Some Political Aspects of Immigration

Abstract

The understanding of American politics rests upon two facts of American life: ideological unity and group pluralism. The purpose of this article will be to show the extent to which the historic American policy of welcoming immigrants has shaped the pluralistic character of American politics and briefly to explore contemporary developments and the implied changes which will be wrought by the present restrictive immigration policy. The impact of the immigration issue on voting behavior and the party system has, with some exceptions, not been large; but the political consequences of immigration itself have been deep and continuing. While each immigrant group, in its turn, has been quick to acquiesce in the basic tenets of the American creed, each has brought into the contest for political power its own brand or style of politics, and, more importantly, its own particular group claims. The very fact of ideological unity in the European sense has heightened the cohesiveness of nationality and ethnic-group expression in the maelstrom of American politics.