The Struggle for Fairness

Crafting immigration law is one of the most contentious responsibilities of the US Congress. The crux of these ongoing debates is always a struggle for fairness. This book centers on the legislative dynamics that repealed race-based admissions in the Immigration Act of 1965. It explores new lines of research and offers fresh analytic perspectives, while building on a solid scholarship of US immigration history. By studying the drafters’ projections on early versions of the bill and other primary source material, this book documents that the sponsors of the law understood that the 1965 Act would diversify immigrant admissions. Detailed statistical analysis of post-1965 immigration data reveals a more nuanced set of outcomes. Underpinning this book is a confluence of three streams driving immigration legislation in the 20th century: a belief in the racial superiority of certain nationalities and peoples (race), an ambition among certain regions and ideological groups to retain political control (power), and a deep-seated preference to select people by class, connections, or personal attributes (ideology of deserving). The paradigm serves as a lens for a deeper analysis and new understanding of the legislation. The book concludes by analyzing the paradigm today and offering three lessons from the 1965 Act.