Mass Immigration and the National Interest

by Briggs, Vernon M.

• ISBN13: 9781563241703
• ISBN10: 1563241706
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-06-01
• Publisher: M E Sharpe Inc

Summary

U.S. immigration policy has stimulated the largest inflow of immigrants in the 1980s and 1990s of any time in the history of the United States. In this comprehensive analysis of mass immigration, the author shows how the policy was designed essentially by political considerations. Policy neglected immigration's economic impact at a time when the country was entering a fundamental economic adjustment. The United States does not face a labor shortage per se, but a shortage of quality labor. Yet immigration has led to a majority of new workers seeking unskilled jobs in declining sectors in manufacturing and services and has given rebirth to sweatshop enterprises and child labor law violations. For the first time in U.S. history, the author argues, the results of immigration policy are inconsistent with U.S. national interest.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
A Brief perspective	p. 1
Immigration policy: A Determinant of Economic phenomena	p. 15
Notes	p. 28
Creating A Nonagricultural Labor Force: The Original Role of Mass Immigration	p. 31
Summary Observations	p. 58
Notes	p. 60
Reprieve: The Cessation of Mass Immigration	p. 63
Summary Observations	p. 91
The Redesign of Immigration policy in the 1960s: Replacing Social Goals with political Goals	p. 97
Concluding Observations	p. 114
Unexpected Consequences: The Revival of Mass Immigration	p. 119
Concluding Observations	p. 178
Oversight: the Economic and Social Transformation of the U.S. Labor Market	p. 185
Notes	p. 220
The National Interest: Synchronization of Immigration policy with Economic Circumstances	p. 225
Notes	p. 255
Appendix	p. 259
Index	p. 263
About the Author	p. 276
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