Immigration Policies of the United States

Abstract

During the past two centuries, the United States has admitted more immigrants than any other country. In accordance with the theory advanced here, policies on different types of immigrants were influenced by socioeconomic and foreign policy factors to various degrees. Labor migration policy—regularizing the recruitment of Chinese and European migrant workers in the nineteenth century, and of Mexican and Central American migrant workers in the twentieth century—was mostly influenced by the economic factor and by the “war-migrant labor link.” Refugee policy was primarily shaped by foreign policy considerations, and to a lesser degree by other factors. Policy on illegal immigrants was chiefly influenced by the economic factor and by the volume of illegal immigration, and to a lesser extent by the other factors. Policy on permanent immigration was shaped by the state of the economy, large-scale immigration of dissimilar composition, wars, foreign policy considerations, and liberal/racist ideological trends.