US Immigration Policy and Assimilation Theories Review

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering U.S. historical immigration acts, legislation, border enforcement policies, migration theories, and models of cultural assimilation.

Immigration Act of 1917

Immigration law that instituted a literacy test, introduced new excluded categories such as 'mentally defective', and created the Asiatic Barred Zone.

Pensionado Act of 1903

Legislation that allowed elite Filipino students to enter the United States as 'U.S. nationals' during U.S. colonial rule.

Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act)

Law establishing a national origin quota system using a 2% rule (permitting 2 immigrants per 100 people), leading to the 'Silent Era' of immigration.

Executive Order 9066

Feb 1942 order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizing military power to ban citizens from a 50 to 60-mile coastal zone and move approximately 112,000 Japanese Americans to prison camps.

Magnuson Act (Chinese Exclusion Repeals Act of 1943)

1943 law that repealed Chinese exclusion, allowed Chinese immigration, and permitted the naturalization of Chinese individuals in the U.S.

Bracero Program (1942)

1942 initiative where recruiters went to Mexico to hire agricultural workers viewed as pliable and productive, bringing in several million workers before ending in 1964.

Paper Sons

Falsified identities created in 1906 by Filipinos who were interrogated and detained on Angel Island.

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952

Cold War-era policy that abolished naturalization limitations based on race, maintained a regional quota system (159k Europeans, 3k Asians, 1.5k Africans), and created a preference system based on skills and family reunification.

Hart-Celler Act (Act of 1965)

Amendment to the 1952 Act that abolished national quotas, established hemispheric limits (170,000 from Eastern Hemisphere, max 20,000 per country), prioritized family reunification and skilled workers, and placed the first limits on Latin American immigration.

Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA)

1986 policy that required employers to verify employee legal status and made it illegal to knowingly recruit or hire non-documented immigrants.

1990 Immigration Act

Legislation that created the H-1B skilled work program, increased annual employment visas from 54,000 to 140,000, established TPS for asylum seekers, and structured preferences for family reunification, employment, and the diversity lottery.

H-1B Skilled Work Program

Program introduced in the 1990 Immigration Act allowing employers to apply to hire skilled foreign workers using temporary visas.

Hyper-selectivity

A dual type of positive selectivity where immigrants are more likely to have college degrees than non-migrants in their country of origin AND more likely to be college graduates than the host country population.

Proposition 187 (1994)

California ballot initiative designed to prohibit illegal immigrants from accessing social services during an economic downturn.

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA)

Law signed by Bill Clinton that increased immigrant criminalization and detention, enabling deportations for minor crimes.

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA)

Welfare reform law that mandated public agencies verify the legal status of all applicants.

Homeland Security Act of 2002

Legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security, established the TSA, and consolidated border patrol and immigration enforcement under INS.

Macro Theory of Migration

A neoclassical economic theory viewing migration primarily as an equilibrium-restoring mechanism between differing labor markets.

Network Theory (Massey et al. 1993)

Theory positing that migrant networks (ties of kinship, friendship, and shared community origin) lower the risks and costs of moving while increasing net expected returns, functioning as social capital.

Cumulative Causation (Myrdal 1957)

Concept stating migration has an internal momentum resistant to easy control; once jobs are socially labeled as 'immigrant jobs', recruiting native workers becomes difficult, necessitating continued recruitment of immigrants.

Colonial Perspective on Migrant Labor

Theory arguing that migrant labor benefits dominant racial groups by giving employers cheap labor and allowing dominant-group workers to feel superior to a permanently lower social class.

Marxist Perspective on Migrant Labor

Theory asserting that capitalists use immigrant labor to discipline domestic workers, preventing class solidarity and dividing the working class through cultural and linguistic barriers.

Anglo Conformity

Assimilation model where minority or immigrant groups are taught that the norms, values, and institutions of the majority group are superior.

Melting Pot

Cultural assimilation theory where various racial and ethnic groups interact to form a new, single culture incorporating elements from all groups.

Cultural Pluralism (Salad Bowl)

Concept in which distinct racial and ethnic groups retain their unique cultural traditions and norms while sharing common national values and goals.

Second-Generation Decline (Herbert Gans 1992)

Theory positing that children of immigrants may struggle to secure mainstream economy jobs while simultaneously refusing or being unable to accept low-wage 'immigrant' jobs like their parents.

Segmented Assimilation (Portes & Zhou 1993)

Framework analyzing contextual, structural, and cultural factors to explain why immigrant outcomes diverge into successful assimilation or unsuccessful/negative assimilation.