In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Immigration and Nationality Act which replaced the quota immigration system that had been in existence since the 1920s, with a preference system based on labor skills needed by the United States, and those who had a pre-existing family tie in the country. This lesson will explore past U.S. immigration laws that affected Asian immigration and naturalization, how the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 came about because of the Civil Rights Movement, and how the 1965 Act changed the demographics of the country over the next twenty years and beyond.

From the early 1800s to 1965, Asian Americans’ rights to immigration and citizenship in the United States were severely limited by a series of immigration laws that focused on Asians. Fears about the influx of Chinese labor led to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which explicitly banned Chinese immigrants from entering the country, and prevented current Chinese residents from becoming citizens. Later it was expanded to exclude all Asians, and became the first law in the United States to limit immigration based explicitly on ethnicity.

The Emergency Quota Act (1921) implemented a quota system based on nationality that overwhelmingly favored immigrants from Western Europe and barred immigrants from the vast majority of Asia and Africa. The annual quota from Europe was 356,081, compared to 1,261 from Asia, and 122 from Africa. When China became a key ally of the United States against Japan, Japan used the Chinese Exclusion Act as a propaganda for China to break with the United States. The United States can no longer justify the exclusion. In 1943, Congress repealed all exclusion acts, and provided current Asian residents a route to seek naturalization, but the stringent quota system and anti-immigration sentiment remained firmly unchanged.

The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, spearheaded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the long-fought efforts of African Americans, led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Subsequently, immigration laws based on national origin came under serious review. The quota system regarded immigrants from certain nations to be less desirable. The passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act) completely removed the quota system, and instead opted for a system that relied on “preferences” for immigrants who were highly skilled in fields that the Department of Labor deemed understaffed, or had existing family relationships within the United States.

Legislators at the time believed that the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was symbolic rather than consequential. Upon signing it, President Lyndon B. Johnson remarked, “This bill that we will sign today is not a revolutionary bill. It does not affect the lives of millions. It will not reshape the structure of our daily lives, or really add importantly to either our wealth or power.” Though the bill was signed under the guise of progressivism, many legislators, including Senator Hiram Fong of Hawaii, still had to placate xenophobic anxieties about Asian immigration and that those arriving would still remain majority European.

That however was not the case as the family unification clause led to a mass influx of Asian immigrants. Ten years after the signing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the population of Asian immigrants doubled, and by the 21st century, 80 percent of immigrants to the United States came from Asia or Latin America, effectively transforming the demographics of American society.

After watching the video and reading the essay, ask students to search for articles on the impact of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, with the following question in mind: How has the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 changed the ethnic makeup of America today?

Discussion questions:

During the mid-1800s, Chinese immigrants came to the United States looking for opportunities to send money back home to their families. Many worked on building the Transcontinental Railroad, often at lower wages than white Americans, causing fear that they would lose their jobs to these new immigrants. After the U.S. excluded the Chinese from entering the country, other Asian groups began coming. Fear of these new Asian groups led to their exclusion and the creation of a quota system that limited the number of people from each country that could immigrate. During World War II, China became an ally of the United States. Japan used the Chinese Exclusion Act as propaganda that the U.S. was racist for China to break with the U.S. This led to the U.S. ending the Chinese Exclusion Act. Thus the immigration of Asians defaulted to the quota system. Through the Civil Rights Movement, in 1965, immigration based on a quota system was determined that it favored the Western European nations over others. The U.S. Congress changed the immigration system from a quota system to a preference system including family reunification.

Have students conduct independent research on the Naturalization Act of 1790, the first law established to define who was eligible for naturalized citizenship in the United States, limited at that point in time to just free white persons that have lived in the country for two years. Have students write an essay addressing the following items:

Students can visit Densho Encyclopedia for their research: https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Naturalization_Act_of_1790/