Automation has eliminated many jobs. There are dozens of economically distressed communities. For these reasons. the AFLCIO does not advocate unrestricted immigration. We cannot be indifferent to shortrun distress of our people. But we can afford to be much more generous than we are now. The heart of our present immigration pol4 icy is the "national origins" quota system. It is significant that this approach was enacted following the First World War and was reenacted following the Second World War. During both of these periods this country was experiencing reaction to international entanglements. suspicion of foreigners and general intolerance of new ideas. The essence of the national origins quota system is that quotas are assigned to the nations of the world in proportion to the numbers of Americans in 1920 who came from or are descended from those who came from those countries. As a result. countries like. England and Germany and Ireland have large quotas which never get filled. while countries like Poland and Italy and Greece have never been able to meet more than a small part of their requests for visas. The national origins quota system. regardless of the conscious motivation of some of its backers. is based upon two false notions which the AFLCIO thoroughly rejects: (1) that the population "mix" of 1920 is exactly right and anything else is "unAmerican." and (2) that there are some nations in the world which will provide better Americans thgn others. As to the first. that America as it was in 1920 has some very special virtue. this is arrogance and unrealism of the worst sort. The population of America before 1920 was different from what it was in 1920. and the population after 1920 has changed every year since then.
Identified stereotypes
The paragraph suggests that some nationalities are inherently better or worse at becoming 'American'.