Collision Course The Strange Convergence of Affirmative Action and Immigration Policy in America

by Graham, Hugh Davis

• ISBN13: 9780195143188
• ISBN10: 0195143183
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-04
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 were passed, they were seen as triumphs of liberal reform applauded by the majority of Americans. But today, as Hugh Graham shows in Collision Course , affirmative action is foundering in the great waves of immigration from Asia and Latin America, leading to direct conflict for jobs, housing, education, and government preference programs. How did two such well-intended laws come to loggerheads? Graham argues that a sea change occurred in American political life in the late 1960s, when a system of split government--one party holding the White House, the other holding Congress--divided authority and enhanced the ability of interest groups to win expanded benefits. In civil rights, this led to a shift from nondiscrimination to the race-conscious remedies of hard affirmative action. In immigration, it led to a surge that by 2000 had brought 35 million immigrants to America, 26 million of them Asian or Latin American and therefore eligible, as "official minorities," for affirmative action preferences. The policies collided when employers, acting under affirmative action plans, hired millions of immigrants while leaving high unemployment among inner-city blacks. Affirmative action for immigrants stirred wide resentment and drew new attention to policy contradictions. Graham sees a troubled future for both programs. As the economy weakens and antiterrorist border controls tighten, the competition for jobs will intensify pressure on affirmative action and invite new restrictions on immigration. Graham's insightful interpretation of the unintended consequences of these policies is original and controversial. A short, focused, and even-handed narrative, it illuminates many of the issues that vex the United States today.

Author Biography

Hugh Davis Graham is Holland N. McTyeire Professor of History and Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. An authority on contemporary political issues, he is the author of The Civil Rights Era (OUP), Civil Rights and the Presidency (OUP), and The Uncertain Triumph.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(12)
Civil Rights Reform in the 1960s	13	(22)
Immigration Reform in the 1960s	35	(30)
Origins and Development of Race-Conscious Affirmative Action	65	(28)
The Return of Mass Immigration	93	(38)
The Strange Convergence of Affirmative Action and Immigration Policy	131	(34)
Conclusion	165	(36)
Notes	201	(28)
Index	229