Final Exam
Dr. Hortencia Jimenez
Ethnic Studies: 1
17 December 2013
Final Exam Immigration trends of recent decades have dramatically altered the statistical composition and popular understanding of who is an Asian American. This transformation of Asian America, and of America itself, is the result of legislation such as the McCarran–Walter Act of 1952 and the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965. The McCarran–Walter Act repealed the remnants of "free white persons" restriction of the Naturalization Act of 1790, but it retained the quota system that effectively banned nearly all immigration from Asia for example, its annual quota of Chinese was only fifty. Asian immigration increased significantly after the 1965 Immigration Act altered the quota system. The preference for relatives, initially designed to reduce the number of Asian immigrants, eventually acted to accelerate their numbers. Historically, before 1965, Asian Americans were chiefly perceived as members of the two most numerous Asian ethnic groups, specifically Chinese and Japanese. Filipinos were increasingly numerous in the US, having become colonial subjects in 1898 due to the Spanish–American War and also the Philippine–American War. After the enactment of the 1965 Immigration Act, Asian American demographics changed rapidly. This act replaced exclusionary immigration rules of the Chinese Exclusion Act and its successors, such as the 1924 Immigration Act, which effectively excluded "undesirable" immigrants, including Asians. The 1965 rules set across the board immigration quotas for each country. It opened US borders to immigration from Asia for the first time in nearly half a century. Immigration of Asian Americans was also affected by U.S. war involvement from the 1940s to the 1970s. In the wake of World War II, immigration preferences favored family reunification. This may have helped attract highly skilled workers to meet American workforce deficiencies. Another
Ethnic Studies: 1
17 December 2013
Final Exam Immigration trends of recent decades have dramatically altered the statistical composition and popular understanding of who is an Asian American. This transformation of Asian America, and of America itself, is the result of legislation such as the McCarran–Walter Act of 1952 and the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965. The McCarran–Walter Act repealed the remnants of "free white persons" restriction of the Naturalization Act of 1790, but it retained the quota system that effectively banned nearly all immigration from Asia for example, its annual quota of Chinese was only fifty. Asian immigration increased significantly after the 1965 Immigration Act altered the quota system. The preference for relatives, initially designed to reduce the number of Asian immigrants, eventually acted to accelerate their numbers. Historically, before 1965, Asian Americans were chiefly perceived as members of the two most numerous Asian ethnic groups, specifically Chinese and Japanese. Filipinos were increasingly numerous in the US, having become colonial subjects in 1898 due to the Spanish–American War and also the Philippine–American War. After the enactment of the 1965 Immigration Act, Asian American demographics changed rapidly. This act replaced exclusionary immigration rules of the Chinese Exclusion Act and its successors, such as the 1924 Immigration Act, which effectively excluded "undesirable" immigrants, including Asians. The 1965 rules set across the board immigration quotas for each country. It opened US borders to immigration from Asia for the first time in nearly half a century. Immigration of Asian Americans was also affected by U.S. war involvement from the 1940s to the 1970s. In the wake of World War II, immigration preferences favored family reunification. This may have helped attract highly skilled workers to meet American workforce deficiencies. Another