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1/Nativists love to decry the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965 that got rid of country quotas on immigration. They blame it for causing demographic changes that they don't like.
But it was the PRE-1965 immigration system - which nativists extol - that caused the demographic change!
But it was the PRE-1965 immigration system - which nativists extol - that caused the demographic change!
2/The immigration restrictions of 1924, which today's nativists love, stopped mass EUROPEAN immigration. Which is what it was intended to do.
But it allowed and even encouraged mass MEXICAN immigration.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigrati…
But it allowed and even encouraged mass MEXICAN immigration.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigrati…
3/The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 established country quotas for immigration. This had the effect of massively and permanently reducing immigration from Italy, Russia, and Europe in general. 
4/But guess who was exempt from the quotas?
MEXICANS!
MEXICANS!
5/As Daniel Tichenor explains in his book "Dividing Lines", this was because farmers in the West and Southwest wanted cheap agricultural labor.
They successfully lobbied Congress to leave Mexican migration alone, arguing that Mexicans would go back to Mexico eventually.
They successfully lobbied Congress to leave Mexican migration alone, arguing that Mexicans would go back to Mexico eventually.
6/Here's the book "Dividing Lines", which you should definitely read if you're at all interested in the history of U.S. immigration policy: amazon.com/Dividing-Lines…
7/Anyway, lots of Mexicans *did* go back to Mexico, but many stayed. And they created communities that drew in more Mexican immigrants later.
Meanwhile, European immigration, which is what the nativists of the 1910s and 1920s were freaked out about, never recovered.
Meanwhile, European immigration, which is what the nativists of the 1910s and 1920s were freaked out about, never recovered.
8/What happens when you allow large-scale Mexican immigration, but choke off European immigration?
Your country gets a lot less white!
The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, NOT the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, is the reason America is now 19% Hispanic instead of still overwhelmingly white.
Your country gets a lot less white!
The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, NOT the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, is the reason America is now 19% Hispanic instead of still overwhelmingly white.
9/So in conclusion, it was the immigration regime that today's nativists praise that gave us the demographic change that today's nativists despise.
Irony of ironies.
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Irony of ironies.
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