Post-World War II Immigration to the United States: America's Latest Newcomers

• DOI: 10.1177/000271628145400102
• Date: 01 March 1981
• Published date: 01 March 1981
• Author: David M. Reimers
• Subject Matter: Articles

1

Post-World

War

II

Immigration

to

the

United

States:

America’s

Latest

Newcomers

By

DAVID

M.

REIMERS

David

M.

Reimers,

professor

of history

at

New

York

University,

received

his

Ph.D.

from

the

University

of Wisconsin.

Before joining

the faculty

at

NYU

in

1966,

he

taught

at

Hunter

College

and

Brooklyn

College.

He

has

also

taught

at

the

University

of Wisconsin

and

the

University

of Vermont.

A

specialist

in

ethnic

and

immigration

history,

he

is

coauthor

of two

books

in

these fields,

Ethnic

Americans:

A

History

of

Immigration

and

Assimilation

and

Natives

and

Strangers:

Ethnic

Groups

in

the

Building

of

America.

He

is

currently

working

on

a general

history

of immigration

to

America

since

1945.

ABSTRACT:

During

the

1920s,

Congress

drastically

curtailed

immigration

from

Europe

and

barred

Asians.

The

Johnson-

Reed

Act

of

1924

completed

the

restictions

and

established

the

national

origins

system.

After

World

War

II,

Congress

reaffirmed

that

system

with

the

enactment

of

the

McCarran-

Walter

Act

in

1952.

But

Congress

also

began

to

liberalize

im-

migration

policy,

largely

on

a

piecemeal

basis.

In

1965,

Con-

gress

repealed

the

national

origins

quotas

and

restrictions

against

Asians

and

substituted

a

preference

system

based

upon

family

unification,

occupations,

and

refugee

status.

Still

other

changes

in

the

1970s

modified

the

immigration

laws

further

and

permitted

additional

immigrants

to

enter.

The

changes

in

policy

led

to

an

increase

in

the

number

of

immi-

grants

arriving

and

also

led

to

shifting

patterns

of

immigration.

Immigrants

coming

after

1945

were

more

apt

to

be

refugees

and

to

be

of

higher

skills

than

before.

And

the

majority

were

now

female.

From

1945

to

1965,

most

European

immigrants

were

from

northern

and

western

European

countries,

but

by

the

1970s,

southern

and

eastern

European

nations

supplied

the

bulk

of

European

immigrants

to

America.

After

1965

another

important

shift

was

apparent:

Third

World

nations

re-

placed

Europe

as

the

major

sending

regions,

and

by

the

late

1970s,

the

vast

majority

of

America’s

latest

newcomers

were

from

the

Third

World.