VSI Chapters 3-5 Reading Questions

For Monday's class, please read Chapter 3 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction, and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• Why did World War II cause America to rethink its immigration policies? (45)
• What was the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952? (46)
• What was the refugee situation at the end of World War II? (46) And why did the U.S. feel the need to do something about it? (47)
• What is the Displaced Persons Act of 1948? (47)
• What is presidential parole power, and how did Eisenhower use it? (47)
• How were Cuban and Vietnamese refugees able to integrate so rapidly? (48)
• What led to the overturning of the quota system? (48-49)
• What did the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act do? (51-52)
• What were the unintended consequences of the law? (53)
• What does the book say studies have shown about the link between immigration and crime? (54)
• What caused the huge rise in illegal immigration from Mexico? (56)
• What attitudes changed and what laws were enacted because of the recession of the 1980s? (62)
• What did George W. Bush do? (63)

For Wednesday's class, please read Part II, Chapter 4 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction.

• What roles did mass literacy, cheap mass-produced publications, and state postal systems play in 19th and early 20th immigration? What plays those roles now? (66)
• What traits to immigrants have that lend themselves to economic and social integration and why do they have these traits? (67 and 85)
• How many people resided outside their birth countries in 2005? What percentage of the world's population is that? (68)
• Were, besides the United States, are people migrating to, and why? (69)
• What was the historical purpose of international migration between 1820 and 1924? (73)
• Why did peasants and traditional craftsmen end up living the proletarian life of wage earners in the slums of industrial cities? (75-79)
• In the 19th century, what drew immigrants to the United States? (80)
• What altered the character of immigrants after 1890? (81)
• How did Europeans who re-emigrated influence the immigration restriction debate? (83)
• What immigration was happening on the Pacific Coast at this time? (84)
• Is mass immigration chaotic or routine and predictable? (84)

Also for Wednesday's class, please review the Macalester Today article and the U.S. Census website, and have two relevant ideas/questions/approaches ready in writing for our final project (see the previous blog post for links).

For next Monday's class, please read Chapter 5 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction.

• What made the third massive wave of immigration to the United States possible? (86)
• List the three factors that have made the United States so attractive. (87)
• Describe the nationalization of immigration. (88-89)
• What is notable able Asian (90) and Hispanic populations (91)?
• What did the 1965 immigration law give high priority to in granting visas? (92)
• How does Mira Flores in the Dominican Republic relate to the Boston area? (92-93)
• How are most of today's immigrants different from those of the past? (93)
• If the popular image of immigrants is blue collar workers, what is the reality by numbers? (94)
• What are problems for those not in the country legally? (96)
• Why are women predominate in modern migration streams? (97) And how have gender roles changed as a consequence? (98-99)
• What has the Philippines done to encourage emigration? (98)
• Why do people immigrate only to take jobs for which they are over qualified (i.e. downward mobility)? (99)

Finally, A Very Short Introduction & Census Project

Census Project
We will have a collaborative project in lieu of a final exam that will explore (a) the background history, (b) issues related to the current (2020) census, and (c) our future ideal census. In addition to the readings listed below, please have a look at the US Census website and the Macalester Today article before class on Wednesday.

For Wednesday's class, please read the Introduction and Chapter 1 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction, and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• What binds the American people together if not a common genealogy? (1)
• What are the three great waves of immigration that reconfigured the population? (2)
• For what three reasons may things be different for recent immigrants? (3)
• What do "nativists" and "pluralists" argue about? (4)
• What is the question ultimately? (5) And what is the answer many cannot accept? (6)
• What are the three parts of the book? (12)
• Define "nativism" (15); are there legitimate reasons for restricting immigration? (16)
• What was the principal rationale for a liberal immigration policy for first 150 years of European presence in North America? (18)
• What are the provisions of the Naturalization Law of 1795 and the 14th Amendment? (19)
• What gave rise to reactive nativist policies in the mid-1800s?
• Why 21 year for naturalization? (22)
• Who was barred from entry by legislation passed between 1864 and 1917? (23)

For Friday's class, please read Chapter 2 of American Immigration: A Very Short Introduction, and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• What makes it clear that in post-Gold Rush California, arguments against immigration were racist? (27)
• Which Chinese were barred from immigration by the Chinese Exclusion Act and which were not? (28)
• How did Angel Island differ from Ellis Island? (29)
• What did the 1891 Immigration Act do, and what inspired it? (30)
• Why were Japanese immigrants seen as a threat? What action was taken in 1913? (31)
• Who was White? (32)
• What is the principle of derivative citizenship? (34)
• What was different about immigrants after the 1890s? (35-36)
• What were the three main sources calling for greater immigration restriction after 1890? (37-38)
• What did Eugenicists advocate? (39)
• What were the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 based on? (42-43)
• What were other countries doing? (44)

Chapter Seventeen Reading Questions

For Monday's class, please read Chapter 17 through page 422 and prepare written answers to the following questions:

• What has changed and what has stayed the same in American immigration since 1986?
• In the 2000 census, what percentage of the population was foreign born? How does that compare to the historical numbers? (Hint: check the tables in this chapter and in chapter 6.)
• According to the 2000 census, the largest numbers of immigrants came from what regions of the world? Where did most settle? What were their education achievements and income?
• Why is the data so misleading when the census data on immigrants is lumped together?
• What does Daniels say the responsible historian must try to do?
• Who are "nonimmigrant" immigrants?
• Who do experts think comprise the major portion of the illegal immigrants?
• What is the longstanding discrimination against Mexican as opposed to Canadian border crossers?
• Why are the government's estimates of the number of illegal immigrants so unreliable?
• If we accept the government's numbers, what, in Daniel's opinion, are the vast majority of the 1.8% of the U.S. population that is undocumented?

For Wednesday's class, please read Chapter Seventeen from page 422 to 451, and prepare written answers to the questions below.

This is the last of the Daniels book, and it is interesting to see what was going on just fifteen years ago, and what he predicted for the future. Was he right? After this we will focus on current issues and make our own predictions about the future of immigration.

• Why was there so much anti-immigrant rhetoric in the IRCA and the sixteen statutes affecting immigration passed during the 1990s? Were they really getting "tough"?
• Did Presidents Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton reduce immigration?
• What replaced the concern about communists?
• Why was the money thrown at the INS during the 1990s largely wasted?
• What has been the corollary of increased border security?
• Do people caught at the border usually get deported?
• What is the INS record on prisoners?
• Why did naturalization increase so much in the 1990s? How much did it cost?
• What did the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform report (aka the Jordan report) not point out as the chief culprit in the illegal immigration dilemma?
• Who supported California Proposition 187? Was it effective? Why was George W. Bush (then the governor of Texas) against it?
• Layout the problems with the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the 1998 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
• What did Pope John Paul II say about immigration?
• How have Germany and Japan dealt with immigration in the past? What do those countries and many other developed countries have to worry about for the future of their economies?
• Why did organized labor completely reverse its policies on immigration?