Current Concerns of the Private Sector

Abstract

In a nation of immigrants, it is inevitable that there should be a national interest on the part of the private sectors in immigration. There are in fact many voluntary agencies that have concern with immi? grants and our national policy in relation to them, including not only the agencies giving technical assistance in immigration and nationality matters and in problems of adjustment, but others that basically only have a vital interest in our national policy. Among those active in this field are religious organizations, social welfare agencies, nationality group organizations, labor unions, civil rights organizations, patriotic organizations, refugee organizations, etc. The vast number of organizations interested in immigration have a fundamental credo?a nondiscriminatory American immigration policy. Generally there is no tendency to urge any great increase in the num? ber of immigrants?instead they emphasize that laws should provide for equitable procedures affecting the immigrant and his family, while protecting any legitimate interests of the United States. They also believe in speciaf efforts in behalf of refugees. Up until the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the major debate centered around the question of the abolition of the national origins quota system and the discriminatory Asia-Pacific Triangle. It is true that many of the organizations were also seeking change in other sections of the law and its administration particularly those which had serious implications in relation to immigrants and their assimilation into our country. But the main stimulus that brought them together was the discriminatory aspects of the law. After the passage of the Immigration Act of 1952 (the McCarran-Walter Act), sentiment became stronger than ever for abolishing the national origins quota system. In 1954, a group of organizations started working together, organizing the American Immigration Conference which subsequently became in 1960 the American Immigration and Citizenship Conference. Prior to this time,