Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
migrant. You look at your access to transportation and the
opportunities you have to go elsewhere. Be realistic, and
describe how you determine where you will go, how you
get there, and what you do once you get there.
tation workers (the Kanakas) by deporting the South
Pacifi c Islanders by the end of 1906. These immigration
policies created what is known as the White Australia
Policy , which remained in effect until modifi cation in 1972
and again in 1979.
Waves of Immigration
in the United States
Changes in a country's migration policies are refl ected in
the number of people entering the country and the origin
of the immigrants (see Fig. 3.20). The United States expe-
rienced two major waves of immigration before 1930 and
is in the midst of another great wave of immigration today.
Major changes in the government's migration policies are
refl ected in this graph. Push factors are also refl ected in
Figure 3.20, as people in different regions found reasons
to leave their home and migrate to the United States.
During the 1800s, the United States opened its
doors to immigration. Most of the immigrants arrived
from Europe, especially Northern Europe (Scandinavia)
and western Europe (including Ireland, Great Britain,
Germany, and France). In the later part of the 1800s, a
greater proportion of Europeans who immigrated to the
United States came from Southern and eastern Europe
(including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, and Poland).
Following World War I, political tides in the
United States turned toward isolationism —staying out
of entanglements abroad. In addition, Congress feared
growing migration from eastern and Southern Europe.
Many whites in the United States at the time saw
migrants from eastern and southern Europe as darker
skinned and as an inferior race of whites. In this context,
Congress passed restrictive legislation in 1921, deter-
ring immigration from southern and eastern Europe.
Congress set immigration quotas , whereby each year,
European countries could permit the emigration to the
United States of 3 percent of the number of its nationals
living in the United States in 1910. In 1910, the great-
est proportion of immigrants in the United States came
from northern and western Europe, thus the quotas
allowed migration from northern and western Europe
and severely restricted immigration from southern and
eastern Europe (Fig. 3.20).
In 1924, Congress altered the Immigration Act by
lowering the quota to 2 percent and making 1890 the base
year, further reducing the annual total to 150,000 immi-
grants and further discouraging eastern and southern
European migration.
The rapid fall in total immigration to the United States
is clear in Figure 3.20. Just prior to the Great Depression,
Congress passed the National Origins Law in 1929, whereby
Congress continued to limit immigration to 150,000 per
year. Congress also tied immigration quotas to the national
HOW DO GOVERNMENTS
AFFECT MIGRATION?
The control of immigration, legal and illegal, the
granting of asylum to asylum-seeking refugees, and the
fate of cross-border refugees, permanent and temporary,
have become hot issues around the world. In Europe,
right-wing political parties whip up anti-immigrant senti-
ment. In California, the state government demands fed-
eral monies to provide services for hundreds of thousands
of illegal immigrants; if the federal government cannot
control its borders, they argue, states should not have to
foot the bill. In Cuba, the Castro regime has used migra-
tion as a threat: in August 1994, Castro threatened to open
Cuba's doors to a fl ood of emigrants who would invari-
ably all fl ee to the United States. And in the United States
today, the federal government faces reproach both from
those who want to stop the fl ow of migration from Mexico
and those who argue for opening the United States' doors
for migrants from humanitarian crises, including Haiti.
Efforts to restrict migration fl ows are nothing new.
Media coverage, political debates, and political wrangling
only make it seem so. In the fourteenth century, China
built the Great Wall in part as a defensive measure but also
as a barrier to emigration (by Chinese beyond the sphere
of their authorities) and immigration (mainly by Mongol
“barbarians” from the northern plains). The Berlin Wall,
the Korean DMZ (demilitarized zone), the fences along
the Rio Grande—all are evidence of governments' desire
to control the movement of people across their borders.
Legal Restrictions
Typically, the obstacles placed in the way of potential
immigrants are legal, not physical. Restrictive legisla-
tion on immigration appeared in the United States in
1882, when Congress approved the Oriental Exclusion
Acts (1882-1907). Congress designed immigration
laws to prevent the immigration of Chinese people to
California. In 1901, the Australian government approved
the Immigration Restriction Act, which ended all non-
white immigration into the newly united country. In
particular, the Australian government was targeting
Japanese, Chinese, and South Asian immigrants. The act
also prohibited immigration by South Pacifi c Islanders
who worked on Australia's large sugar plantations. The
Australian government furthered action against the plan-
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