Jun. 16, 2006 - 19:40 MDT

AMBIVALENT EQUIVALENT

There is pro and there is con, and in some instances there are procons and conpros, so to speak. A crazy mixed up state of affairs. Pointed up by an article by Laura Frank of the Rocky Mountain News in today's paper. Her article in complete, quoted herein and afterwards is a chronicle of immigration which is of interest too:

IMMIGRANTS CHEERED, CHIDED

U.S. has a history of shifting between open, closed borders

"The U.S. has vacillated between welcoming and condemning immigrants over the decades.

"There have been waves, or highs and lows, in terms of immigration when the border was purposely open and other times when it has been purposely closed," said Louis Torres, Chicano studies professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver."

"Perhaps at no time was the fickle nature of the nation's love/hate relationship with immigrants more apparent than in 1886. That year America dedicated the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. On the other side of the country, mobs were rioting in Seattle against Chinese immigrants."

"The first giant wave of immigration had hit the U.S. in the mid-1800s, driven by events here and abroad, such as the potato famine in Ireland and the gold rush in California. The westward-expanding country was thirsty for workers; in 1864 Congress passed legislation to spur immigration by allowing employers to pay for immigrants to come to America."

"Less than a decade later, the nation began to limit immigration through laws aimed mostly at Asians, with the Naturalization Act of 1870 giving citizenship to whites and people of "African descent" only."

"In the early 1900s , the nation needed more workers again. But it was in the throes of immigration hysteria. Concern about large numbers of Eastern and Southern Europeans -- many of them Jews and Catholics who lived in slums and hadn't assmilated -- had seized the nation."

"So Congress appointed a comission to study the problem. One of its recommendations was to bring in workers from Mexico."

"In 1942, the nation formalized the bracero (laborer) program, bringing 5 million Mexican farm workers to the U.S., from 1942 to 1964, when the program ended. But even during the program, the U.S. had launched a massive deportation plan to remove Mexicans who had entered the country illegally."

++++++++++++

Follows is some of the history, quoted in full:

A CHRONICLE OF IMMIGRATION

Reforms have come with each new influx

1815 First great wave of immigration starts, 5 million come to U.S. from 1815 to 1860.

1819 First federal immigration legislaation requires notation of passenger lists.

1845 Potato famine in Ireland kills 1 million; nearly 500,000 come to U.S. over next five years.

1849 California Gold Rush sparks first mass immigration from China.

1854Know-Nothing movement gains victories in Congress and state legislatures on anti-Catholic immigrant fears.

1864 U.S. needs workers, Congress passes legislation to encourage immigration.

1870 The Naturalization Act limits citizenship to "white persons and persons of African descent."

1877 Congress investigates criminal influence of Chinese immigrants.

1882 Chinese Exclusion Act is nation's first prohibition of free immigration.

1885 Congress bans the admission of contract laborers.

1886 Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York Harbor, Anti-Chinese riots erupt in Seattle.

1911 Dillingham Commission suggests Mexican laborers as solution for labor shortage.

1915 Supreme Court rules first-generation Japanese ineligible for citizenship or naturalization.

1924 Immigration Act of 1924 sets quotas of national origin and eliminates Far East immigration.

1942 U.S. and Mexico create bracero program to bring farm workers to U.S. as contract labor.

1943 Magnuson Act repeals the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1948 U.S. gives asylum to people fleeing persecution; 205,000 refugees enter within two years.

1952 Immigration and Nationality Act makes all races eligible for naturalization; keeps quota system, sets limits for Eastern hemisphere but not Western hemisphere, and gives preference to skilled workers and relatives of U.S. citizens and permananent residents.

1964 Bracero program ends, having employed almost 45 million Mexicans.

1965 Immigration Act of 1965 replaces old quota system with limit of 20,000 immigrants per country. Preference given to immediate families and skilled workers.

1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act legalizes illegal immigrants in the U.S. since 1982.

1996 Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act expands criminal grounds for removal, limits the reasons criminal aliens can seek relief from removal and makes asylum more difficult.

++++++++++

So, to me it looks as if business likes immigration because of being able to pay low wages, hysterics don't want any immigration other than bringing in their own relatives and a few of idealistic bent want to open the doors for refugees from intolerant countries.

One little thing I remember from my limited reading, the west coast railroad used Asian labor to build the most dangerous parts. OF course wages and working conditions were lousy.

The Immigration Act of 1965 seems to me to be on somewhat stable ground, allowing 20,000 in each year from every country.

Wonder what would happen here if employers here were forced to pay all workers union scale for the jobs they do ? Oh sure, I know a lot of small outfits would go under, but would they have gone under if things had of been that way all along ?

We seem to be a country torn from many different directions and also are unwilling to face the unpleasantness of forcing laws to be observed.

I wonder if there is a mathematical formula to calculate the AMBIVALENT EQUIVALENT . . . . . . . . . .

Blog