1. IMMIGRATION AND THE U.S.

2. SOCIAL FORCES
The most important social force that causes people to emigrate is economic.
Failure in the old country
Expectations of higher incomes and standards of living in the new land
Other forces include
Dislike of new regimes in their native land
Racial or religious bigotry
A desire to reunite families

3. A GLOBAL PHENOMENON
Push Factors-factors that push individuals from their homeland
Economic difficulties
Religious or ethnic persecution
Political unrest

4. A GLOBAL PHENOMENON
Pull factors--factors that pull individuals from their homeland.
Perceptions of a better life
To join a community of their fellow nationals already established abroad

5. A GLOBAL PHENOMENON Chain Migration
Immigrants sponsor several other immigrants who upon their arrival may sponsor still more.

6. PATTERNS OF IMMIGRATION TO THE U.S.
Three patterns
The number of immigrants has fluctuated dramatically over time largely due to government policy changes.
Settlement has not been uniform across the country but centered in certain regions and cities.
The source of immigrants has changed over time.

7. TODAY’S FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
Most industrial countries have a foreign population of around 5%
The U.S. foreign population is 12%.
Canada’s foreign population is 19%.
Australia’s foreign population is 25%.

8. TODAY’S FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION
Six states have 70% of the nation’s foreign population
California, New York, Florida, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois
Where do foreigners live:
43.3% live in the central city of a metropolitan area
More than a third of residents in the cities of Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, and New York City are now foreign born.

9. THE SOURCE OF IMMIGRANTS

10. EARLY IMMIGRATION
King George III, obstructed immigration to the colonies
The Alien Act of 1798 fixed the residence requirement for naturalization to 14 years from the previous 5.
About 1 in 3 immigrants to this nation eventually choose to return home.
Sojourners
Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners.
Nativism is beliefs and policies favoring native-born citizens over immigrants.

11. THE ANTI-CHINESE MOVEMENT
Before 1851 only 46 Chinese had immigrated to the U.S.
By 1880 that number jumped to more than 200,000.
90% of the Central Pacific labor force was Chinese.
The Union Pacific relied primarily on Irish laborers.
Sinophobes--people with a fear of anything associated with China.

12. THE ANTI-CHINESE MOVEMENT
In 1882 Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act which outlawed Chinese immigration for 10 years.
It also denied naturalization rights to the Chinese in the U.S.
In 1892 Congress extended the Exclusion Act for another 10 years.

13. RESTRICTIONIST SENTIMENT
The Gentleman’s Agreement
Japan agreed to halt further immigration to the U.S. and the U.S. agreed to end discrimination against the Japanese who had already arrived.
Congress enacted an immigration bill that included a literacy test.
President Wilson argued that illiteracy does not signify inherent incompetence but reflects lack of opportunity for instruction.

14. RESTRICTIONIST SENTIMENT
In The National Origin System
An attempt to block growing immigration from southern Europe.
Quotas were deliberately weighted in favor of immigration from northern Europe.
The quota for each nation was set at 3% of the number of people descended from each nationality recorded in the 1920 census.
Remained in place until 1965
Immigration and Naturalization Act
Signed into law by President Johnson
Primary goals were to reunite families and protect the American labor market.
Restricted immigration from Latin America.

15. NATURALIZATION 18 years of age
Continuous residence for at least five years
Good moral character as determined by the absence of conviction of selected criminal offenses
Ability to read, write and speak, and understand words of ordinary usage in the English language.
Ability to pass a test in U.S. government and history.

16. SOCIAL CONCERNS The Brain Drain Population Growth Illegal Immigration
Language Barriers
Mixed-status Families

17. BRAIN DRAIN
Immigration to the U.S. of skilled workers, professionals and technicians who are desperately needed by their home countries.
Countries include Germany, Great Britain, India, Pakistan, The Philippines and African nations.
1 out of 4 physicians in the U.S. is foreign born.
Beginning in 2004 physicians in the Philippines were retraining as nurses so that they could immigrate to the U.S.where, employed as nurses, they would make four times what they would as doctors in the Philippines.

18. POPULATION GROWTH The U.S. is already overpopulated.
Although immigration and population growth may be viewed as national concerns, their impact is localized in certain areas such as southern California and large urban centers nationwide.

19. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
More than 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.
7.2 million are employed and paying taxes.
Immigration Reform and Control Act
Amnesty was granted to 1.7 million illegal immigrants who could prove that they had established long-term residency in the U.S.
Under this act, hiring illegal aliens became illegal, so employers are subject to fines and even prison sentences.

20. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.
Emphasized making more effort to keep immigrants from entering the country illegally.
Illegal immigrants will not have access to such benefit programs as Social Security and welfare.
Unsuccessful
Increase border patrol.
INS had been a part of the Dept. of Justice until 2003 when it was transferred to the Dept. of Homeland Security.

21. ECONOMIC IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION
Many people in the U.S. hold the stereotypical belief that immigrants often end up on welfare and thereby cause increases in taxes.
70% of illegal immigrant workers pay taxes of one type or another.
Many do not file to receive entitled refunds or benefits.
In 2005 the Social Security Administration identified thousands of unauthorized workers contributing to the fund about $7 billion that could not be credited properly.
A variety of recent studies found that immigrants are a net economic gain for the population.

22. REMITTANCES OR MIGRADOLLARS
Immigrants in the U.S. send $40 billion to their home countries.
Worldwide remittances bring $232 billion to developing countries.
1 in every 5 people in Mexico regularly receives a payment from abroad.
California voters approved Prop 187 banning illegal immigrants from public schools, public assistance programs, and all but emergency medical care.
Later it was found to be unconstitutional.

23. WOMEN AND IMMIGRATION
men entering the U.S. only exceeded women by about 10-20%
1950-Present women immigrants have actually exceeded men by a modest amount.
Immigrant women face all the challenges faced by immigrant men plus
Responsibility of learning the new society when it comes to services for their family. Services such as city services, schools, medical facilities, markets…

24. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY AND IMMIGRATION
Globalization is the worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade, movement of people, and the exchange of ideas.
Today people in North America, Europe and Japan consume 32 times more resources than the billions of people in developing nations.
Transnationals are immigrants who sustain multiple social relationships linking their societies of origin and settlement

25. REFUGEES Approximately 12-14 million refugees worldwide
The U.S. resettles about 70,000 refugees annually
Since WWII, the U.S. has allowed 3 groups of refugees to enter in numbers greater than regulations would ordinarily permit:
Nearly 40,000 Hungarians arrived after the unsuccessful revolt against the Soviet Union of Nov. 1956
Cubans, and
Southeast Asians.

26. ASYLEES
Asylees are foreigners who have already entered the U.S. and now seek protection.
According to the UN treaty on refugees, countries are obliged to refrain from forcibly returning people to territories where their lives or liberty might be endangered
The number of asylees is currently limited to 10,000 per year.
It is the practice of deporting people fleeing poverty that has been the subject of much criticism.
People leaving Communist nations, such as the Cubans
Mexicans who are refugees from poverty
Liberians fleeing civil war
Haitians running from despotic rule (See Bot People)

27. Questions What are the functions and dysfunctions of immigration?
Ultimately, what do you think is the major concern people have about contemporary immigration to the United States, the numbers of immigrants, their legal status, or their nationality?

28. Questions
What challenge does the presence of people in the United States speaking languages other than English present to them? For schools? Workplace? For you?

29. Your Opinion
Is it right or wrong, post 9/11, to return refugees who may be fleeing their homelands because of war, famine, or religious persecution?