This is a story about U.S. immigration policy.
The goal has always been
to identify which people to welcome
and which to keep out.
Let’s start in 1790.
The first immigration law passed
limited U.S. citizenship to any “free white person.”
The law thus excluded people from almost anywhere
outside of Europe, not to mention
enslaved Africans
and Native Americans,
who had been living on the land for centuries.
As immigrants of color began trickling into the country
despite such restrictions, U.S. politicians moved again
to officially favor white people.
In 1882, Chinese were prohibited from coming here.
In 1924, Congress instituted national origin quotas.
More than 100,000 visa slots were reserved
each year for people coming from northern Europe,
while people from Asia, Africa
and other parts of the world had tiny allocations.
Because migrants generally follow the example
of family members and acquaintances who've gone before them,
Europeans dominated the immigrant flow
year after year after year.
Those national origin quotas stayed in place until 1965,
when they were finally abolished as racist and discriminatory.
Under the Immigration Act
of 1965,
priority was given instead to immigrants
who had spouses, parents, siblings or other family members
already in the U.S.
Some politicians thought this “family unification” policy
would still favor white people,
because they were more likely than nonwhites to have U.S. relatives.
But they miscalculated.
By 1965, Europeans were largely content to stay put.
They were no longer lining up in large numbers to move to America.
It was a different story in the developing world.
People there were increasingly eager to escape poverty and war
or seek economic opportunity in America.
That’s where the long lines began to form.
For every student or worker who got a visa
to come to the U.S.
from Africa, Asia or Latin America,
there were many family members back home
who wanted to follow.
This is what President Trump refers to derisively as “chain migration.”
And it's become an explosive issue.
The foreign-born share of the U.S. population
has risen from 5 percent to 13.5 percent,
with nearly nine of 10 new immigrants
arriving from countries outside Europe.
President Trump wants to move toward a merit-based system
where immigrants with the skills and training
most needed in the U.S. are favored
over people looking to reunite with family members.
Such a shift, however, would mark a sharp departure
from what has been the prevailing pattern of migration
throughout the country’s history.
Tom Gjelten. NPR News.
