
The
landmark U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which shifted
the criteria for admission of immigrants from a system of country quotas
to the prioritization
of family reunification and occupational skills, is now fifty years
old. Public opinion polls from before, during, and after the 1965 debate
reveal ongoing concerns about how the country chooses which immigrants
become Americans and how different immigrant
groups affect the nation. From the Roper Center for Public Opinion
research archives:
Attitudes about Immigration before 1965
Questions
about concerns regarding the ethnic makeup of immigrants to the United
States were asked from the very earliest days of polling. When asked in
1939 by Roper/Fortune
which nationality of people in the US originally born in a foreign
country made the "worst" citizens, a majority (55%) to their credit said
they didn't know. A plurality of those who gave an answer said Italians
(22%), with Jews (6%) and Germans (4%) far behind.
In 1944, most Americans were willing to welcome some immigrants from
England, Sweden and Russians, but lower proportions wanted to see
Mexicans and Jews allowed to come to the U.S., and a majority did not
want Germans to come. Just a year later, more than
half of those willing to see any immigration from Europe (88%) said
they would not want to see people come to this country from Germany or
Russia, while strong majorities expressed a willingness to welcome
immigrants from Scandinavian countries or Holland.
These preferences stood much in line with the pro-Northern European
structure of the National Origins quota system, with the addition of
anti-German feeling from the War.
U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
Everywhere
else in our national life, we have eliminated discrimination based on
one's place of birth. Yet this system is still the foundation of our
immigration law.
Robert F. Kennedy, 1964
The
system Kennedy described was not to last much longer, and the major
changes at hand came with high public support. A strong majority
approved of the bill passed by
Congress to base immigration on skills rather than country quotas. Over
seven in ten said that occupational skills were very important in
determining whether he should be admitted to live in the United States,
while only about a third said the same about country
of origin.
While
the public may have believed that country of origin should not form the
basis for immigration policies, most Americans still felt that some
immigrant groups were
preferable to others. At the time of the bill's passing, a Harris poll
asked Americans about most and least preferred nationalities for new
immigrants. Roughly a third of respondents said that there was no
difference, and about another one in seven had no
opinion. Among those who answered the question, Canada,
England/Scotland and Scandinavia topped the list of most preferred,
while the immigrant groups whom Americans would like to see the least
were Russians, Asians, and Middle Easterners. Census data from
1960 showed that immigrants from Italy made up the largest share of
newcomers from a single country at 12.9% of the immigrant population,
followed by Germany (10.2%), Canada (9.8%), UK (8.6%), Poland (7.7%),
and the Soviet Union (7.7%). Europeans made up 74.5%
of the immigrant population, while immigrants from the Americas
(including Canada) were 19.1%. Therefore, at the time of this policy
shift, Americans' preferences for the geographical mix of immigrant
groups were largely in line with the actual immigrant population,
with the exception of relatively high proportions of Russians and
Italians.
A New Immigration Landscape
It
was in 1965 that pollsters first began asking what was to become a
fifty-year trend question about whether immigration should be kept at
its present level, increased
or decreased. In the first poll, about a third of the country thought
immigration should be decreased, while nearly four in ten said it should
be kept at the present level. The proportion wanting a decrease in
immigration reached a peak of 66% in 1995, and
then fell off quickly, only to rise again in the early 2000s,
particularly following 9/11. Since 2002, the proportion saying they want
immigration decreased has been in an uneven decline, reaching a low of
31% in the latest poll, while those saying they want
to see immigration increased has reached nearly a quarter.
Americans'
desire to see lower levels of immigration increased as the rate of
immigration rose following the 1965 Immigration Act. However, the
falloff since 1995 in the
proportion of Americans saying that immigration should be decreased has
occurred while immigration numbers have continued to rise, with the
immigrant share of the US population reaching levels not seen since the
1920s.
The
1965 Act did not simply increase the level of immigration; it also
changed the ethnic makeup of the immigrant population. As a result, new
ethnic groups became the
focus of public concern. When asked in 1985 whether people of
particular nationalities had brought more benefits or problems for the
country, strong majorities said more benefits than problems had been
brought by Italians, Poles, Japanese and Chinese, all
groups who had at one point in the history of immigration debate been
seen as undesirable by large portions of the population. When the
question was re-asked in 1997, near the peak of the proportion of
Americans saying the level of immigration should be decreased,
nearly every group received more negative ratings, including such
positively viewed ethnicities as the Irish, Italians, and Poles.
Going
into the new century, Americans continued to view immigration from some
parts of the world more positively than others. Changes in perceptions
of whether there are
too many immigrants from each part of the world have generally moved in
tandem, with little change in the respective levels of support.
Immigration Today
Fifty
years since changing the structure of U.S. immigration policy, the
larger debate about immigration and the vast majority of polling have
centered on the issue of
how to deal with illegal immigration. The narrower debate about
criteria for admission has moved from country quotas to the comparative
importance of family ties and work skills. Polls since 1997 have
generally found the country split on this issue.
The
idea of prioritizing immigration based on national origin, once the
foundation of U.S. immigration policy, has fallen so far from favor
pollsters have rarely addressed
it. In the last such question in 2013, only 26% of Americans thought
immigrants from Western Europe should get preference over other
immigrants.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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