Unintended Consequences of US Immigration Policy: Explaining the Post-1965 Surge from Latin America

Immigration reforms in the United States initiated in the 1960s are widely thought to have opened the door to mass immigration from Asia and Latin America by eliminating past discriminatory policies. While this may be true for Asians, it is not the case for Latin Americans, who faced more restrictio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population and development review 2012-03, Vol.38 (1), p.1-29
Main Authors: Massey, Douglas S., Pren, Karen A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aliens, Illegal
Asia
Citizenship
Conservatism
Deportation
Discrimination
Ethnic groups
Farm workers
Hispanic Americans
Hispanics
Human migration
Illegal immigration
Immigrants
Immigration
Immigration law
Immigration Policy
Latin America
Legal status, laws, etc
Measurement
Mexican Americans
Migration
National security
Policy analysis
Reform
Reforms
Regional analysis
Reviews
U.S.A
United States
United States of America
Visas
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Summary:Immigration reforms in the United States initiated in the 1960s are widely thought to have opened the door to mass immigration from Asia and Latin America by eliminating past discriminatory policies. While this may be true for Asians, it is not the case for Latin Americans, who faced more restrictions to legal migration after 1965 than before. The boom in Latin American migration occurred in spite of rather than because of changes in US immigration law. In this article we describe how restrictions placed on the legal entry of Latin Americans, and especially Mexicans, set off a chain of events that in the ensuing decades had the paradoxical effect of producing more rather than fewer Latino immigrants. We offer an explanation for how and why Latinos in the United States, in just 40 years, increased from 9.6 million people and 5 percent of the population to 51 million people and 16 percent of the population, and why so many are now present without authorization.
ISSN:0098-7921
1728-4457
DOI:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2012.00470.x