Herko+CF+Group+5

Group 5: Immigration

1965 - Present




 * Overview**

Between the years 1965 until today people from many places have immigrated to the United States.One of the major groups that immigrated were from Asia. Because of the lack of work that Asians received they left their homes. There are many states in the U.S that have small Asian populations but are rapidly growing such as Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Ga. Another one of the major groups were Hispanic/Latino people. "In 1999 22.8% of Hispanic people were living in poverty" Mexicans were least likely to work professional occupations. "Immigrants are likely to be self employed then natives". One of the big main reasons that immigrant were even first admitted to the America was because of the act of 1965. The act of 1965 was motivated by a great idealist by the name of president Lyndon Johnson. One of the ideas was to allow more people from other countries could be admitted into the U.S because of their profession despite the discrimination. Even Asians who usually weren't allowed in the United States and to make this all official president Lyndon signed a bill in 1965. This mostly to focus on non European countries. And because of this act. Immigrants were allowed in America for more preferences then before. Some are..."unmarried adults who parents are American citizens, Married offspring of American citizens, Siblings of adult citizens, gifted professionals, scientists, and artists. Throughout the years because of great amount of Immigration our America has become more diverse. The population in American has doubled since the 19th-20th century.

Written by //Ontoinette Pikes//


 * Causes of Migration**

There were many reasons for why people immigrated to the United States during the period of 1965 to the present. The causes of migration are described as "push" and "pull" factors. A push factor is a reason for emigration from the original country. A pull factor is a reason for immigration to the new country.

The acts and amendments that were made during this period limited the number of immigrants that were admitted into the United States and gave opportunities to immigrants to become citizens. The period of 1965-present is known as "The New Immigration." This period of immigration started when amendments were made to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Previous to this act, annual limits were established for how many immigrants could come to the United States. The limit for immigrants from the eastern hemisphere was 170,000, while 120,000 was the limit for immigrants from the western hemisphere. There were preferences for those who wanted to immigrate to the United States from the eastern hemisphere. The preferences included relatives of citizens, refugees, and people who had job skills that America needed. The Immigration Act of 1965 was the start of a large wave of immigration. Over 20.5 million people immigrated to the United States from the 1970's-1990's. Economic opportunities were the main pull factor for immigrants. In 1978, an amendment was made to the Immigration Act which took away the quotas and made a new quota of 290,000 immigrants from the whole world. The Refugee Act of 1980 reduced the quota to 270,000 people and excluded refugees. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 gave illegal immigrants amnesty to apply to be citizens. The Immigration Act of 1990 set the quota of immigrants to 700,000 for the following 3 years and 675,000 after that. The main category of immigrants were family members. Political refugees, who were escaping from oppressive governments, were given preference. The act gave temporary protected status to illegal immigrants who would suffer hardship if they were sent back to their own country. Some of the push factors were war and natural disasters. In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act was passed. It made an income test for people who were trying to bring their families to America to prevent poverty. In 1997, the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act gave Nicaraguans amnesty. There were an estimated 8.7 million illegal immigrants living in America in 2000. In 2002, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, which prevented from people illegally immigrating.

The main reason for immigration was economic opportunities in the United States. However, there were other reasons as well. Political refugees, who were given asylum, tried to escape from their country because of wars, natural disasters, and oppressive governments. Illegal immigrants were drawn to the U.S. because of the availability of jobs and a better life. Other reasons include being with their family and better education.

Written by //Elliot Wong//




 * Experiences of Groups That Migrated**

In the 20th century, there were lot immigrants who arrived from lands that were affected by war and poverty. There were a lot of immigrants who are from countries that are really poor and that affected their life. There was a lot of group that moved to America to escape from there country such as the Chinese immigrant. Some of them have to migrate to America to help their family back at home away from deep poverty. Some educated people were forces to do job that they don’t want for less paying job. For example, professionals were forces to work as janitors because of discrimination against them. The rest of the immigrant who are uneducated didn’t speak English that well so it hard for them to communicate and that make it really hard for them to find job. To avoid discrimination, Immigrants only live with people that have the same race as them. Written by //Phi Do//


 * Effects of Group's Migration**

Migration effected many foreign groups that came into the U.S. Many groups such as Jews, Irish, and Italians had better opportunities to mix and blend with U.S. society due to the large communities made up of their nationalities who had arrived in the 1800's. As well as same race relationships, many new arrivals also had family that had already established their new lives in the U.S.

Once the 1970's came into play, the amount of immigrants arriving to the United States had increased. Central and Southern Americans, as well as Asians were arriving in vast numbers. Mexico had accounted for more then 20 percent of the immigrants, while the Philippines took up 7 percent, and China, India, South Korea, Vietnam, and the Dominican Republic each took up 4 percent.

When these groups arrived in America, they attracted a lot of racial tension. Hispanics and Asians that moved into the U.S. were often made primary targets of racial discrimination by Irish, and many other groups who had already became citizens of the United States. Many of these "newcomers" had to stick together in their own communities to avoid racial prejudice. For example, many Hispanics who crossed into the U.S. to San Diego and Los Angeles, took up jobs, and moved into the same neighborhoods that some referred to as "barrios", which means neighborhood in Spanish.

Written by //Pete D'Amato//

In 1965 the Immigration Nationality Act was changed to get priority for U.S. citizens and permanent residents to sponsor family members to be immigrated. almost 4.5 million immigrants were admitted to the united state as legal. In general, immigrant groups maintained their culture by using their language, or by practicing their religion. For example, many Cuban immigrants settled in Miami and other large cities. The library of congress website said " the new Miami formed a very close and cohesive community and they quickly began founding businesses banks and Cuban American institutions as well as finding jobs for inter arrivals". Business owners helped the community by providing jobs to new immigrants. Cuban people brought their instruments and music to the United States as well. Cuban music became very popular and is enjoyed by many people till this day.

Written by //Juan Roldan//

[|Top U.S. Ancestries by County]



Work Cited


 * Dinnerstein, Leonard, and David M. Reimers. "Immigration." Microsoft Encarta. 2008. Microsoft Corporation. 27 Oct. 2008 .


 * "Immigration." Wikipedia. 2008. Wikipedia Foundation Inc. 3 Nov. 2008 .


 * "Immigration." World Book Encyclopedia. World Book Inc., 1994.


 * Love-Andrews, Devin. "Immigration Act of 1965." __Then Again__. 11 Sept. 2003. David W. Koeller. .


 * "Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986." __Answers.com__. 2008. Answers Corporation. .


 * "Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act." __Wikipedia__. 2008. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. .