ABSTRACT
Immigration from Asian nations to the United States has been the focus of increased public attention. Most analysts point to the changes in the immigration laws of 1965 as the watershed event in the recent history of Asian immigration. The United States had annexed the Philippines in 1898, making Filipinos US nationals; they had the right of free movement and were not counted in US immigration statistics. The next era in immigration was initiated by a major revision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that was enacted in October 1965. Indian immigration continued to grow, reaching nearly 15,000 yearly. Immigration from Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam reached levels of several thousand yearly from each country. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 is expected to have little effect on Asians compared with persons from other parts of the world, especially the Western Hemisphere.
