CIVILISATION US

Chapter 1: IMMIGRATION

- Immigration in the US is booming, 3M people enter the last decade.

- All the americans are immigrants: themselve or their descendents

- Over 1M legal immigrants are admitted in the US each year (they go to California, N-Y, Florida, Texas)

- 13% of the American population (42 million) was not born in the USA

- 85% of all immigrants are from Central/Latin America or Asia // 30% of all immigrants are Mexican.

1960: most of the immigrants came from Europe (74,5%)

2009: only (12,7%)

A) IMMIGRATION TODAY

1. 1920s : the Quota Acts

The americans had fear about immigrants so a quota has been voted to slow down immigrants from Europe for a while.

2. The Immigration reform of 1965 (= right to enter bc we have a personn of our family in the US)

It ends the quota system by national origin. Voted for a family reunification, so for new priority. It changed the nature of immigration, so other origins people (Asians, Indians) came because of this new policy.

3. The Immigration reform of 1990

The government took mesure to increase the immigration.

- qualified worker visas (H-1B visas) x 2

- total number of legal immigrants increases (600,000/year)

- each country can have no more than 7% of the total number of visas available.

DIVERSITY VISAS: GREEN CARD : You can work, live, study in the country longer than 1year (only for foreigners)

(50,000/year, granted through a lottery, only requirement: a high school degree, 11 million entered the lottery for 2015, 20% more than in 2014)

B) ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Huge P.B, border w/Mexico is 2000 miles (3500 KM) so impossible to control, became a danger. A WALL ? Too much money.

1. A few facts

2016: around 12M illegals. Most of them coming grom Mexico (latinos countries), they crossed the river: Rio Grande

- Nickname; WETBACKS (immigrants)

- "Passeurs"; SMUGGLERS // COYOTES

Anchor baby: a mexican personn, baby born in the US with illegals parents.

* Born in US = american citizen *

2. Fighting against Illegals

a. 1986 the Immigration Reform and Control Act  (IRCA) 

Signed by the President Ronald Regan.

• Amnesty to all illegals who could prove they had been US residents since 1982.
•  Sanctions against employers hiring undocumented persons.
• 3 million people benefited from the amnesty.

WORK ? No, unwanted consequences.

1. No real decline of illegal work or illegal entries (the amnesty encouraged others to come to the US illegally…)

2. Birth of a large market of forged documents

3. few employers were sanctioned

4. Suspicion toward all Hispanics

b. 1994 Operation “Gatekeeper” - under Bill Clinton:

Building a 14-mile fence in California, south of San Diego.

WORK ? No, unexecpted consequences.

1. Illegal entries shifted to Arizona and Texas
2. More dangerous for immigrants to cross the border…
3. So that more illegals decided to stay permanently in the US.

c. 1996: tighter immigration control

Legal immigration : family reunification is made harder: more restrictive mesures

To bring relatives to the US, one’s income must be twice as high as the poverty rate ($24,250/year for a 4-person family and $11,770 for an individual) and immigrants do not qualify for public assistance (welfare).

Illegal immigration :

- strengthened border controls

- more power to the Immigration authorities

- high tech equipment (infra-red surveillance cameras, drones, sensors, etc)

d. 2006   The Secure Fence Act – under George W. Bush 

Building 700 miles (1 125 km) of new fencing to seal off completely the US-Mexico border.

Some states and cities try to integrate illegals (“sanctuary cities”; the document below, the matricula consular, is officially recognized in many parts of the country)

e. 2012 & 2014: President Obama’s 2 executive orders

Barack Obama is trying to be human, but also pragmatic-minded. He realises that these immigrants make the country prosper (Contrarly to Donald Trump).

Congress is more hostile to integrating illegal immigrants than Obama.

• 2012: Dream act "light" allows young people to stay for 2 years without being deported if:

- they were no older than 16 when they arrived in the USA

- have lived in the USA for 5years continuously

- graduate from high school

- are of good moral character (no previous conviction for murders, drugs trafficking, theft, drunkeness)

- continue their education (college or military)

• 2014: DACA

Nothing has changes; Congress hasn't budge

- Extends the DACA for young illegals to 3years

- Allows 5M undocumented aliens to stay and work in the USA

NB: It's very difficult to entry in the country and we underline a new PB; lots of children crossing alone.

In 2014, some 70.000 unaccompanied children were caught trying to cross the border. Most of them cross by the Rio Grande.

So it is a humanitary crisis too.

C) THE AMERICAN AMBIVALENCE TOWARD IMMIGRATION (legal ad illegal)

Americans feel insecure, scared about the rise of immagration.

USA have 2 policies: OPEN DOOR or CLOSED DOOR

By nature US is a welcoming nation because all americans are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. Yet, periodically "nativist" (anti-immigrant) fears erupts. For ex:

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