Session Abstract

At a time when Americans once again are considering major immigration reform legislation, this panel explores the origins of contemporary immigration policy. Our three papers contribute to a broader understanding of how World War II and the Cold War created the domestic and international conditions necessary for changes in American immigration and refugee policy for the first time since 1924 and paved the way for major immigration reform in 1965. As the United States abandoned its isolationist stance and emerged as a world leader, the country had to reconsider its draconian and discriminatory immigration system. Although the majority of Americans still resisted immigration reform and was weary of the arrival of refugees, Cold War interests required a major shift in the country’s approach to immigration policy. This panel explores how the mobilization for a more inclusive refugee policy and the arrival of the first Cold War refugees helped change Americans’ attitudes towards immigrants previously marked as undesirable and paved the way for more comprehensive immigration reform in the 1960s.

Through the prism of transnationalism, foreign relations, and the social history of refugee integration, this panel enhances our historical understanding of the role that Cold War politics played in shaping contemporary immigration and refugee policy and immigration patterns. Madeline Hsu’s paper analyzes how the pressure for the United States to solidify its relationship with China prompted Congress to allocate a small quota to Chinese immigrants and to begin welcoming Chinese refugees. In turn, the arrival and the successful integration of Chinese refugees helped make the case for the abolition of discriminatory quotas in the 1960s.  Similarly, the successful adjustment of Latvian refugees in the Mississippi Delta helped quell many Americans’ fears about a possible invasion of disloyal and impoverished refugees from Eastern Europe. Nonetheless, as Bernard Maegi explores in his paper, the refugees’ adjustment to their new lives in the Mississippi Delta depended upon their successful integration into Southern racial politics and on their patriotic display of anti-Communism. Finally, Maddalena Marinari discusses the opportunities for immigration reform that Cold War geopolitics and the conflation of refugee and immigration policies offered Italian and Jewish organizations in the United States to push successfully for a series of minor laws, amendments, and executive orders to challenge the existing immigration legislation and demonstrate the untenable nature of the overall immigration system.  

Our chair and commentator broaden the scope of the panel. An expert on immigrant adjustment and integration, Barbara M. Posadas will serve as the panel’s chair, and Carl Bon Tempo, author of the most comprehensive and preeminent study of the making of American refugee policy, will comment.  Their scholarly perspectives on refugee policy and immigrant integration will enrich the discussion and provide valuable insight on additional facets of the intersection of Cold War politics and the refugee crisis that emerged at the end of WWII.