United States yearbook - 1982 (1)

Section 3
Immigration and
Naturalization
T his section presents statistics related to immigration, naturalization, and alien registration. The
principal source is the Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, published by
the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), a unit of the Departm ent of Justice. Immigration
statistics are prepared from entry visas and change of immigration status form s, Statistics fo r naturalization
are compiled from periodic reports by Federal courts and specially designated State
courts conducting such proceedings. Alien registration data are compiled from alien address report
cards.
T he collection o f U.S. immigration statistics began under the Act of 1819. Data on persons arriving
in ports were transm itted to the U.S. Secretary of State, w ho reported the inform ation periodically
to Congress. Subsequently, reports to the Secretary of State and to Congress w ere required
by law, as well as the collection o f data on immigrants arriving at land borders. Beginning in 1906,
those arriving were divided into immigrants and nonimmigrants, depending on how long they intended
to remain in the United States (see below).
Im m ig ra nts.— Im migrants are nonresident aliens (i.e., non U.S. citizens) adm itted to the U.S. for
perm anent residence (one year or longer). The category includes persons w ho may have entered
the U.S. as nonimmigrants or refugees, but who subsequently changed their status to that o f a
perm anent resident. Generally, a 2-year time lag exists between the tim e persons are shown in
data as nonimmigrants and the tim e they may be included as immigrants. A large increase o f im m i­
grants admitted to the U.S. in one year may have been due to an influx o f refugees tw o or three
years earlier. Thus, immigrants as measured in this section do not equal n et civilian im m igration as
shown in table 7.
N o n im m ig ra nts.— Nonimmigrants are nonresident aliens admitted to the United States for a tem ­
porary period. Included in this group are visitors for business and pleasure, students and their
spouses and children, foreign governm ent officials, exchange visitors and their spouses and children,
international representatives, treaty traders and investors, representatives of foreign inform a­
tion media, fiances(ees) of U.S. citizens and their children, officials of th e North A tlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), aliens in transit, and, for statistical purposes, perm anent resident aliens returning
after short trips abroad. Excluded are border crossers, crewmen, and insular travelers. Certain
tem porary admissions such as o f persons in possession of border-crossing identification cards are
n ot included in the nonimmigrant totals.
Quota and nonquota immigrants.— In 1921, Congress enacted the first num erical ceiling on im ­
migration (357,000 per year) into the United States, although it applied o n ly to Eastern Hem isphere
countries and their dependencies. The 1921 Act also required that im m igrants be classified as
quota and nonquota immigrants. Quota immigrants were subject to congressionally m andated
quotas for Eastern Hemisphere countries and their dependencies. N onquota im m igrants included
natives of the W estern Hemisphere and their spouses and children, im m ediate relatives of U.S. citizens,
and certain groups o f special immigrants.
Between 1929 and 1968 quotas were determined by the “ national origins’’ form ula w hich provided
that the annual quota equal one-sixth of one percent o f the num ber of W hite inhabitants in
the continental United States in 1920, less Western Hemisphere im migrants and their descendants.
T he annual quota fo r each nationality was then determined b y the sam e ratio to 150,000 as the
num ber of inhabitants o f each nationality living in the continental United States in 1920 to the total
inhabitants, although a minimum quota for any nationality was 100.
T he Act of 1965, which became fully effective in July 1968, abolished the quota system and set
up an annual numerical limitation of 170,000 immigrants from the Eastern t-jemlsphere, with no
m ore than 20,000 immigrants to come from any one country; a numerical lim itation o f 120,000 per
year was imposed on Western Hemisphere immigration, which had previously been unrestricted.
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