Mr.. Speaker. when Congress was considering the KennedyJohnson immigration bill. now the act of October 3. 1965. Public Law 89236. I cautioned that if enacted this law would do several things of questionable value to the Nation. including the following: It would increase immigration at a time when the nation was already suffering from the social and economic problems of overpopulation and unemployment. It would shift the source of our immigration from the countries of northern and western Europe. which founded the nation and gave to it its language. culture and political institutions. and thus would discriminate against the majority of our citizens. It would in a generation or so bring about vast and radical changes in the culture and institutions of this nation because the population would be ethnically changed in composition. It would accentuate political and social unrest by increasing racial minorities out of proportion to their numbers in our. population. so that the chaos and riots of the 1960s would be tame In comparison to those of the future. I stand upon these predictions. I was. perhaps. too cautious. because they are coming true faster than anticipated. The 1970 annual report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service is now available to the public and to Members of Congress from the Superintendent of Documents. U.S. Government Printing Office. This 130page report Is carefully prepared by experts. and is the official record of what is being done under the KennedyJohnson firstcome. firstserved immigration law of 1965. I quote one paragraph from page 4 of the report: There has been a significant shift in the ethnic makeup of immigrants coming to this country. The flow of English. Irish. German. and Scandinavian immigrants of past years has slowed considerably. and. in their place. more immigrants are coming from Asia and from Southern and Eastern Europe. Thus. while total immigration to the Unite4 States in 1970 was up 26 percent over that of 1965 (the last full fiscal year prior to the Act of October 3. 1965). immigration from Northern and Western Europe dropped 54 percent. At the same time. immigration from Asia increased 369 percent- from Southern and Eastern Europe it increased 121 percent. The following table from page 5 of the report gives a countrybycountry breakdown of these regional totals:
Keywords matched
Naturalization Immigration immigration immigrants