Immigration and Anti-immigration

I had the pleasure of hearing a presentation yesterday by Dr. Evelyn Hu-DeHart,
Professor of History and Ethnic Studies, Director, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America (CSREA), Brown University, about America's love/hate relationship with newcomers. Today several hundred high school students jointed in the conference and were present for this talk. Here are some key points:

• America's immigration "story" has always implied an inclusive, welcoming country. "Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses, yearning to be free."
• The reality has been one of exclusion - except for Europeans.
• The main reason we have sought out immigrants over the years is for their labor...first the African slaves, then Asians, and finally Mexicans.
• Slaves were excluded from citizenship because they were "property". The first US Naturalization Law in 1790 only allowed citizenship for white immigrants. Asians were specifically named as excluded in the first immigration law in 1882.
• I wasn't certain of the date but I think early 20th century Asians were described as "aliens ineligible for citizenship."
• Mexicans were really interesting. Until the 1950's the US Census counted Mexicans as "white". Before the depression they could move freely back and forth across the US Mexican border. The depression resulted in Mexicans being rounded up and deported. After WWII Mexican labor was again needed and a formal agreement brought Mexicans back to work in the US but re-classified them as non-white without citizenship. The term "illegal immigrant" was coined to describe those workers who built a life in the US and wanted to stay.
• Racial restrictions on immigration were finally changed in 1965 but new restrictions were imposed on numbers of immigrants by category. We can argue, for example, that Mexicans should go home and use the legal immigration process to come back into the US. However, many of the Mexican workers who come here work in the unskilled service industry and the quota for unskilled workers in the current immigration law is 5,000 worldwide and last year two of those positions were allocated to Mexico. This, in spite of the fact that there are 12 million Mexican immigrants in the US - and half of them are undocumented.
• It is only recently that the term "illegal alien" has been applied to immigrants. It is today's version of "alien ineligible for citizenship". Alien has connotations of hostile, suspect, and evil that only serve a political purpose.

I hope I got all the facts right. Actually Dr. Hu-DeHart was so interesting I will be doing some reading on the history of immigration to get it all straight in my mind. Once again, it was a wonderful presentation and a terrific opportunity to participate in a valuable learning experience.