Advocacy for Multiculturalism and Immigrants' Rights: The Effect of U. S. Immigration Legislation on American Public Libraries: 1876-2020

Abstract

The American Library Association (ALA), founded in 1876, demonstrated its advocacy for immigrants' rights and multiculturalism in adult library services, from 1918 to 1948 in the Committee on Work with the Foreign Born (CWFB), which served as a clearinghouse for Americanization (assimilation) services within a philosophical framework of cultural pluralism, now known as multiculturalism. The ALA CWFB throughout its existence depended on grants from the Carnegie Corporation from 1911 to 1961 through the American Association for Adult Education (1915-41), and the Ford Foundation, through its Fund for Adult Education (1951-61). Beginning in 1956 with the Library Services Act, the federal government began to fund libraries, including programs for immigrants, African Americans, Native Americans, and adult illiterates. Since 1972, the Reference & User Services Association (RUSA) has provided literacy training for foreign- and native-born adult illiterates; and the Public Library Association (PLA) has supported programs to prepare New Americans for citizenship. Since 1983, the ALA Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT) has encouraged access to multicultural publications and collaborates with ALA affiliates for various ethnic and minority groups. The ALA advocates for the rights of DACA recipients and supports the need for a DREAMER (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act.