Snapshots from Indian-American history,
this month, that year
The “Postcard” (left) – October 3, 1965
President Lyndon B. Johnson
signs the Immigration and Nationality Act, abolishing the national
origins quota system with its discrimination against specific nationalities
attempting to seek a new life in the U.S.
The “Letter” (below) – October 1, 2015
Legacies of the 1965 Immigration Act:
Once Barred, Indian-Americans Now Constitute the Second-Largest Immigrant Group
Fifty years ago, on October 3, 1965, President
Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality
Act into law. He and a number of the nation’s
leading lawmakers traveled to Liberty Island and the
base of the Statue of Liberty to make it official.
The 1965 Immigration Act remains the foundation
of U.S. immigration law and represents the
last time that the U.S. passed comprehensive
immigration reform. It has transformed every aspect
of American society….
But Asian Americans, especially Indian-Americans, have been particularly affected by this
landmark act.
Inspired by the Civil Rights revolution in American
society, the 1965 Immigration Act abolished
the discriminatory national origins quotas. … A
new preference system [was] based on professional
status and family reunification.
… Many lawmakers still held on to nativist and
even racist views on immigration.
… A compromise measure … set a global ceiling
on immigration per year and established limits
on immigration from the Western Hemisphere for
the first time …[leading to] unprecedented undocumented
immigration beginning in the 1970s.
… Countries like India were expanding their
educational systems and … many Indians looked
abroad, including to the U.S., for opportunities.
From 1980 to 2013, the Indian immigrant
population in the U.S. increased from 206,000 to
2.04 million, doubling every decade.
… The Immigration Act of 1990 … increased the
number of permanent work-based visas and made
changes to the temporary skilled worker categories.
In 2014, Indians received 70 percent of the 316,000
H-1B visas …. Students from India are the secondlargest
group of international students in the United
States after China.
… The Pakistani American community … grew
by nearly 90 percent during [the’90s] and there are
now over 409,000 Pakistanis in the country.
… [In politics, we now have names such as Nikki
Haley and Bobby Jindal, and in business Sundar Pichai
(Google) and Satya Nadella (Microsoft)]. At the
same time, countless Indian and other South Asian
immigrants struggle at the economic, social, and
political margins of American society. Many labor in
exploitative work conditions, are not proficient in
English, and are victims of violent hate crimes, like
the shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin,
that claimed the lives of six worshippers in 2012.
And according to a recent report by the Migration
Policy Institute, the unauthorized Indian immigrant
population experiences the greatest growth rate
amongst all unauthorized immigrants, increasing by
914 percent since 1990.
… The foreign-born population in the U.S. now
numbers nearly 41 million, or around 13 percent of
the total U.S. population. … As we mark the anniversary
of the 1965 Immigration Act, let’s reflect on how
far Asian Americans have come, but also, how far
there is yet to go.
Erika Lee is a professor of history at the University of
Minnesota and author of the award-winning book, The
Making of Asian America: A History.
(For the history of South Asian immigration to the
U.S. and the restrictive laws, see the full article at
https://www.saada.org/tides/article/20151001-4458)