Immigration

Immigration, movement of people into a country to establish a new permanent residence. People become immigrants primarily for economic, political, or religious reasons. The United States is a nation of immigrants. It has received more immigrants from more places than any other country—about 38 million from the 1820s to the 1930s—and is thus known as a “melting pot” of the world's nations. Its growth and prosperity were stimulated by great waves of immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. Immigration accelerated economic development by providing an abundant labor supply, while for the newcomers America offered hope of a freer and more prosperous life. Until World War I the United States maintained, more or less, an open-door policy toward immigrants, but social and economic conflicts between various ethnic groups and between the older and newer immigrants led to a major policy reversal. Restrictions had been placed on Asians (Chinese and Japanese) and other so-called undesirables even before World War I. In 1917 a literacy test was made compulsory for all immigrants. In 1921 and 1924 quotas were fixed, favoring immigration from northern Europe, especially the United Kingdom, but imposing an overall limit of 150,000 European immigrants a year. In 1952 the McCarran-Walter Act banned communists and other subversives, removed racial exclusions, and strengthened the quota system's ethnic and national system. A 1965 act abolished the quotas discriminating among nationalities, substituting professional qualifications and skills and kinship with U.S. citizens or resident aliens as criteria. Provision also was made for political refugees. The collapse of U.S-supported regimes in Southeast Asia brought in new waves of immigrants in the 1970s. In the same decade, Mexicans, seeking relief from poverty, arrived in large numbers. South America received large numbers of immigrants before the 1930s. Since World War II an entirely new phase of immigration has taken place within Europe itself. West Indians, Asian Indians, and Pakistanis have settled in the United Kingdom, claiming their rights as members of the Commonwealth. Since 1962, the British government has introduced new laws reducing this trend. Western and northern Europe have admitted large numbers of immigrants from the less-developed parts of southern Europe. The European Community requires all its member countries to allow free movement of labor across their borders.