Post-1945 immigration to the United States differed fairly dramatically from America’s earlier 20th- and 19th-century immigration patterns, most notably in the dramatic rise in numbers of immigrants from Asia. Beginning in the late 19th century, the U.S. government took steps to bar immigration from Asia. The establishment of the national origins quota system in the 1924 Immigration Act narrowed the entryway for eastern and central Europeans, making western Europe the dominant source of immigrants. These policies shaped the racial and ethnic profile of the American population before 1945. Signs of change began to occur during and after World War II. The recruitment of temporary agricultural workers from Mexico led to an influx of Mexicans, and the repeal of Asian exclusion laws opened the door for Asian immigrants. Responding to complex international politics during the Cold War, the United States also formulated a series of refugee policies, admitting refugees from Europe, the western hemisphere, and later Southeast Asia. The movement of people to the United States increased drastically after 1965, when immigration reform ended the national origins quota system. The intricate and intriguing history of U.S. immigration after 1945 thus demonstrates how the United States related to a fast-changing world, its less restrictive immigration policies increasing the fluidity of the American population, with a substantial impact on American identity and domestic policy.
The vast majority of the immigrants who came to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries arrived from Europe, especially western Europe. The enactment of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act ended free immigration. Through legal measures and diplomatic agreements, the government also found ways to exclude Japanese (and Koreans), Indians, and Filipinos. The national origins quota system enacted in 1924 narrowed the entryway for eastern and southern Europeans. Although territorial annexation and the need for Mexican labor for industrial and agricultural developments drove Mexican immigration to the United States since the late 19th century, deportation of Mexican workers had prevented many Mexicans from attaining permanent residency in the United States. After 1945 , however, sources of immigration became more diverse. As issues concerning the U.S. economy, World War II, and America’s role in international affairs became increasingly important, government regulations also became less restrictive. The result is that 21st-century trends in U.S. immigration have their roots in the important developments during and after World War II, especially in programs and policies designed to import agricultural workers from Mexico, end Asian exclusion, admit refugees, and abolish the national origins quota system. As streams of newcomers arrived from the western hemisphere, Asia, and Africa, immigration from Europe declined, and many European nations also began to shift from sources of U.S. immigration to destinations of international migration. These changes have affected the American population and American society in profound ways. Today, European immigrants and their descendants represent less than two-thirds of the American population, as the growth of immigrants from the western hemisphere, Asia, and Africa and their U.S.-born descendants has continued.
The most important source of U.S. immigration since 1945 is Mexico. Mexico occupies a unique position in U.S. immigration history due to its political and economic ties with the United States and geographical proximity of the two nations. Some Mexicans were longtime residents of the southern and western regions of North America. In the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ending the Mexican-American War, the United States annexed northern Mexico, making some fifty thousand Mexicans living in that region American residents. For several decades after the annexation, residents of both nations crossed the border frequently to join their family members and relatives; the nearly two thousand miles of national border that separates the southwestern states and Mexico made the crossing relatively easy. High demands in southwestern states for low-wage labor provided economic incentives for U.S.-bound migration. Around 1900 , the United States began to recruit impoverished rural workers from west-central Mexican states. Recruitment intensified after World War I. After the 1924 immigration law restricted the entry of southern and eastern Europeans, more than six hundred thousand Mexicans arrived in the 1920s. 1 But during the Great Depression, the government deported as many as 453,000 Mexicans to reduce domestic unemployment pressure. 2
Compared to these early efforts, the recruitment of Mexican farm workers that began in World War II was larger in scale and had a more lasting impact. Immediately after the Pearl Harbor incident, severe shortages of domestic labor compelled the United States to seek labor once again from its next-door neighbor. Initiated in 1942 with the collaboration of the Mexican government, the Bracero Program arranged for the importation of young male Mexicans to southwestern U.S. farms as guest workers (some also contracted to work on the railroad). These workers entered on a temporary immigration status; their six-month visas were renewable upon approval of their employers. Between 1942 and 1964 , as many as 4.6 million Mexicans came to work under the Bracero Program; many workers renewed their visas or entered the program multiple times.
By using guest workers, the Bracero Program enabled the U.S. government to solve the problem of labor shortages while maintaining control over immigration. Nevertheless, the program enhanced a mutual dependency between Mexican workers and American growers. To many Mexican peasants, seasonal work in the United States became an economic strategy, as small savings from temporary employment away from home provided a much needed financial supplement. When the demand for manual labor in the United States outstripped the supply, Mexicans moved across the border in increasing numbers without documentation. Some braceros who were dissatisfied with the terms and conditions of their contracts also found employment elsewhere. In 1954 , the U.S. Border Patrol launched the “Operation Wetback” program to massively deport undocumented migrants, but the number of undocumented Mexican workers increased again after the Bracero Program ended.
The Bracero Program recruited only male workers and required them to leave after fulfilling their contracts. Some women and children crossed the border without inspection to live with their families; many women lived in bracero camps and worked alongside male workers in the fields. Domestic labor was another form of employment for these immigrant women. Workers with families tended to stay in the United States longer. In the 1950s and early 1960s, some bracero families gained legal status to settle permanently. 3 After the program ended in 1964 , many former braceros adjusted their legal status and eventually gained citizenship. They played an important role in the growth of Mexican American population. 4
The United States has actively engaged in trade and commerce with Asian nations since the mid-19th century. Two years after Great Britain forced China to open its ports for trade in the Treaty of Nanjing ( 1842 ) following the Opium War, the United States secured concessions from the Qing government through the Treaty of Wanghia (Wangxia). In 1852 , Commodore Matthew C. Perry was dispatched to open the doors of Japan to American trade. His mission was accomplished in the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa. The United States also took military action against Korea in 1871 and imposed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce on the kingdom in 1882 .
Trade and commerce with Asia led to the movement of people. The Chinese started to arrive during the California Gold Rush ( 1848–1855 ), along with tens of thousands of migrants from Latin America, Europe, and Australia. The Japanese came next, followed by the Koreans. From the British colony also arrived Asian Indians. Once the United States incorporated the Philippines as a territory after the Spanish-American War, Filipinos could enter freely. The Asian population in the United States, however, remained small (about a quarter million) before World War II. An 1882 law and its amendments, known as the Chinese Exclusion Acts, barred the entry of Chinese laborers for sixty-one years. Diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Japan excluded Japanese laborers in 1907 . A 1917 immigration law denied entry to those from the British colony in India. Meanwhile, Asian immigrants were categorized as “alien ineligible for citizenship” by law or court decisions. And finally, the 1924 Immigration Act created an “Asia-Pacific Triangle” to bar immigrants from all Asian countries. Sentiment against Filipino migration played a crucial role in the ideological and moral debate over American empire, leading to the enactment of the 1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act. Granting independence to the Philippines in ten years, the new law changed the status of Filipinos from nationals to aliens and reduced Filipino immigration to fifty per year. These laws prevented Asian immigration and effectively limited the growth of the Asian American population.
Asian exclusion began to end during World War II. The end of Chinese exclusion in 1943 was hardly a genuine measure of immigration reform. Instead, the government used this goodwill gesture to boost China’s resistance against Japanese military aggression in the Pacific. The campaign to abrogate exclusion was led by the Citizen’s Committee to Repeal Chinese Exclusion, organized by a group of “friends of China.” As a political strategy, the Committee kept a distance from Chinese Americans and downplayed the impact of the repeal on Chinese immigration. Endorsed by Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Magnuson Act, named for Representative Warren G. Magnuson (D-WA), repealed all the Chinese exclusion acts, provided an annual quota of 105 for Chinese immigration, and granted Chinese immigrants naturalization rights. Magnuson argued that “the quota system amply puts brakes and complete control over any migrant labor,” and the “purpose of the bill is not in any sense to allow migrant labor, merely to put Chinese, our allies, on equal basis with other countries.” 5 Responding to questions from those who feared a Chinese influx, President Roosevelt assured the Congress that the small Chinese quota would prevent that from happening, and that “there can be no reasonable apprehension that any such number of immigrants will cause unemployment or provide competition in the search of jobs.” 6
The repeal of Chinese exclusion opened the door for other Asian groups almost immediately. In 1946 , the government ended exclusion of Filipinos and Indians, providing the Philippines and India each a quota of one hundred. Pakistan received the same quota after it gained independence in 1947 . Because Japan was the wartime enemy, Japanese exclusion continued for several more years, until 1952 . The McCarran-Walter Act brought Asian exclusion to an end. Adopting the “Asia-Pacific Triangle” concept, it granted each Asian nation an annual quota of one hundred, with a cap of two thousand for the entire continent. The law also made all Asian immigrants eligible for naturalization.
Some scholars view the McCarran-Walter Act as a product of nativism, because it perpetuated the national origins quota system established in the 1924 Immigration Act. Others, however, see it as progressive. Recognizing the limitations of the legislation, Roger Daniels argues that it was the “liberalizing elements in the 1952 act, part of the Cold War transformation of American immigration policy that helped lay the demographic basis for the multiculturalism that emerged in the United States at the end of the twentieth century.” 7
The repeal of exclusion laws indeed laid the demographic basis for the expansion of Asian immigration. Although the number of quota immigrants granted to Asian nations was small, once classified as “admissible,” some Asians were able to come using non-quota status under general immigration laws. Two years after the repeal of Chinese exclusion, the 1945 War Brides Act granted admissions to spouses and children of U.S. military personnel, allowing Chinese American war veterans to bring over their family members. In 1946 this privilege was extended to alien fiancées and fiancés. And in 1946 , another act allowed Chinese wives of American citizens to enter as non-quota immigrants. More than seven thousand Chinese women arrived as spouses or fiancées of war veterans, and many of them came with children. 8 The 1947 amendment of the War Brides Act removed exclusion restrictions, giving admission to spouses and children of American military personnel regardless of their race and nationality. More Asian women arrived in the 1950 s and 1960s under the McCarran-Walter Act, which provided non-quota status for spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens. As a byproduct of the postwar U.S. military presence in Asia, thousands of women from Japan, Korean, and the Philippines gained entry to the United States because of their marriage to U.S. military personnel. For the first time, the majority Asian newcomers were female, which helped balance the sex ratio of Asian populations in the United States. The male-to-female ratio among Chinese Americans, for example, went from 2.9 to 1 in 1940 to 1.9 to 1 in 1950 and 1.3 to 1 in 1960 . 9
During and after World War II, the United States emerged as the world’s leading power, which required not only its involvement in international affairs but also new directions for domestic and foreign policy. Refugee policies formulated during this period reflected this change. Pressure to accommodate refugees began during the war. In 1940 , the government used administrative measures to accept thousands of individuals who escaped from Germany and German-occupied Europe. Established in 1944 , the War Refugee Board facilitated the entry of European refugees, the majority of whom were Jewish. Later, the government also developed ways to enable these refugees to become permanent immigrants. 10 The number of refugees admitted during the war was relatively small, but the measures and creative ways to accommodate them and the public debate involved had a lasting impact on U.S. immigration policies.
Immediately after the war, the United States was pressured to deal with the over thirty million dislocated Europeans, including a million displaced persons (DPs) who had been forced from their homelands during the war. President Harry S. Truman issued a directive in 1946 to allocate half of the European quotas for refugee admissions. Enacted in 1948 and amended in 1950 , the displaced persons acts authorized the admission of 202,000 individuals in two years. These measures were developed within the framework of the existing immigration law by allowing nations to mortgage their future quotas. The DP acts eventually admitted four hundred thousand Europeans; 16 percent of them were Jewish. 11 From 1949 to 1952 , almost half of the new immigrants were admitted as refugees; most of them had no connections with American citizens. In the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, refugee policies were incorporated into immigration regulation. Because many of the newcomers had no connections in the United States, assistance was provided through voluntary social service networks (VOLAGS). As this practice continued, the VOLAGS and the religious and ethnic groups involved in them also began to influence American immigration policy. 12
International politics during the Cold War led to more lenient immigration policies for those who claimed to be political refugees from communist nations. The increasing pressure to accept more and more political refugees and allow them to adjust their legal status made immigration reform inevitable. The 1953 Refugee Relief Act abandoned the mortgaging practices of the DP acts, admitting 214,000 refugees as non-quota immigrants. 13 Most of those entered as political refugees after World War II were from eastern Europe, and a relatively smaller number admitted were from Asia. The 1950s and 1960s saw an influx of Hungarian refugees who rebelled against the communist government and Cuban refugees after communists took over during the Cuban Revolution. Coming from a western hemisphere nation, the Cubans were not subject to quota restrictions. In 1957 , Congress defined refugees to be those persons fleeing persecution in communist countries or nations in the Middle East. The 1965 Immigration Act included refugees in the preference system and provided a quota of up to 10,200. Although the 1965 Immigration Act imposed a numerical ceiling for western hemisphere nations, President Lyndon B. Johnson introduced an open-door policy for Cuba, promising to admit every refugee from there.
Most successful asylum petitions were filed by individuals from communist countries. In 1987 alone a total of 7,318 of immigrants from the Soviet Union, Poland, and Romania adjusted their status through asylum. In the years since 1990 political asylum was a major means for undocumented individuals or temporary visa holders from China to adjust legal status. A 1989 act provided admissions to three hundred thousand Soviet Jews, Pentecostal Christians, and Armenians. Between 1992 and 2007 , more than 131,000 individuals from war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina were granted asylum. Like those who came with refugee status, immigrants who were granted asylum could work and receive government assistance.
Cold War politics also brought the United States into the war in Vietnam in the late 1950s. More than half a million U.S. troops were sent to Vietnam fighting against the Northern communist forces in the 1960s. After the gradual withdrawal of American troops, North Vietnamese forces took control of the country. Thousands of Vietnamese fled with the assistance of the American embassy after the fall of Saigon in April 1975 ; among them were former South Vietnamese officials, military personnel, and individuals who had close ties with Americans. More individuals left by their own means for other nations. This refugee crisis caught the U.S. government unprepared, for the numerical cap provided in the 1965 Immigration Act was far from adequate. Between 1975 and 1979 , Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter used their executive power to create one refugee program after another, allocating more slots each time. Some four hundred thousand refugees were admitted, including not only Vietnamese but also Cambodians and Laotians who fled after communists took power in their countries. The exodus continued throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, as large groups of Southeast Asians crossed the borders to refugee camps in Thailand. Most of those who left after 1978 had little education and could not speak English, and the United States had no choice but to accept most of them. To organize the situation, the 1980 Refugee Act set a cap of fifty thousand refugees each year. Adopting the criteria of the United Nations, the law defined refugees as “any person” who, owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution, on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,” seeks refuge outside of his country. 14 The 1987 Amerasian Homecoming Act also admitted children fathered by American soldiers with Asian women as well as these children’s parents and siblings. Among the one million refugees arriving in the 1980s were some 581,000 from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. For the first time after World War II, more than 70 percent of the refugees admitted were from Asia. The Southeast Asia refugee exodus continued into the early years of 1990s, until the normalization of diplomatic relations with Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. By 2000 more than a million Vietnamese had been admitted.
The most important piece of immigration legislation, one that would change the pattern of immigration more profoundly than any other measures, was enacted on October 3, 1965 . Known as the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act (or Hart-Celler Act), the new law abolished the discriminatory national origins quota system established in the 1924 Immigration Act. 15 Whereas the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act allocated a quota of 2,990 for Asia, 1,400 for Africa, and 149,667 for Europe, the new legislation provided each nation an equal annual number of twenty thousand slots. The cap for the total quota for the eastern hemisphere was set at 170,000. The law also imposed a ceiling of 120,000 for the western hemisphere, with no limit for individual nations. A new preference system was introduced, as well as a labor certification program.
The new law was applauded for its emphasis on family unification. It gave non-quota status to immediate family members, including spouses, unmarried minor children, and parents of U.S. citizens. A new preference system also reserved 74 percent of the eastern hemisphere quota for four categories of family members and relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, including unmarried children age twenty-one or older of U.S. citizens, spouses and unmarried children age twenty-one or older of permanent residents, married children age 21 or older of U.S. citizens, and siblings of U.S. citizens. Two of the three remaining categories of the preference system included occupations needed in the United States, such as professionals, scientists, or artists of exceptional ability, as well as skilled and unskilled workers. The last preference provided 6 percent of the total quota for refugees. Western hemisphere immigrants, although not limited by the new preference system, were subject to labor clearance.
Although the Hart-Celler bill was endorsed by the majority of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, some scholars argue that few politicians had anticipated that the new law would change the structure of U.S. immigration. The populations of Asian and African Americans were small in the mid-1960s, which suggested that they would be unlikely to take full advantage of the preference system. In other words, European immigration would continue to be the dominant force. 16 At the signing ceremony in front of the Statue of Liberty, President Lyndon Johnson reassured the public, announcing, “This bill that we will sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily lives.” Right after the ceremony, however, the president admitted to his press secretary, Bill Moyers, in private, “If this was not a revolutionary law, what the blank did we go all the way to New York to sign it for?” 17
Amendments to the 1965 Immigration Act adjusted the proportion of professionals and family members allowed under the quota. In the late 1970s Congress reduced the number of professionals and other workers. Immigrants admitted in these categories were required to have job offers in hand, and their employers were responsible for filing the application for alien employment certificates. In 1986 , the Immigration Reform and Control Act imposed civil and criminal penalties on employers who knowingly hired illegal aliens. The quota number for siblings of citizens was reduced significantly. The Immigration Act of 1990 re-endorsed the family preference system, increased the number of visas for priority workers and professionals with U.S. job offers, and encouraged the immigration of investors. It also created a “diversity visas” program to benefit immigrants from underrepresented countries. 18
Changes in U.S. immigration policies during and after World War II had a great impact on contemporary immigration. A major shift was the sources of immigration. In the first three decades of the 20th century, 80 percent of the roughly 28 million immigrants originated from Europe. Deportations of Mexican laborers and implementation of Asian exclusion limited the growth of immigrants from the western hemisphere and Asia. The number of immigrants dropped significantly during the Great Depression and World War II. Although Europeans continued to dominate the immigration statistics in the first two decades after the war, a new pattern began to emerge. In the 1950s over half of the total immigrants came from Europe, and the majority of them arrived from western European countries. In the 1960s, however, immigrants from the western hemisphere would replace those from Europe to become a dominant source.
Western Europeans dominated U.S. immigration statistics until 1890 . Although the number of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe began to rise between 1890 and 1920 , their entry was limited by the national origins quota system created in the 1924 Immigration Act. The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act reaffirmed this policy, providing large quota allotment to Great Britain (65,000), Germany (26,000), and the Republic of Ireland (18,000) out of the 149,667 total for all European immigrants. In contrast, the numbers allotted for Asia and Africa stood at 2,990 and 1,400, respectively. In addition, a large number of Europeans also came as refugees or displaced persons (Table 1).
Region of Origin
1. Data between 1950 and 1990 refer to the Soviet Union. From 1991 to 1999 , data refer to Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Beginning in 2000 , data refer to Russia only.
2. Data include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, and Serbia and Montenegro.
The dominance of western European immigration ended in the 1960s when the number of immigrants from other regions began to rise. By the time the 1965 Immigration Act became effective, several southern European communities in the U.S. were large enough to utilize the new law for family unification. Greek and Italian populations in the United States grew rapidly, followed by the Portuguese and other groups. During the Cold War era, many eastern Europeans, especially those from Hungary, the Soviet Union, Poland, and Romania, gained admissions as refugees (Table 1). At the same time, economic recovery in western European countries provided local opportunities, giving less incentive for people to migrate. Moreover, as the pace of economic growth quickened, Germany, France, Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands also became destinations of international migration, attracting large numbers of immigrants from southern Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, and Asia. These changes significantly changed the pattern of U.S. immigration.
Most contemporary European immigrants arrived through family unification. A large number of them, especially eastern European immigrants, also came as professionals. Some students who came to seek advanced degrees were able to adjust their legal status upon graduation and receiving U.S.-based job offers. An increasing number of well-educated European professionals came with job-sponsored visas, but many others also came for agricultural and manual work. Poverty rates are high among several eastern European immigrant groups, especially those from Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, and Yugoslavia. 19
Since the late 20th century, European immigration to the United States has been heavily affected by the pace of globalization. The development of the European Union in the 1990s, with the creation of European citizenship, enabled free movements of goods, services, and capital, as well as people. This means that Europeans have many options if they want to relocate. Migrants who gained entry to one European country could also relocate to another. The United States is still attracting European immigrants, especially those with family connections and marketable skills. European workers seeking better employment opportunities, however, could find alternatives in closer destinations, especially when demand for manual labor and agricultural workers increased in Germany, Italy, and Spain. Western Europe itself has become a magnet for immigration.
Historical and geographical ties with the United States shaped some of the unique features of western hemisphere immigration. The Monroe Doctrine of 1820 declared the United States had a special interest of in the Americas. Although during the 1930s Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy seemed to suggest that the United States might stay out of Latin American affairs, this policy was reversed during the Cold War. Interventions by the United States the in affairs of Latin American countries played an important role in shaping immigration policies toward these countries. Demand for low-wage labor in the United States and poverty at home created economic incentives for U.S.-bound migration from Latin American countries, especially in times of war, civil unrest, and violence. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a total of fifty-four million Hispanics lived in the United States in 2013 , representing 17 percent of the population. More than half of the Hispanic population was Mexicans (64 percent). As Table 1 and Table 2 indicate, immigration from western hemisphere nations grew at a fast pace in the second half of the 20th century, and since the 1960s Mexico has been the most important source of U.S. immigration.
Canada was a major western hemisphere source of immigration in the 1950s, but it could not hold its place a decade later, as an increasing number of the immigrants also began to return to their homeland. The 1960s also witnessed a significant increase of immigrants from other western hemisphere nations, including some 200,000 Cubans, 100,000 Dominicans, and 70,000 Colombians. As indicated in Figure 1, immigrants from the western hemisphere replaced those from Europe to become the driving force of U.S. immigration in the 1960s.
Figure 1. Percentage of Total Immigrants to the United States by Region, 1950–2009 . Yearbooks of Immigration Statistics, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The importance of Mexico in U.S. immigration reflects the close relationship between the two nations. The Bracero Program initiated in 1942 recruited 4.6 million Mexican agricultural workers over a period of twenty-two years. Although the program required the workers to return to Mexico after their contracts ended, some bracero wives and children found ways to come and eventually adjusted their legal status. Many of those remaining in the United States in 1964 also became permanent U.S. residents and later were eligible to send for their families and relatives. Without quota limitation, the number of Mexican immigrants rose quickly, from 61,000 in the 1940s to 300,000 in the 1950s, and to 454,000 during the 1960s. After a ceiling of 120,000 entries per year for western hemisphere immigration was imposed by legislation in 1965 , no national quota limit was set. This allowed Mexican immigrants to take a large share of the hemisphere quota. A 1976 law provided each western hemisphere country with an annual quota of 20,000 and established a preference system. 20 In 1978 , a new law set a worldwide ceiling of 290,000 and established a universal preference system. 21 Because immediate family members of U.S. citizens are not counted, some 680,000 Mexicans gained entry in the 1970s. In the 1990s, Mexico’s share of immigration was 28.2 percent, slightly smaller than the share from all Asian nations (29.3 percent) but significantly larger than that of all European nations (13.8 percent).
Since the Bracero Program, the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico has increased, as many migrants adopted a pattern of back-and-forth movement across the border. The dependence of American growers on the supply of low-wage labor from Mexico also bounded the countries together. In the 1980s, a record high of three million Mexicans gained entry, including 2.3 million undocumented individuals under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). The new law also tightened border patrols and imposed penalties for hiring undocumented immigrants, but several million more still arrived between 1990 and 2010 . Of an estimated 11.3 million undocumented immigrants in the United States in 2012 , about 59 percent were from Mexico.
The Cuban exodus to the United States reflected deteriorating relations between the two countries. From 1959 and the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 , more than one hundred thousand refugees were admitted to the United States; many of them were educated or had professional skills. Those that came between 1965 and 1973 were more numerous but less well-to-do. In the chaotic exodus of the Mariel boatlift in 1980 , which lasted for 162 days, the United States Coast Guard assisted more than one thousand vessels carrying refugees from the small fishing port of Mariel west of Havana to South Florida, bringing 125,000 individuals, including a large number of blacks and unskilled workers. That year alone, some 350,000 Cubans gained entry, which was more than the annual total allotted for all immigrants. Although there were no formal diplomatic relations between the two countries, the United States reached an agreement with Cuba in 1996 and granted the country an annual quota of 20,000. 22 By 2000 , some 900,000 Cubans were admitted as refugees. An annual average of more than 30,000 individuals gained entry since then. A program administered by the Department of Homeland Security in 2006 also brought six thousand medical professionals from Cuba. Cuban immigrants built a large ethnic community in Miami, which became the most desirable destination for newcomers.
Increasing numbers of immigrants also arrived from several other western hemisphere nations. The Dominican Republic, which had a historical tie with the United States (U.S troops occupied the island nation for eight years from 1916 to 1924 ), began to send large numbers in the 1960s. In the years after 1970 , an annual average of twenty-five thousand Dominicans have been admitted, and those who came as tourists and overstayed their visas or who arrived in the United States via Puerto Rico were largely uncounted. Many Dominican immigrants could enjoy dual citizenship after 1994 , which further encouraged migration. War, violence, poverty, and natural disasters also encouraged immigration from Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and other Central American nations. The Nicaraguans began to arrive in large numbers in the 1960s and joined Cuban immigrants in Florida, especially Miami. Most immigrants from Guatemala and El Salvador were from rural backgrounds. In 1997 , the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act granted amnesty to tens of thousands of Central Americans (Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, etc.) who had arrived by that year. Asylum was rarely granted for undocumented immigrants who arrived after 1997 . South America, especially Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Venezuela, began to send large numbers of immigrants in the 1970s. From that continent about one half million migrants arrived in the 1990s, and an average of seventy-five thousand arrived annually in the first decade of the 21st century.
Jamaica and Haiti are two major Caribbean sending nations. Jamaica was the tenth largest source of immigration in the 1970s and climbed to seventh in the following decade. Although most Haitians came as refugees, the United States did not treat them the same as they did Cubans. Several thousand Haitians fled from the increasingly authoritarian government before 1960 . Most of the ninety thousand Haitians who came between 1961 and 1980 were poor and had little education; they left to escape poverty, violence, and political turmoil. After 1980 , more Haitians landing on American soil were undocumented. Fleeing from right-wing tyrants instead of communism, Haitians were often classified as economic migrants rather than political refugees, which led to frequent rejection of their petitions for asylum. Those who arrived before 1982 were eligible for amnesty under IRCA. In 1990 , the Haitian Fairness Refugee Act provided a means for over twenty thousand individuals to adjust their legal status. As many Haitians became American citizens, they could sponsor family members, but undocumented immigrants continued to arrive. As members of the poorest immigrant group, many Haitians could not find decent jobs due to their limited education levels, lack of English proficiency, and in some cases poor health.
After several decades of exclusion, the Asian American population began to grow slowly in the postwar years. The majority of the early immigrants from Asian were male in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The repeal of exclusion laws, though with a small quota for each country, made it possible for women and children to gain admission outside the quota system. After World War II, family-centered Asian American communities began to develop.
The 1965 Immigration Act had a profound impact on Asian immigration. For the first time, Asian countries were placed on the same basis as European countries. The law increased the quota for each Asian country more than one hundredfold, making large-scale immigration from the continent possible. The new law also opened the door for professional labor, allowing Asians with occupational qualifications to come.
Whereas the 1965 Immigration Act opened the door wide to Asian immigration, not all countries took the full quota allotment. Most Asian countries did not have large population base in the United States at the time. Among the five established Asian American communities—Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and Indian, only three were able to benefit from the new law within a relatively short time. Filipino Americans took the lead. By then, there was a large population of Filipinos living in the United States. Political instability and economic problems in Philippines were the major incentives for emigration. Due to the U.S. colonization of the Philippines in the first half of the 20th century ( 1900–1946 ), Filipinos were quite familiar with American culture and society. Educated in an American-style school system, most young Filipinos could speak English, which made the United States the most desirable destination for prospective migrants. Those trained in the medical profession, especially nurses, were welcomed by American hospitals. With established family networks in this country and marketable skills, it was relatively easy for Filipino immigrants to adjust their lives in America. In the decade of the 1960s, the Philippines emerged as one of the top ten immigrant-sending countries. It ranked second, behind Mexico, for the three decades between 1970 and 2000 (see Table 2).
The Korean immigrant population in the United States was relatively small before 1945 . After the Korean War, however, many Korean wives of American servicemen gained entry under the McCarran-Walter Act as wives of U.S. citizens. Small groups of students also gained entry during this period. These military brides and some established students were among the first to sponsor their family members and relatives after 1965 . In the 1960s and 1970s the South Korean government encouraged emigration to reduce the pressure of its growing population. By then, the presence of American troops in Korea after the Korean War and frequent exchanges between the two nations had exposed South Koreans to the material advantages of American way of life. Streams of emigration to the United States began almost immediately after the 1965 Immigration Act became effective. Regardless of their skills and educational background, many Korean immigrants became self-employed, because it was difficult for them to find employment. During the three decades between 1970 and 1999 , Korea was one of the top ten immigrant-sending countries.
The South Asian immigrant population was small before 1945 . In the two decades after World War II, some Indian students came to study science, engineering, medicine, and business. Once these students settled in the United States, they became the core node of the immigration network for family unification. Since 1970 , India has made the list of the top ten sending nations every decade. In addition to family members and students, Indian immigration to the United States was facilitated by the employment-based preference. In the 2014 fiscal year, Indians accounted for 70 percent of the 316,000 H1-B petitions. 23 As indicated in Table 1, the Indian share of total immigrants increased steadily from 3.5 percent in the years 1970–1979 to 5.7 percent in 2000–2009 . The partition of Pakistan from India in 1948 and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 also affected the immigration from South Asia. Once they were independent, the two nations received separate quotas. Pakistani immigrants began to increase significantly in the 1980s. After a slow start, Bangladesh also emerged as an important source of immigration in the 21st century.
The Japanese and Chinese were the two largest Asian immigrant groups in 1960 , but neither Japan nor China was a major source of immigration in the 1960s and 1970s. After World War II, Japan built close ties with the United States. In addition to the existing ethnic Japanese population, thousands of Japanese women arrived as wives of U.S. servicemen. Like the Koreans, citizens of Japan were familiar with American culture and society. But unlike in the postwar years, by the late 1960s, Japan had emerged as an industrial country, and its economy was able to provide good employment opportunities to its own citizens. Enjoying a relatively high standard of living during the economic boom, the Japanese had little incentive to move abroad. As a result, Japan has not filled the immigration quota provided by the 1965 law.
Immigration from China has been shaped by contemporary Chinese history and U.S.-China relations. Although the Chinese re the second largest Asian immigrant group in 1960 , most Chinese living in the United States could not sponsor their family members or relatives in China from 1949 to 1979 because of the lack of diplomatic relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. Most of the Chinese who came in the 1960s and 1970s were from either Taiwan or Hong Kong; the latter was then a British colony. Most of those from Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s were students, and they later were able to sponsor their family members. Not until 1979 , when the United States normalized diplomatic relationship with the People’s Republic of China, did the number of Chinese admitted begin to rise. Many of those sponsored by their relatives in the United States were from China’s southern coastal province of Guangdong. Beginning in the 1980s, China also sent large numbers of students each year; many of them later settled in the United States. During the first decade of the 21st century, China replaced Philippines as the second largest source of immigration after Mexico. Immigration from Taiwan also continued, as the United State granted it the same quota numbers as China. In the mid-1990s, the United States also set aside sixty thousand annual slots for Hong Kong immigrants, before the British returned the colony to China in 1997 . These slots were not filled, however, for relatively few in Hong Kong took the opportunity. The combined sources of immigrants from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, along with those from the Chinese diaspora, have made the Chinese the largest Asian American population group in the United States.
Asian immigration expanded significantly after 1975 , when streams of refugees from Southeast Asia began to arrive. Before 1945 , the United States showed little interest in Southeast Asia. Even after the United States entered the war in Vietnam, the presence of Southeast Asians in this country was very small. Only 335 Vietnamese entered in the 1950s, and some 4,300 more came in the 1960s. The collapse of the U.S.-backed governments in Southeast Asia triggered an international refugee crisis. Because of its two-decade-long military involvement in Indochina and for political and humanitarian reasons, the United States had to take the lead in admitting and accommodating these refugees. In the 1980s, Vietnam suddenly became a major source of immigration, ahead of China. By the time the United States normalized diplomatic relations with Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in the 1990s, most newcomers from Southeast Asia came under the family unification system. By 2000 , 1.1 million Vietnamese have been admitted, along with 170,000 Cambodians and 340,000 Laotians. About half of the refugees and immigrants from Laos are ethnic Hmong.
The expansion of Asian immigration after 1945 added a new dimension to U.S. immigration history. In the 1950s, Asia’s share of immigration was rather insignificant compared to that of Europe. As European immigration declined, Asian immigration rose. In the 1970s, immigrants from Asia surpassed those from Europe. By the 1980s, the vast majority of immigrants to the United States were from Asian and western hemisphere countries (see Figure 1).
For almost a century after the slave trade, Africa sent relatively few immigrants to the United States. In the 1950s and 1960s, the number of arrivals from Africa accounted for less than 1 percent of all immigrants. Africa’s share of immigrants increased consistently every decade since then, however. The 2000 census counted one million African-born persons in the United States. Beginning in 2008 , more Africans have been admitted than Europeans every single year (Table 3) This change indicates a new trend in U.S. immigration.
