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16 Chapter 2 Migration Flows, Theories, and Contexts A ssessing the importance of immigration for the United States requires not only that we become knowledgeable about the shifting magnitude and nature of migration flows into the country occurring over the past few decades but also that we develop an understanding of the various theories about why such flows take place. It is also crucial that we consider the changes in the demographic and economic contexts that mark this period, shifts that may have altered the reception newcomers receive after they arrive. In doing so we must not lose sight of the diversity in the kinds of flows that have occurred. If we lump all flows together under the same category and speak of immigration in blanket terms, we risk glossing over important differences in outcomes related to the various kinds of flows that channel newcomers into the country, the various migration policy auspices through which such flows occur, and the various contexts into which such flows take place. Newcomers to the United States have become more visible in recent years, in part because their numbers have increased, but also in part because they have increasingly been coming from different countries than previously. As we will see, there is considerable heterogeneity among newcomers, many of whom are not immigrants. Thus, before we can speak knowledgeably about immigration’s consequences, we need to delve more deeply into the various flows that contribute to migrant diversity, into the theories that help explain why international migration occurs, and into the fluctuations in recent demographic and economic conditions that have confronted migrants after they have arrived in the United States. Kinds of U.S. Migration Flows There have been four principal major migration flows to the United States in the post–World War II period: legal immigrants, refugees Migration Flows, Theories, and Contexts 17 and asylees, unauthorized migrants, and persons admitted for short periods of time on so-called nonimmigrant visas. One of the most important features of all these flows is that their volumes have generally been rising over this period. A second important feature of all the flows is that the share of persons from Hispanic and Asian countries has been increasing and has come to constitute a majority of each flow. Both of these changes have occurred at the same time that U.S. economic growth has slowed, wages have stagnated, and earnings inequality has increased, with the notable exception of strong economic growth during the latter half of the 1990s, which led to small countervailing trends in wages and earnings inequality at the end of the decade. As noted in the previous chapter, concerns about levels of immigration in the United States often reflect anxieties about potential changes in sociocultural identity and worries about economic conditions and job opportunities. Here we examine the recent changes in each of the major migration flows to the United States. Later in this chapter we focus on the changes in the demographic and economic contexts in which they have occurred. The results help to set the stage for determining the most important implications of U.S. immigration trends and policies for the country. Overall Composition of Flows A number of studies have examined changes in immigration trends and policies in the United States during the twentieth century (see, for example, Bean, Vernez, and Keely 1989; Borjas 1999; Reimers 1985; Reimers 1998; Suro 1998). All emphasize that the annual numbers of new entrants reached their highest totals during the first two decades of the century. The major pieces of legislation affecting immigrant flows are summarized in table 2.1. Owing to the passage of the National Origins Quota Act in 1924, the Great Depression during the 1930s, and an unfavorable immigration climate during World War II, immigration numbers dropped to 10 percent of these record-setting levels during the next twenty-five years. Specifically, the number of entrants decreased from over 700,000 per year during the first twenty years of the century to less than 70,000 per year from 1925 through 1945 (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service 1994). After this lull and continuing for nearly fifty years now, legal immigration has again moved steadily upward, and by the late 1980s and into the 1990s it reached levels approaching the all-time highs set in the early part of the twentieth century (figure 2.1). If the legalizations resulting from the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) are [18.118.145.114...

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