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The 1965 immigration reform
The quota act of 1924 allocated immigration places by country of origin, calculated so that northern Europeans received nearly all of them. The act belongs with the civil rights laws — racial quotas were hard to defend abroad while segregation was being dismantled at home. Its effect was far larger than its advocates expected; several stated expressly that the composition of the country would not change appreciably. Family reunification as the governing principle produced a self-reinforcing effect, and the foreign-born share of the American population went from under five per cent in 1970 to over thirteen today.
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