ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the seeming contradiction between love of immigrants and periodic opposition to immigration throughout history. It looks at how this contradiction set the stage for the major ongoing challenge in the creation and implementation of United States (US) immigration policy—that is, the twin questions of how many immigrants the nation should admit and what characteristics they should have. All Americans, with the exception of Native Americans, trace their ancestry to immigrants, though even the Native American has migrant forebears in Asia. Most New England immigrants were free and of English or Welsh origin. New York City and the Hudson Valley had large Dutch populations. The Revolution slowed immigration to the US, and the defeat of the British spurred an emigration among British loyalists. Similarly, immigrants seeking to ensure that their relatives could immigrate to the United States had to make sure that federal immigration laws respected the notion of family unification.