Search -
Strangers at the Gates Again: Asian American Immigration After 1965 (The Asian American Experience)
Strangers at the Gates Again Asian American Immigration After 1965 - The Asian American Experience Author:Ronald Takaki In the crucible of World War II, America had to fight not only the armies of fascism but its racist ideology as well. The nation was forced to reexamine its exclusionist immigration policies and its denial of citizenship to thousands of Asian immigrants who had fought alongside white Americans to save democracy. In the 1950s and 1960s, the civil... more » rights movment further accelerated demands for change. Asian Americans gradually earned the right to become citizens, to own land, and to participate more fully in American life. Finally in 1965, Congress passed a new immigration act that vastly increased the quotas for immigrants from Asian countries, and a huge second wave of these immigrants began to arrive in the United States, boradening the ethnic mix of American cities and towns with people from Japan, China, the Philippines, India, and Pakistan. After 1975, refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos began to arrive. All the old problems remained--racism, barriers to equal employment, and cultural conflicts between the immigrant generation and their American-born children--but it was clear that the face of America had become infinitely more diverse and its definition more democratic.« less