United States Immigration Policy: The 1965 Act and its Consequences

The United States Immigration Act of 1965 was followed by a steep upward trend in total immigration, and by a dramatic shift in the source-country composition away from Europe and towards Asia and Latin America. In this paper I ask if and how the 1965 Act generated these unanticipated consequences. The result was partly because of the pre-existing legislation and partly because of the admission of immigrants outside the terms of the Act. However, much of it was a result of the Act itself, and specifically because of family reunification effects that were larger, the poorer the source country.