ISS: Exam 2-1

Immigrant America

Chapter 1

1. Approximately how many immigrants come to the United States during the last two decades of the 19th century and first two decades of the 20th century? 23 million.

2. What was the approximate percentage of foreign born in the United States in 1910? 14.7%.

3. What does Portes state about the workers building railways? Railways were built by Irish immigrants that lived in construction camps.

4. Which groups of Europeans faced heavy discrimination (from which regions)? Italians, and Southern and Eastern Europeans.

5. Which company recruited descendants of formerly enslaved Africans as early as 1916? Ford Motor Company.

6. What was the purpose of labor recruitment in the Northeast and Midwest at this time? To supply the large manufacturing industry with cheap, abundant, and unorganized labor that would break trade unions. 

7. What do we learn about the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the gold rush, and the building of the transcontinental railroad? Mexico ceded its territory to the US, the states of Texas, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The acquisition of California led to the gold rush of 1848-55, which brought in many Chinese Migrants. This expansion also led to the need for a transcontinental railroad to provide ease in transportation to the Pacific Coast from the Northern Colonies. 

8. What was the first piece of federal legislation that excluded a nationality? The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

9. What were the restrictions on Japanese people with a 1920 law? Japanese were forbidden from leasing land or acting as guardians of native-born minors in matters of property. 

10. Which country’s nationals were exempt from the 1918 ban on “illiterates”? Immigrants from Mexico and Canada. 

11. Which country’s nationals were exempted from the 1924 National Origins Act? Mexico and Western Hemisphere countries. 

12. What does Portes write about the Great Depression and repatriation/deportation campaigns? He says that the immigrants had no incentive to come join unemployed Americans and it slowed arrivals, as well as increased deportation to free up jobs for unemployed American citizens. This campaign was largely focused on Mexicans, including those who were American born. 

13. What was the Bracero program? The Bracero Program was a contractual agreement of Mexican workers who worked for farms to stimulate the depressed economy.

14. What does Portes write happened with the 1965 Act? Portes says that it helped immigrant Mexicans from the Bracero program to remain employed and legalize their situation through marriage to US citizens. Finally, it opened the professional labor market to foreigners. 

15. What was the 70s “spatial fix”? Companies moved production facilities abroad to reduce labor costs.

16. What does Portes write is the principal “pull” factor for labor migration, even of seasonal workers? The expansion of the H-2 Program, which was a way to obtain citizenship or visa. Higher wages and more economic opportunities. 

17. What does he refer to as “bottom tier” demand? The demand for manual labor

18. What is ICE and what happened in 2008? Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they began to do mass deportations. 

19. What does Portes write about the preference system? And about H-1B program? A preference category of the U.S. visa allocation system is reserved for “priority  workers;  professionals  with  advanced  degrees,  or  aliens  of exceptional  ability.” Under the H-1B program, U.S.  employers  can  sponsor  professional  immigrants  for  a  three-year period  that  can  be  extended  to  a  maximum  of  six  years. One  of  the  major  advantages  for  firms  hiring  H-1B  workers  is  the contribution that they make to keeping salaries down for professional/technical occupations in high demand.

20. What does he refer to as “ethnic enclaves”? Immigrant enterprises that only hire those of the ethnicities. 

21. What does Portes write about the Refugee Act of 1980? The Refugee Act of 1980, signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, aimed  at  eliminating  the  former  practice  of  granting  asylum  only  to escapees  from  Communist-controlled  nations. The  central  difference  is  that while  refugees  have  legal  standing,  the  right  to  work,  and  can  benefit from the welfare provisions of the 1980 act, those denied asylum have none of these privileges and, if they stay, are classified as illegals.

22. What does Portes state is a refugee versus an asylee? What are the advantages of refugee/asylee status? As noted above, the legal difference between a refugee and an asylee hinges on the physical location of the person. Both types are recognized by  the  government  as  having  a  well-founded  fear  of  persecution,  but while the first still lives abroad and must be transported to the United States,  the  second  is  already  within  U.S  territory. 

Immigrant America

Chapter 3

1. Which type of immigrants did the earlier flows primarily consist of? Manual Laborers 

2. What does Portes state about geographical propinquity? For  immigrant  workers,  proximity  to  the  homeland has  two  important  economic  consequences:  first,  for  those  who  come on their own, it reduces the costs of the journey; second, for everyone, it reduces the costs of return, which most labor migrants plan to under-take at some point.

3. What does Portes state about the concentration of Central and Eastern European peoples in the Midwest? The concentration of some Central and Eastern European peoples in the Midwest reflects the development of heavy industry in this area more than a century ago—first steel and later auto making. This concentration was coupled with the minimal skills required for most new industrial  jobs,  which  made  recruiting  cheap  immigrant  labor  attractive  to employers.

4. What does Portes state about canal companies' recruitment in terms of: which two primary immigrant groups and what are their subsequent settlement patterns? Irish and Italian workers settled along the routes followed by the canal construction. 

5. And about which two immigrant groups for railway construction? Chinese and Mexicans.

6. And about which immigrant group and where for settlement for copper mine and timber companies? Finnish.

7. Which immigrant group(s) often took advantage of cheap land in the Midwest to go into business for themselves (particularly for ownership of rural farms)? Germans, Scandanvians, and Czech immigrants.

8. Which type of immigrants tend to be more dispersed throughout the country than physical labor migrants? Professionals

9. Which area contains the largest concentrations of Cubans (descendants of those who received political asylum)? Miami, Florida. 

10. And of Vietnamese (descendants of those who received political asylum)? Orange County and San Jose, CA.

11. What does Table 11 tell us about the states with the largest number of immigrants in 2019, specifically: California has remained at #1, and Texas and Florida experienced an increase. 

12. Which state had the largest number overall? California.

13. Which group of immigrants was the most dispersed across the country in 2019? Indians 

14. Which group of immigrants, mainly industrial and urban laborers, has concentrated in NYC in the past few decades? Indians, Chinese

15. Which group of immigrants was the largest national contingent in 2019? Mexicans

16. Which immigrant group does Portes describe as containing a sizable number of professionals with a main destination of Los Angeles, where an ethnic enclave grew rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s? Koreans

17. What does Portes list as the potential benefits of spatial concentration for members of the immigrant generation? Individualistic aspirations should lead to dispersal because upward economic mobility often requires spatial mobility