Teaching Immigration:
Migration, Citizenship, and
Identity in Postwar America
Kristina Shull
December 4, 2013
Teaching American History Institute
University of California, Irvine History
Project
Overview
• America’s demographics are rapidly changing.
What historical factors have caused this shift?
• What are various (and often competing) ways
in which we can conceptualize the history of
immigration in the United States?
• Strategies for teaching immigration:
– CA State Standards
– Working with Primary Sources
– Fostering Critical Thinking
– Making the Past “Actionable”
Immigration Before WWII
• http://www.migrationinformation.org/datahu
b/charts/final.immig.shtml shows the waves
of immigration into the U.S.
• Immigration generally unrestricted until 1882
Chinese Exclusion Act, 1907 Gentlemen’s
Agreement with Japan, and 1924 National
Origins Act
• Immigration had been substantially cut off
after the 1924 National Origins Act and the
Great Depression
• Why the steady increase since WWII?
Renewed Immigration After WWII
• 1952 Immigration Act: Abolished racial restrictions found in U.S.
law going back to the Naturalization Act of 1790, but still retained
a quota system for nationalities and regions. The Act defined
three types of immigrants: immigrants with special skills or
relatives of qualifying U.S. citizens; a quota of “average”
immigrants; and refugees
• Subsequent Refugee Acts:
• Many anticommunist Cubans allowed into US as refugees after Fidel
Castro’s communist revolution in Cuba (1959)
• Florida, especially Miami, becomes heavily Cuban
Cubans in Miami march
Fidel Castro
Immigration Reform Act of 1965
• Ended “national origins” quotas on
immigration
• Substituted criteria of skills, family ties, or
“refugee” status from communist countries.
• Opened way for growing immigration from
Asia, South Asia, Africa, and Middle East
• Latin America: Quotas placed
for first time
Lyndon Johnson signs Act
Fall of Saigon after
1975 brought
growing numbers of
people who had
fought with the U.S.
in Vietnam
Vietnamese American Parade in Westminster
– Vietnamese
– Hmong
– Cambodian
Hmong graduates of St. Paul MN high school
Refugee Act of 1980
• admitted “political” refugees from
communist countries (eg, Jews from the
Soviet Union, Cubans, Vietnamese)
• banned “economic” refugees such as people
fleeing Haiti, wars in Central America in the
1980s, and undocumented Mexicans seeking
work
Haitian refugees in boats transferred to US
Coast guard for return to Haiti.
1986 IRCA Act & Economic Boom
• 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act granted large-scale
“amnesty” to undocumented migrants while placing sanctions
of employers
• Economic Boom of 1980s and 1990s attracted many Mexican
and Central American migrants, both legal and
undocumented, who wanted work
Food truck in Chicago
Immigration in California
Between 1970 and 2009, the number of California residents born abroad increased
from 1.8 million to almost 10 million. 46% have become naturalized U.S. citizens.
This large influx, together with undocumented immigration, has brought
controversy. . . .
As Around the Turn of Last Century…
• American life again became filled with diverse
languages and cultures
• As with the previous wave of immigrants, immigrants
themselves were highly diverse in wealth, religion,
political leanings, circumstances of migration.
• New workers competed with native-born Americans
for jobs, often breeding conflict.
• Some native-born Americans warned about cultural
and economic decline; others welcomed the new
energy and revitalization of cities
Conceptualizing the History of
Immigration to the United States: A
Nation of Immigrants?
An Open Door?
• Globally, the United States is seen to be one of
the more welcoming nations for immigrants:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/
wp/2013/03/21/a-fascinating-map-of-countriescolor-coded-by-their-openness-to-foreigners/
• Historically, the United States has been
depicted as a “nation of immigrants”; a
“melting pot”
A History of Restriction?
• Role of race and nativism in immigration
legislation
• Scholars argue that the history of U.S.
immigration is one of ongoing restriction:
– Aristide Zolberg, A Nation by Design: Immigration
Policy in the Fashioning of America
– Dan Kanstroom, Deportation Nation: Outsiders in
American History
– Mae M. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and
the Making of Modern America
– Mark Dow, American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration
Prisons
1996 IIRIRA & Post-9/11 Restrictions
• 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act greatly expanded
conditions under which immigrants can be
detained and deported
• After 9/11, a further series of restrictions was
enacted
• Today, the United States detains and deports
upwards of 400,000 migrants a year
Current Immigration Reform Debate
• Should there be a path to citizenship for some in the U.S.
illegally?
• Recently, flow of immigrants to United States has declined
due to poor economy
• Support for and against the DREAM Act:
Changing “American” Identities?
• The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by the year 2042 U.S.
residents who identify themselves as Hispanic, black, Asian,
American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander will together
outnumber non-Hispanic whites, meaning that ethnic and racial
minorities will comprise a majority of the nation’s population. This
has been called a “watershed moment” that shows us just how
multicultural we have become.
• What does it mean to
be “American”?
• Who is included; who is
excluded?
• What do we mean by:
• Pluralism?
• Assimilation?
Teaching Immigration: CA State
Standards
• Teaching Tolerance lesson series: “Changing
Demographics, Changing Identity, Changing
Attitudes”
• http://www.tolerance.org/lesson/changingdemographics-changing-identity-changingattitudes
Teaching Immigration: Using Primary
Sources
• UCI History Project: Analyzing a Primary Source using
the “6 C’s”:
–
–
–
–
Content: What’s going on in the source?
Citation: Who created this, and when? Why?
Context: What else was happening when this was created?
Connection: Invoke current knowledge: How does this
source connect to what you already know? Seek new
knowledge: What else do you need to know to make sense
of this source?
– Communication: Point of view: What does this source say
when ‘reading between the lines’? In what ways is the
source reliable? Where is there room for doubt or
speculation?
– Conclusion: What can this source tell us about the
questions we’re asking in this course?
Teaching Immigration: Fostering
Critical Thinking
1920 Cartoon
2013 Cartoon
Teaching Immigration: Making the
Past “Actionable”
• 10 Myths about Immigration:
http://www.tolerance.org/immigration-myths
• Teaching Tolerance activity: “Family Ties and
Fabric Tales: Middle and High School”:
http://www.tolerance.org/supplement/familyties-and-fabric-tales-middle-and-high-school