Powell J. Encyclopedia Of North American Immigration

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After World War II, national quotas established in the

OHNSON

-R

EED

of 1924 remained the fundamental

basis of U.S. immigration policy. Instead of wholesale immi-

gration reform, exceptions to traditional policy were made

to meet specific needs. In 1945, President Harry S. Truman

issued a directive reserving some 42,000 quota slots for

European refugees, commonly known as “Displaced Per-

sons.” The W

RIDES

(1946) made provisions for

the wives and children of American soldiers. D

ISPLACED

ERSONS

s were passed in 1948 and 1950 and the

EFUGEE

ELIEF

in 1953, the latter allowing visas for

up to 2,000 immigrants of Chinese origin wishing to emi-

grate in the wake of the 1949 Communist victory over the

Nationalists in the Chinese civil war.

American isolationists, fearing that special legislation

would allow communist agents access to the country, passed

the restrictive McCarran Internal Security Act (1950) and

the M

ARRAN

-W

ALTER

MMIGRATION AND

ATURAL

IZATION

(1952), each over President Truman’s veto.

Although eliminating race as a barrier to naturalization, the

latter measure retained the national origins formula of 1924

and strengthened the government’s ability to denaturalize

and deport immigrants associated with subversive groups.

With the simultaneous development of decolonization

around the world and the Civil Rights movement in the

United States, support grew for a liberalization of immigra-

tion policy. Senator J

OHN

F. K

ENNEDY

’s A Nation of Immi-

grants (1958) espoused the ideological value of a racially

neutral immigration policy. Fundamental reform became

possible under K

ennedy as president and his successor, Lyn-

don Baines Johnson. The I

MMIGRATION AND

ATIONAL

ITY

(1965) allowed each country in the Eastern

Hemisphere an overall quota, with a maximum total for

each hemisphere and a broadening of family exemptions

from the quota. Refugees from communism, Middle East-

ern violence, and natural catastrophe were classed as a pref-

erence group to be allotted up to 6 percent of each country’s

visa quota and expected to number about 17,400 annually.

The number of refugees admitted was always higher, how-

ever, as all presidents employed parole authority to exempt

hundreds of thousands of refugees, principally those fleeing

communist regimes. Between 1962 and 1979, almost

700,000 Cubans escaping Fidel Castro’s government were

paroled into the United States and more than 400,000 Viet-

namese and other Southeast Asians.

With more than 2 million refugees being paroled into

the United States between 1948 and 1980, it became clear

that migration pressures brought on by the cold war could

not be adequately met by the provisions of the Immigration

and Nationality Act of 1965. The R

EFUGEE

of 1980

increased the normal refugee flow to 50,000 annually and

accepted the 1968 United Nations definition of a refugee as

one unwilling to return to his native land “because of perse-

cution, or a well-founded fear of persecution.” The measure

also established a new category, “Asylee,” which allowed

5,000 refugees already in the country illegally or as students

to apply for formal entry. Almost immediately, the new pol-

icy was tested by the M

ARIEL

OATLIFT

, which brought

125,000 Cubans to the United States within a matter of

weeks in spring 1980 and demonstrated that presidential

parole powers would continue to be used to exceed legisla-

tive limits. Although all asylees were potentially eligible for

admission under a broader definition of “Refugee,” in fact,

most of those admitted were fleeing communist regimes.

Thus, Cubans and Nicaraguans fared better than Haitians,

Guatemalans, and Salvadorans, though all qualified.

As the cold war began to wind down after 1985, it

became clear that future immigration policy would be

driven by economic, rather than ideological, factors, with

EXICAN IMMIGRATION

and those overstaying visas from

many countries being immediate matters of concern. In

October 1991, the U.S. government removed some 300,000

names from a list of “undesirable aliens” begun in 1952 in

an effort to keep communist infiltrators out of the country.

Between 1946 and 1994, more than 90 percent of 3 mil-

lion refugees admitted to the United States had been fleeing

communist regimes, principally in Poland, the Soviet

Union, Romania, China, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Laos, Cam-

bodia, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan.

In the first two years after World War II, Canada main-

tained the highly restrictive P.C. 695 (1931) as the basis of

its immigration policy, which allowed little room for

humanitarian relief. By 1947, pressure from the Canadian

public, a variety of ethnic organizations, and the Canadian

National Committee on Refugees led to a more liberal

immigration policy. Promulgated in a series of orders in

council, regulatory changes, and international agreements,

increasing numbers of Asians were admitted, along with

refugees from the old Commonwealth countries and

Europe.

The I

MMIGRATION

of 1952 regularized Canadian

immigration policy, though it remained essentially conser-

vative. The cabinet was given power of limiting immigration

on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, or occupation. The

most notable admission under the act was that of 40,000

Hungarians who had fled the Soviet invasion of their coun-

try in 1956. Ultimately, Canada accepted some 300,000

refugees from central and Eastern Europe between 1947 and

1967. Generally well educated and highly politicized, these

refugees balanced what had traditionally been a left-leaning

immigrant community. Canada dismantled its racial restric-

tions in 1962 in a series of regulation reforms.

The further liberalization of Canadian

IMMIGRATION

REGULATIONS

in 1967 changed the character of the immi-

grant community, with more than half now coming from

developing nations. The emergence of a federal policy of

multiculturalism and tentative steps toward rapprochement

with the Soviet Union under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau

6464 COLD WAR

by 1971 lessened cold war implications for Canadian immi-

gration. Although most refugees were still those fleeing com-

munist regimes in Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Soviet

Union, and Vietnam, leftist refugees from Chile, South

Africa, Haiti, and Central America were less feared than in

the United States and were generally welcomed. This open-

ness led to the controversial harboring of as many as

100,000 American draft evaders and deserters during the

Vietnam War (1964–75). On the other hand, some 60,000

Southeast Asians were admitted in 1979–80, fleeing brutal

communist regimes in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Further Reading

Burnet, Jean R., with Howard Palmer. “Coming Canadians”: An Intro-

duction to a Histor

y of Canada’s Peoples. Toronto: McClelland

and Ste

wart, 1988.

Chan, Kwok B., and Doreen Marie Indra, eds. Upr

ooting Loss and

Adaptation:

The Resettlement of Indochinese Refugees in Canada.

Ottawa: Canadian Public Health Association, 1987.

Goldsmith, Renee Kasinsky. Refugees from Militarism: Draft-Age A

mer-

icans in Canada. Totowa, N.J.: Littlefield, Adams, 1976.

Haines, D

avid W., ed. Refugees as Immigrants: Cambodians, Laotians,

and Vietnamese in America. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Little-

field, 1989.

awkins, F

reda. Canada and Immigration: Public Policy and Public

Concern. Montreal: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 1972.

Loescher, Gil, and John A. Scanlan. Calculated Kindness: Refugees and

America’s Half-Open Door, 1945 to the Pr

esent. New York: Free

Press, 1986.

itchell, Christopher

, ed. Western Hemisphere Immigration and

United States Foreign Policy. University Park: Pennsylvania State

University Press, 1992.

Nackerud, Larry, et al. “The End of the Cuban Contradiction in U.S.

Refugee Policy.” Inter

national Migration Review 33, no. 1 (Spring

1999): 176–92.

Tucker, Robert W., Charles B. Keely, and Linda Wrigley, eds. Immi-

ation and U.S. F

oreign Policy. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press,

1990.

ernant, J.

The Refugee in the Post-War World. New Haven, Conn.:

Yale U

niversity Press, 1953.

Whitaker, Reg. Double Standard: The Secret Story of Canadian Immi-

ation. T

oronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1987.

Colombian immigration

The Colombian community in the United States is ethni-

cally diverse and forms the largest immigrant group from

South America. Generally, Colombians have maintained

close ties to their home country and have thus been slow to

assimilate. Because of Colombia’s history of relations with

United States, settlement in Canada has always been small.

In the U.S. census of 2000 and the Canadian census of

2001, 470,684 Americans and 15,865 Canadians claimed

Colombian descent. New York City; Chicago, Illinois; and

Miami, Florida; have the highest concentrations of Colom-

bian Americans. The largest Colombian communities in

Canada are in Toronto and Montreal.

Colombia occupies 400,600 square miles of northwest-

ern South America between 13 degrees north latitude and

4 degrees south latitude. Venezuela lies to the north and to

the east along with Brazil. Peru and Ecuador lie to the

south; the Pacific Ocean, Panama, and the Caribbean Sea

are to the west. Several chains of the Andes run north to

south in the western half of the country. Rich plains cover

the northernmost regions, while more barren flatlands cover

the east. In 2002, the population was estimated at

40,349,388, with more than 6 million in the urban area of

Bogotá. The majority of the people claim Roman Catholi-

cism as their religion. Colombians are ethnically divided

among mestizos, who make up 58 percent of the popula-

tion; whites, who compose another 20 percent; mulattos,

14 percent; and blacks, 4 percent. In the early 16th cen-

tury, Spain conquered the native peoples who inhabited

Colombia and ruled there until the area gained its indepen-

dence in 1819 and the republic of Gran Colombia was

founded. In 1830, the confederation collapsed when

Venezuela and Ecuador withdrew to form independent

nations, and small numbers of Colombians began to emi-

grate. From 1830 to 1886, the remaining territory of Gran

Colombia went through various political transformations

(and names), ending with the establishment of Colombia.

After World War I, there was a significant migration of

Colombian professionals, mainly to New York City. By

1930, perhaps as many as 25,000 Colombians had immi-

grated there. Throughout the 20th century, Colombia was

ravaged by political violence in both rural and urban areas,

in the last quarter century often linked to the activities of

powerful drug-trafficking cartels. Political unrest between

1945 and 1955 was a powerful spur to immigration, lead-

ing a largely middle-class, white community to settle in

Queens, New York. With their country in deep economic

recession during the 1960s, Colombian immigration

increased significantly and became more diversified, with

the largest number of immigrants coming from mixed

ancestry groups. According to the Immigration and Natu-

ralization Service (INS), almost 120,000 entered the coun-

try between 1960 and 1977. In 1999, an earthquake struck

Colombia, killing more than 1,100 and displacing an addi-

tional 250,000. Immigration continued to increase during

the 1990s, along with nationwide protests against political

violence and human rights violations. Between 1990 and

2002, about 190,000 Colombians immigrated to the

United States, many joining family members already in the

country. In 2000, the U.S. appropriated $1.3 billion to help

Colombia fight drug trafficking, and right-wing paramili-

tary forces began a campaign against leftist guerrillas.

Although most Colombians entered the United States

legally, it was estimated by the INS that in 2002 there were

141,000 unauthorized Colombians in the United States,

65COLOMBIAN IMMIGRATION 65

making them the fourth largest unauthorized group, behind

Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Unofficial estimates

place the figure at more than twice that number. Canada was

never a popular destination for Colombians. Most immi-

grants are recent. Of Canada’s 15,500 Colombians, 6,480

arrived between 1996 and 2001. Many were well educated,

immigrating to take advantage of economic opportunities.

Most Colombians living in Canada were born in South

America.

Further Reading

Chaney, Elsa M. “Colombian Migration to the United States.” In

The Dynamics of Migration: International Migration. Washington,

D.C.: I

nter

disciplinary Communications Program, Smithsonian

Institution, 1976.

Cordova, Carlos B., and Jorge del Pinal. Hispanics-Latinos: Diverse

eople in a Multicultural Society. Washington, D.C.: National

Association of Hispanic P

ublications, U.S. Census Bureau, 1996.

Cornelius, Wayne, ed. The Dynamics of Migration: International

Migration. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 1976.

arcia Castro, Mary. “Work Versus Life: Colombian Women in New

York.” In Women and Change in Latin America. Eds. June Nash

and Helen S

afa. S

outh Hadley, Mass.: Bergin and Garvey, 1986.

Guarnizo, Luis Eduardo, and Luz Marina Díaz. “Trans-national

Migration: A View from Colombia.” Ethnic And Racial Studies

22, no. 2 (1998): 397–421.

tes, Alejandro. “Determinants of the Brain Drain.” International

Migr

ation Review 10, no. 4 (1976): 489–508.

Redden, C. A. A Comparative Study of Colombian and Costa Rican

migrants to the United States. New York: Arno Press, 1980.

Rockett, I

an. “Immigration Legislation and the Flow of Specialized

Human Capital from South America to the United States.” Inter-

national M

igr

ation Review 10, no. 1 (1976): 47–62.

Columbus, Christopher (1451–1506) explorer

Sailing for Spain during four voyages between 1492 and

1504, Christopher Columbus laid the foundation for an

extensive Spanish empire in North, Central, and South

America and eventually the Europeanization of the Western

Hemisphere. As the first Europeans to reach the Americas

since the 11th century, Columbus and his men unwittingly

carried diseases that eventually killed perhaps half of the

native populations of the Americas, leading to widespread

destruction of native cultures.

Born in Genoa, Italy, Columbus became a mariner at an

early age. After moving to Lisbon, Portugal, he sailed widely

in the Mediterranean, the eastern Atlantic, and along the

West African coast. During the 1480s, he determined that it

was possible to reach China and the Indies by sailing west-

ward, a novel idea that was rejected by Portuguese king John

II. After several entreaties to the Spanish court, Columbus

gained the support of Queen Isabella in 1492. On the first

voyage (1492–93), he established Spanish claims to the

Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola (modern Haiti and the

Dominican Republic) and made the first European settle-

ment in the New World on the northern shore of Hispan-

iola. On the second voyage, he made landfall on the island

of Dominica and sailed up the Leeward Islands to Hispan-

iola, only to discover that the settlement had been destroyed.

Before returning to Spain, he mapped the southern coast of

Cuba, discovering Jamaica in the process, and left his

brother Diego in charge of Isabella, a new settlement far-

ther east along the northern coast of Hispaniola. On the

third voyage (1496–1500), Columbus made landfall on

Trinidad before finally setting foot on mainland South

America (in Venezuela) for the first time in 1496. Based on

the huge volume of water emanating from the Orinoco

River, he rightly inferred that it represented the drainage of

“a new world, hitherto unknown.” Returning to Hispaniola,

he found the fledgling colony in disarray. Mismanagement

and quarrels with local officials led to Columbus’s being

returned to Spain in chains. Despite the lack of promised

wealth, he nevertheless persuaded the Crown to sponsor a

fourth voyage (1502–04). After landfall on Martinique and

still convinced that the area he had discovered was only a

short distance from China, he explored the Central Ameri-

can coastline in search of a strait that would led him there.

Eventually abandoning the quest for a strait, Columbus also

failed to discover gold, returning to Spain in disgrace.

Although unsuccessful in locating vast riches, Colum-

bus’s geographic achievement was momentous. He deci-

phered the North Atlantic wind system, enabling future

mariners to travel to and from the New World with reason-

able hope of safe passage. He also explored much of the

coastal Caribbean basin and established the Greater Antilles

as a base for further Spanish imperial expansion throughout

the 16th century.

Further Reading

Colón, Fernando, ed. The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus

by H

is Son Ferdinand. Rev. ed. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers

Univ

ersity Press, 1992.

Columbus, Christopher. The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus.

Ed. and trans. J. M. Cohen. New York: Penguin, 1992.

ernández-Armesto, Felipe. Columbus. New York: Oxford University

ess, 1991.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christo-

pher Columbus. Boston: Little, Brown, 1942.

ale, Kir

kpatrick. The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus

and the Columbian Legacy. N

ew York: Plume Books, 1992.

Compagnie de la Nouvelle France (Company

of New France, Company of One Hundred

Associates)

The Compagnie de la Nouvelle France was a commercial

company organized in 1627 by the go

vernment of France

as a means of aggressively colonizing N

RANCE

. It

6666 COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER

administered the region on behalf of the Crown until 1663,

when New France was made a royal colony.

For the first two decades of French interest in North

America, fishing, the fur trade, and missionary activity pre-

dominated, none requiring large-scale settlement. With the

advent of mercantilistic economic theory and its focus on

maintaining a favorable balance of trade, overseas colonies

were viewed as important to state finances. Louis XIII’s chief

minister, Cardinal Richelieu, responded to the lobbying of

explorer and entrepreneur S

AMUEL DE

HAMPLAIN

, by cre-

ating the Compagnie de la Nouvelle France, often known

as the Company of One Hundred Associates. The associ-

ates provided 300,000 livres of working capital and were to

settle 4,000 French Catholics between 1627 and 1643. In

return, they were given title to all French lands and granted

a monopoly on all economic activity except fishing. In order

to maintain control of the colony, Protestants and natural-

ized citizens were prohibited from permanent settlement.

The company enjoyed little success. In addition to bad

weather that inhibited immigration, England constantly

threatened French interests, destroying expeditions in 1628

and 1629 and occupying Quebec from 1629 to 1632. The

first substantial group of settlers, not sent until 1634,

included merchants, landless noblemen, skilled workers, and

indentured servants (see

INDENTURED SERVITUDE

). The

company employed the seigneurial system for distributing

land, giving large tracts to companies or individuals, known

as seigneurs, or lords, who would undertake to establish set-

tlements. Under the new system, settlements were estab-

lished at Trois-Rivières (1634) and on the island of Montreal

(1642), though they failed to attract substantial settlement.

In 1645, the company relinquished its monopoly of the fur

trade to a group of businessmen known as La Communauté

des Habitants, along with direct responsibility for settle-

ment, while retaining control of lands. By the early 1660s, it

was clear that private settlement schemes would not work.

Only 3,000 settlers populated the vast area of New France,

and more than one-third of these settlers had been born in

North America. Although 60 siegneuries had been granted,

the settlement provisions had largely gone unfulfilled. In

1663, the government of the region was completely reorga-

nized. The company was disbanded on February 24, 1663,

and the colony brought directly under royal control. The

Crown then transferred the administration of New France

into the hands of the Compagnie des Indes Occidentals

(French West Indies Company).

Further Reading

Eccles, William J. France in America. New York: Harper and Row,

1972.

Trudel, M

rcel. The Beginnings of New Fr

ance, 1524–1663. Toronto:

McClelland and Stewart, 1972.

Vachon, André. Dreams of Empire: Canada before 1700. Ottawa: Pub-

lic Archives of Canada, 1982.

Connecticut colony

The Connecticut colony, chartered by Charles II in 1662, was

an outgrowth of the great Puritan migration of the 1630s.

First claimed by the Dutch in 1614, it was not effectively set-

tled until the 1630s, when English settlers began to arrive in

large numbers from M

ASSACHUSETTS COLONY

. Determined

to find greater freedom and less settled areas, Congregation-

alists founded the villages of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethers-

field in the Connecticut River Valley by 1636. They joined

to form the colony of Connecticut, led by the dynamic min-

ister Joseph Hooker. Two years later New Haven was estab-

lished as a Puritan theocracy but was absorbed by the thriving

valley settlements when Connecticut was granted its charter.

Under Hooker’s leadership, Congregationalists of Connecti-

cut adopted the Fundamental Orders (1639), which provided

for citizen voting in selecting government officials. By 1700,

Connecticut and Rhode Island were the only two English

colonies with corporate charters granting full self-govern-

ment. Having been settled largely before the end of the S

EVEN

EARS

’W

(1756–63), Connecticut remained until the

MERICAN

EVOLUTION

(1776–83) heavily English in char-

acter, with almost no non-English enclaves.

Further Reading

Cressy, David. Coming Over: Migration and Communication between

England and New England in the Seventeenth Century. Cam-

bridge: Cambridge University Pr

ess, 1987.

oster, Stephen. The Long Argument: English Puritanism and the Shap-

ing of New England Culture, 1570–1700. Chapel Hill: Institute

of Early American History and C

ulture, University of North Car-

olina Press, 1991.

Gura, Philip F. A Glimpse of Sion’s Glory: P

uritan Radicalism in New

England, 1620–1660. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University

ress, 1984.

Taylor, Robert J. Colonial Connecticut: A Histor

. Millwood, N.Y.:

KTO, 1979.

Contract Labor Act See A

LIEN

ONTRACT

ABOR

Croatian immigration

Croatians were the earliest south Slavic group to settle in

North America in significant numbers. In the U.S. census of

2000 and the Canadian census of 2001, 374,241 Americans

and 97,050 Canadians claimed Croatian descent. The earli-

est Croatian concentrations in the United States were in San

Francisco, but in the 20th century these shifted to Pitts-

burgh and western Pennsylvania. About two-thirds of Cana-

dian Croatians live in Ontario, although there is also a large

settlement in Vancouver.

Croatia occupies 21,800 square miles of the Balkan

Peninsula between 42 and 47 degrees north latitude along

the Adriatic Sea. Slovenia and Hungary lie to the north,

67CROATIAN IMMIGRATION 67

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro to the

east. Flat plains cover the northeast region of the country,

while highlands stretch along the coast. In 2002, the popu-

lation was estimated at 4,334,142. The people are ethnically

divided between Croats, mostly Roman Catholics, who

make up 78 percent of the population; and Serbs, mostly

Orthodox Christian, who make up 12 percent. Almost

700,000 ethnic Croats also live in neighboring Bosnia and

Herzegovina. The Croat language is similar to Serbian but

written with the Latin alphabet. Croats briefly had an inde-

pendent kingdom in the Middle Ages but were from the

12th century westernized under Hungarian influence, apart

from the Serbs. They remained autonomous until conquered

by the Turks during the 16th century, though northern areas

of Croatia were restored to the Habsburg (Austrian) Empire

in 1699. Croatia was granted crownland status along with

Slavonia following the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49,

during which Croatia aided Austria. In 1867, the area was

reunited with Hungary until 1918, when it joined other

south Slavic nations in declaring the Kingdom of Serbs,

Croats, and Slovenes, later known as Yugoslavia. At the end

of World War II, in 1945, Croatia became a constituent

republic of Yugoslavia. Croatia declared its independence in

1991, causing an outbreak of ethnic war between Serbs and

Croats. Following several cease-fires, Serbian rebels declared

the independent republic of Krajina in 1994. The Croatian

government continued fighting and finally captured Krajina

in 1998, restoring the republic.

Some Croatian adventurers and sailors came to the Gulf

Coast region of the United States as early as the 17th cen-

tury. The earliest Croatian settlement was in New Orleans

and the coastal regions of Mississippi, where a community

of 3,000–4,000 had been established by the time of the Civil

War (1861–65). Croatians—or Dalmatians, as they were

frequently called—also began to move to the American

West, where they worked as fishermen, small businessown-

ers, and eventually farmers and fruit growers. In 1857, they

had established in San Francisco the first charitable society

in the United States organized to help Slavic immigrants, the

Slavonic Illyrian Mutual and Benevolent Society. By 1880,

the Croatian community in the United States had grown to

20,000. After 1880, Croatians were part of the massive

migration of eastern and southern Europeans to North

America, most settling in the Great Lakes industrial belt,

where they often worked in heavy industry. Because Slavic

groups frequently were not distinguished from one another

and immigrants were often classified according to the coun-

try of emigration, it is impossible to say how many Croat-

ians came, but one estimate places the number in the 1930s

at around a half million. Between 1899 and 1924, however,

almost half of them returned to their homeland. With the

disruptions of World War II and the advent of a Communist

government in Yugoslavia, about 40,000 Croatians were

admitted into the United States under a variety of measures,

including the D

ISPLACED

ERSONS

(1948) and the

EFUGEE

ELIEF

(1953). A small but steady immigra-

tion during the 1970s and 1980s added almost 50,000

more. Between 1992 and 2002, about 18,000 Croatians

immigrated to the United States, including 5,675 refugees.

Croatian adventurers known as Kolumbusari sought

their economic fortunes in Canada as early as the 16th cen-

tury, though they rarely brought their families with them.

Most were miners, loggers, or fishermen. The first significant

number of Croatian settlers in Canada arrived in British

Columbia in 1890. The region continued to attract miners,

lumbermen, and fishermen until World War I, many coming

by way of the United States. Croatians were among the 6,000

to 10,000 “bunkhouse men” who immigrated between 1900

and 1912, helping to open western territories. As mines

opened across Canada after the war, Croatians migrated,

spreading throughout the country. During the 1920s, about

20,000 Croats entered Canada, many having been diverted

from the United States in the wake of the J

OHNSON

-R

EED

of 1924, but almost one-quarter of Croatians returned

to their homeland, keeping population growth relatively

small in Canada. The first Croatian Peasant Society was

founded in Toronto in 1930. After World War II, from 1946

to 1958, some 22,000 refugees and displaced Croatians

arrived in Canada, often with advanced degrees and special-

ized training that had not been characteristic of earlier immi-

grants. Of Canada’s 39,375 Croatian immigrants in 2001,

more than half came in the 1960s and 1970s and more than

a quarter between 1991 and 2001.

Further Reading

Colakovi´c, Branko M. Y

ugoslav Migrations and America. San Fran-

cisco: R. and E. Research Associates, 1973.

Gorvaorchin, Gerald G. Americans from Yugoslavia. Gainesville: Uni-

versity of Florida Pr

ess, 1961.

arkoti´c, Vladimir, ed. Biographical Directory of Americans and Cana-

dians of C

oatian Descent. Calgary, Canada: Canadian Centre for

Ethnic Studies, 1973.

eler

, V. The Slavonic Pioneers of California. San Francisco: Ragusan

ess, 1972.

Prpi´c, George. The Croatian I

mmigr

ants in America. New York: Philo-

sophical Library, 1971.

Rasporich, Anthony W. For a Better Life: A History of the Croatians in

Canada. Toronto: M

cClelland and Stewart, Department of the

Secretary of State, 1982.

Shapiro, Ellen. The Croatian Americans. New York: Chelsea House,

1989.

Cuban immigration

Cubans are usually considered to be the most successful His-

panic immigrant group, with educational and economic

profiles near those of the U.S. population as a whole. They

6868 CUBAN IMMIGRATION

constitute the third largest Hispanic immigrant group in the

United States, behind only Mexicans and Puerto Ricans (see

ISPANIC AND RELATED TERMS

). Their migration to the

United States was fostered by both proximity and a unique

diplomatic relationship that did not apply to Canada. In the

U.S. census of 2000 and the Canadian census of 2001,

1,241,685 Americans claimed Cuban descent, but only

6,200 Canadians. Cuban settlement in the United States

after 1959 overwhelmingly centered in M

IAMI

LORIDA

adding to important earlier settlements in New York City;

New Orleans, Louisiana; Key West, Florida; and Ybor City,

Florida. Almost two-thirds of Cuban Americans live in

Florida.

Cuba is the largest Caribbean island, occupying 42,800

square miles between 19 and 24 degrees north latitude. The

nearest countries include the United States and the Bahamas

to the north, Haiti to the east, and Jamaica to the south. The

northern coast of the island is high and rocky. Flat plains

stretch along the southern coast. In 2002, the population

was estimated at 11,184,023, 96 percent of which is made

up of whites and mestizos. Prior to Fidel Castro’s rule, the

majority of the population practiced Roman Catholicism.

HRISTOPHER

OLUMBUS

landed at Cuba in 1492 and

found native inhabitants. Spain held the island until 1898,

excepting the British occupation of Havana from 1762 to

1763. Uprisings against Spanish rule began in 1868 and cul-

minated in a full-scale revolution in 1895. Although Cuba

was a Spanish colony until 1898, the island’s close proxim-

ity to the United States made its economic and political sta-

bility a matter of concern to the U.S. government. In the

wake of its first war for independence in 1868, thousands

of Cubans sought refuge in the United States, with most set-

tling in New York City or Tampa, Florida. The U.S. drove

Spain out of Cuba in 1898, but poor economic conditions

and repressive political regimes continued to drive refugees

across the 90-mile channel that separated Cuba and the

United States. Frequently, they would return to Cuba as

political and economic conditions changed. The United

States withdrew troops in 1902, but since 1903, it has leased

land in Guantánamo Bay for a naval base. During the first

half of the 20th century, American investors continued to be

heavily involved in Cuba’s sugar-based economy.

In 1952, former president Fulgencio Batista took con-

trol of the government and established himself dictator, with

tacit support of the U.S. government. During his regime,

about 10,000 Cubans were naturalized as U.S. citizens.

Beginning in 1956, Fidel Castro led an open rebellion

against the increasingly harsh and corrupt government.

Batista fled in 1959 and Castro assumed leadership of the

country and consolidated power under the Communist

Party. Mass emigration, principally to the United States, fol-

lowed. An estimated 700,000 left during the first several

years. Within his first year in power, Castro nationalized

the majority of the country’s industries and began to accept

aid from the Soviet Union and other communist nations.

In 1961, the United States–supported invasion of Cuba by

Cuban émigrés at the Bay of Pigs proved to be a disaster, fur-

ther heightening tensions between the two countries. The

United States followed with an export embargo in 1962.

Later that year, the United States discovered that Cuba was

harboring Soviet nuclear missiles. President J

OHN

ITZGER

ALD

ENNEDY

warned Cuba of impending military conse-

quences and imposed a military blockade to prohibit Soviet

warheads from reaching the island, which led to the eventual

withdrawal of the missiles. Cuba’s

COLD WAR

involvement

in Central America and Africa, including sending military

troops to aid a civil war faction in Angola from 1975 to

1978, further strained relations with the United States.

Between 1959 and 1980, almost 1 million Cubans emi-

grated from their Caribbean island home to the United

States, where they enjoyed preferential treatment by the U.S.

government as victims of Castro’s Communist regime. The

ARIEL

OATLIFT

of 1980 represented a turning point in

U.S. policy toward Cuban immigrants. In response to a

severely strained economy, in April, Castro opened the port

of Mariel to allow more than 125,000 Cubans to leave for

the United States, including 24,000 with criminal records.

This influx of poor Cubans, having little to do with cold war

politics, destroyed an already declining belief that Cuban

immigrants should be treated differently than others, and

their immigration was thereafter gradually normalized and

brought under ordinary immigration control. Castro relaxed

his strict policy in 1994, following national demonstrations

and the exodus of thousands of Cubans on homemade rafts

trying to float to Florida. The United States imposed eco-

nomic sanctions in 1996 following the destruction of two

exile planes operating against Castro. Relations improved

again in 1999. In 2000, Cuba and the United States fought

an international legal battle over E

LIÁN

ONZÁLEZ

, a young

boy whose mother died in an attempt to bring her son to

Miami, but whose father resided in Cuba.

After Castro’s revolution, most Cubans came to the

United States in one of four waves of migration, adding to

some 50,000 Cubans or those of Cuban descent already liv-

ing in the United States. In the immediate aftermath of Cas-

tro’s takeover (1959–62), more than 200,000 came to settle

in southern Florida, particularly in the Miami-Dade County

area. In keeping with earlier Cuban refugees, most believed

that a future turn in political fortunes would allow them to

return to their homeland. In order to ease their transition

and establish a clear commitment to resisting communism,

the administration of Dwight Eisenhower established the

Cuban Refugee Emergency Center (1960). Many of these

early postrevolution immigrants were part of the corrupt,

toppled Batista government; most were men and women of

the middle and upper classes, including government offi-

cials, industrialists, bankers, and professionals; and most

were of European descent. President Kennedy built upon

69CUBAN IMMIGRATION 69

Eisenhower’s policies, establishing the Cuban Refugee Pro-

gram (February 3, 1961), which provided a wide range of

social services to Cuban immigrants, including health care

and subsidized educational loans. The United States also

suspended parts of its immigration policy, waiving numeri-

cal restrictions on the number of visas that could be issued

to Cubans. During 1961 and 1962, 99 percent of all waivers

were granted in order to provide for “refugees from com-

munism.” Castro at first allowed relatively unhindered

emigration on regular commercial flights from Havana,

the capital. These were not stopped even in the wake of a

disastrous U.S.-backed invasion attempt by Cuban émigrés

at the Bay of Pigs (April 1961). With the Cuban missile

crisis of October 1962, however, Castro closed airports to

commercial traffic, and the United States actively sought

to isolate Cuba by seeing that commercial flights did not

resume. Although visa “waivers” continued to be issued, it

became almost impossible for Cubans to emigrate because

of the American attempt to isolate Cuba from the world

community.

The second great wave of migration began in autumn

1965, when Castro opened the port of Camarioca to any-

one seeking to bring relatives out of Cuba and promised not

to prosecute those who gathered for the purpose of immi-

gration. President Lyndon Johnson responded by declaring

that “those who seek refuge here in America will find it,”

immediately undermining the limitations established by

the newly passed U.S. I

MMIGRATION AND

ATIONALITY

(1965). After heated debate, Congress passed the

Cuban Adjustment of Status Act (1966), exempting

refugees who had been admitted as parolees without a visa

from the requirement of traveling to a third country to for-

malize their status. This measure established a legal dis-

tinction between Cuban and all other immigrants from the

Western Hemisphere, based on America’s cold war ideology.

As a result of these policies, almost 300,000 Cubans entered

the United States between 1965 and 1973, most on char-

tered “freedom flights.” This wave of migration was more

diverse racially than the first and included a much higher

percentage of women, as Castro had forbidden skilled

workers to emigrate. It also included up to half of Cuba’s

doctors, lawyers, professors, and other professional groups.

In order to ease the burden imposed by Cuban immigrants

in Florida, the Cuban Refugee Resettlement Program was

established in 1961, providing transportation and financial

assistance to refugees who would immediately relocate.

Between 1961 and 1978, more than 300,000 Cubans were

resettled, mostly in New York, New Jersey, California, and

Illinois.

After seven years of hostility toward emigration

(1973–80), a worsening economy pushed Castro to reverse

his policy, leading to the migration of 125,000 Cubans

during the Mariel Boatlift. Whereas America’s ideological

commitment to deter communism overrode all other con-

siderations in the 1960s, the governmental consensus in

favor of granting Cubans special immigration status began

to break down in the 1970s. The resulting U.S. R

EFUGEE

(1980) required Cubans to meet the same “strict stan-

dards for asylum” as other potential refugees from the

Western Hemisphere, placing them in the same category as

Haitians who had been arriving illegally in large numbers

throughout the 1970s (see H

AITIAN IMMIGRATION

). Fac-

ing a weak economy, on April 20, 1980, Cuban president

Fidel Castro opened the port of Mariel to emigrants and

encouraged “anti-social elements” to leave. Within five

months, more than 125,000 Cubans had been transported

to the United States, including 24,000 with criminal

records. At first the marielitos were treated as refugees, but

by J

une 20, the administration of P

resident Jimmy Carter

enacted sanctions against those transporting Cuban

migrants and confirmed that Cubans would be coupled

with Haitians as “entrants (status pending)” rather than as

refugees. Fearing both an exodus of skilled technicians and

deterioration of relations with the United States, on

September 25, Castro closed the harbor at Mariel to emi-

gration. Negotiations by the Carter administration and the

following administration of Ronald Reagan in the wake of

the Mariel Boatlift led to agreements in the mid-1980s

that came close to normalizing immigrant relations

between the two countries. Cuba agreed to accept 2,746

“excludable” Mariel Cubans, and the United States agreed

to issue up to 20,000 annual “preference immigrant visas

to Cuban nationals,” though only about 2,000 were issued

each year between 1988 and 1994.

With the ending of Soviet subsidies following the

breakup of the Soviet Union (1991), the Cuban economy

neared collapse, driving increasing numbers of balseros (emi-

grants on rafts) attempting to reach American shores.

etw

een 1985 and 1990, only a few hundred balseros arrived

each year

. In 1991, the number increased to more than

2,000, and two years later, to 3,656. In 1994, Castro ended

his policy of pursuing Cubans seeking to flee to the United

States, leading to the departure of 37,000 Cubans during

August and September. Faced with a potential repeat of the

Mariel influx, the Clinton administration ordered rafters to

be intercepted and sent to refugee camps at Guantánamo

Naval Base or in Panama. On May 2, 1995, the U.S. gov-

ernment ended its policy of automatically admitting Cuban

refugees, stipulating that future Cuban immigrants would

be required to apply according to normal procedures. By an

agreement signed on September 9, 1995, the United States

agreed to a minimum annual level of Cuban immigration

at 20,000, excluding relatives of U.S. citizens. In return, the

Cuban government reinstated border controls in order to

prevent illegal departures. Between 1992 and 2002, about

225,000 Cubans legally immigrated to the United States. Of

Canada’s 4,940 Cuban immigrants, more than half arrived

between 1996 and 2001.

7070 CUBAN IMMIGRATION

Further Reading

Ackerman, Holly

, and Juan M. Clark. The Cuban Balseros: Voyage of

Uncertainty. Miami, Fla.: Cuban American National Council,

1995.

Bosw

ell, Thomas

D. A Demographic Profile of Cuban Americans.

iami, Fla.: Cuban American National Council, 1994.

Boswell,

Thomas D., and James R. Curtis. The Cuban-American Expe-

rience. Toto

wa, N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld, 1984.

ominguez, Jorge I., ed. Cuba: Internal and International Affairs. Bev-

erley Hills, Calif

.: Sage Publications, 1982.

García, María Cristina. Hav

ana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Amer-

icans in South F

lorida, 1959–1994. Berkeley: University of Cali-

fornia Pr

ess, 1996.

Masud-Piloto, Robert. From Welcomed Exiles to Illegal Immigrants:

uban M

igration to the United States, 1959–1995. Lanham, Md.:

Rowman and Littlefield, 1996.

itchell, Christopher, ed. Western Hemisphere Immigration and

nited S

tates Foreign Policy. University Park: Pennsylvania State

Univ

ersity Press, 1992.

Morley, Morris H. Imperial State and Revolution: The United States and

uba, 1952–1986. Cambridge: Cambridge U

niversity Press,

1987.

lson, J

ames S., and Judith E. Olson. Cuban-Americans: From Trauma

to Triumph. N

ew York: Twayne, 1995.

Pedraza-B

ailey, Silvia. Political and Economic Migrants in America.

Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985.

tes, Alejandro, and Robert L. Bach. Latin Journey: Cuban and Mex-

ican Immigr

ants in the United States. Berkeley: University of Cal-

ifornia Pr

ess, 1985.

Welch, Richard E., Jr. Response to Revolution: The United States and the

Cuban Revolution, 1959–1961. Chapel Hill: University of North

Carolina Press, 1985.

Customs and Border Protection, U.S. (CBP)

Customs and Border P

rotection is the federal agency within

the Border and Transportation Security Directorate (BTS)

responsible for law enforcement and inspections along U.S.

borders. It operates under the jurisdiction of the D

EPART

MENT OF

OMELAND

ECURITY

(DHS). CBP employs

almost 40,000 men and women in protecting the country’s

borders, intercepting illegal drugs and other contraband,

and enforcing trade and immigration laws at the border.

Customs and Border Protection was created as a result

of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which dissolved the

MMIGRATION AND

ATURALIZATION

ERVICE

(Depart-

ment of Justice), the U.S. Customs Service (Department of

the Treasury), and the Agricultural Quarantine and Inspec-

tion program (Department of Agriculture), and transferred

security-related functions to the newly created DHS. The

U.S. B

ORDER

ATROL

was merged into the CBP, and all

border-related functions were then coordinated. An early

goal of the CBP was to create “One Face at the Border,” with

former customs, INS, and agricultural inspectors all work-

ing in a single agency under a unified chain of command.

Further Reading

Butikofer, Nathan R. United States Land Border Security Policy: The

ational Security Implications of 9/11 on the “Nation of Immi-

grants” and Free Trade in North America. Monterey, Calif.: Naval

Postgraduate School, 2003.

Krauss, E

rich.

On the Line: Inside the U.S. Border Patrol. Sacramento,

Calif.: Citadel P

ress, 2004.

Krouse, William J. Depar

tment of Homeland Security: Proposals to Con-

solidate Bor

der and Transportation Security Agencies. Washington,

D.C.: Congressional R

esearch Service, 2002.

“Under One Roof.” Go

vernment Executive 3

5, no. 5 (2003): 26.

United States Department of Homeland Security Handbook. Washing-

ton, D.C.: International B

usiness Publications, 2003.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Web site. Available online. URL:

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/home.xml. Accessed July 5, 2004.

Czech immigration

Czechs were among the earliest eastern European peoples to

immigrate to North America, first coming in large numbers

to the United States in the 1850s. In the U.S. Census of

2000 and the Canadian census of 2001, 1,703,930 Ameri-

cans and 274,740 Canadians claimed Czech or Czechoslo-

vakian descent. Although Czechs were widely spread in

agricultural areas of the United States, they had large

enclaves in Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; and New

York City. Czechs are dispersed throughout Canada, with

significant concentrations in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver,

and Winnipeg.

The Czech Republic occupies 30,300 square miles of

eastern central Europe between 48 and 51 degrees north

latitude. Poland lies to the north and to the east; Slovakia to

the southeast; Austria, to the south; and Germany, to the

north and west. The land is hilly with a plateau surrounded

by mountains in the west. In 2002, the population was esti-

mated at 10,264,212. Ethnic Czechs comprise 94 percent of

the population, and the closely related Slovaks make up 3

percent. The population is divided mainly between atheists

and Roman Catholics, each group reaching about 40 per-

cent. The Czech regions of Bohemia and Moravia were part

of the Moravian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, and the

Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to the proclamation of the

republic of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Heavy population pres-

sure during the 19th century and a failed nationalist revolu-

tion in 1848 led an increasing number of Czechs to seek

their fortunes outside the country. From the 14th century,

the Czech city of Prague was in many ways the cultural cen-

ter of eastern Europe. In 1938, Czechoslovakia was parti-

tioned. After agreements with Britain and France, Nazi

Germany under Adolf Hitler occupied the westernmost por-

tion of Czechoslovakia, known as the Sudetenland. Russian

and Czech troops began to liberate Czechoslovakia in 1944,

freeing Prague in 1945. Under Soviet pressure, a Commu-

nist prime minister was chosen, and by 1948, the govern-

ment was fully under Communist control. A serious move

71CZECH IMMIGRATION 71

toward liberalization began in 1968 when the Stalinist ruler

was deposed. A series of liberal leaders attempted democratic

reforms but were ousted by troops from the Soviet Union,

Poland, East Germany, Hungary, and Bulgaria. The invasion

caused some 40,000 refugees to flee the country, which was

returned to a more orthodox communist rule. In 1989, tens

of thousands of protesters demanding free elections took to

the streets of Prague, where a violent police crackdown

occurred. Communist rulers stepped down, and a popular

regime took control. Following peaceful negotiations in

1992, Slovakia declared its independence and separated

from what was renamed the Czech Republic. The Czech

Republic joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in

1999 and the European Union in 2004.

The westernmost of the Slavic peoples of Europe,

Czechs from the Austrian Empire followed much the same

pattern of settlement in North America as did southern Ger-

mans, though few immigrated during the colonial period.

The first significant immigration followed the abortive

REV

OLUTIONS OF

1848. By 1860, there were already more than

10,000 Czechs in the United States, many of them having

migrated to Chicago; St. Louis, Missouri; and Cleveland.

Others, arriving as family units, usually chose, before 1880,

to farm in the Mississippi valley, Nebraska, Kansas, and

Texas. After 1880, Czech immigrants increasingly found

work in mines and steel mills, and most stayed to raise fam-

ilies in the United States. By 1900, more than 56 percent of

Czech Americans were born in the New World. By World

War I (1914–18), some 350,000 Czechs had immigrated to

the United States, with Illinois being the most favored state

of settlement, and Chicago and Cleveland, the leading cen-

ters of Czech culture. With the restrictive J

OHNSON

-R

EED

of 1924, Czech immigration declined until the Nazi

occupation, which brought some 20,000 additional immi-

grants to the United States. With Communists gaining con-

trol of the Czech government after World War II, the United

States opened its doors to Czech refugees as a part of its

COLD WAR

commitment. Between 1946 and 1975, more

than 27,000 Czechs were admitted. With increasing politi-

cal opposition to the Communist Party during the 1980s,

the number of refugee claims rose significantly. Between

1983 and 1989, more than 7,000 Czechoslovak refugees

were admitted. The Czech Republic has recognized personal

freedoms since its independence in 1989. As a result, the

number of immigrants has declined dramatically to about

1,000 per year between 1992 and 2002.

Czech immigration to Canada developed more slowly.

The first significant migration came after 1880, when a

small number of Czech farmers from the United States and

a handful of immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian

Empire established several settlements in southeastern

Saskatchewan and Alberta. European Czechs often settled

near Slovakian and Hungarian communities. After 1910, a

number of Czech Baptist communities were established in

the Swan river valley of southern Manitoba. Prior to World

War I, Winnipeg had the largest Czech urban population,

though it remained small. According to the census of 1911,

there were only 1,800 Czechs in Canada. While these early

Czech immigrants came mainly for economic opportunity,

most after 1918 were admitted as refugees as a result of var-

ious political crises. During the 1920s, the newly created

state of Czechoslovakia had a strong economy and a rela-

tively stable political system, thus discouraging immigration.

The small number of Czechs who did come to Canada

tended to be urban workers and overwhelmingly flocked to

Montreal and southern Ontario. The number of immigrants

declined to less than 100 annually during the 1930s and

stopped almost altogether following the partition and occu-

pation of Czechoslovakia in 1937–38. Thousands of Czechs

displaced by World War II and the Communist takeover of

1948 fled to refugee camps in Germany and Austria.

Between 1948 and 1952, about 10,000 Czechoslovaks

immigrated to Canada; probably about half were Czechs.

Immigration remained small until the Soviet Union’s brutal

suppression of the Prague uprising of August 1968, leading

Canada to admit about 12,000 refugees, a third of whom

were professionals or skilled trade workers. Of Canada’s

29,310 Czech or Czechoslovakian immigrants in 2001, only

3,225 arrived between 1991 and 2001.

Further Reading

Barton, Josef J. Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks

in an American C

ity, 1890–1950. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard

Univ

ersity Press, 1975.

———. “Religion and Cultural Change in Czech Immigrant Com-

munities, 1850–1920.” In Immigrants and Religion in Urban

merica. Ed. R. M. Miller and T. D. Marzik. Philadelphia: Tem-

ple Univ

ersity Press, 1977.

Bicha, K. D. The Czechs in Oklahoma. Norman: University of Okla-

homa P

ess, 1980.

Capek, T. The Czechs (Bohemians) in America: A Study of Their

ational, C

ultural, Political, Social, Economic, and Religious Life.

1920. Reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1969.

ellner

, John, and John Smerek. The Czechs and Slovaks in Canada.

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968.

abenicht, J

an. History of Czechs in America. 1910. Reprint, St. Paul:

Geck and S

lovak Genealogical Society of Minnesota, 1996.

Jerabek, E. Czechs and Slovaks in North America: A Bibliography. New

k: Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, 1976.

Karytova-Magstadt, S. To Reap a Bountiful Harvest: Czech Immigration

bey

ond the Mississippi, 1850–1900. Iowa City, Iowa: Rudi Pub-

lishing, 1993.

Kirschbaum, S. J. A H

istory of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival. New

York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.

Kirschbaum, Joseph M. Slovaks in Canada. Toronto: Canadian Eth-

nic P

ess Association of Ontario, 1967.

Laska, V., ed. The Czechs in America, 1633–1977: A Chronology and

act Book. D

obbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications, 1978.

Luebke, Fr

ederick C. Ethnicity on the Gr

eat Plains. Lincoln: University

of Nebraska Press, 1981.

Machann, Clint, and J. W. Mendl. Krasna Amerika: A Study of the

exas C

zechs, 1851–1939. Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1983.

Rosicky

, R. A History of Czechs (Bohemians) in Nebraska. O

maha:

Czech Historical Society of Nebraska, 1929.

Stolarik, M. Mark. Growing Up on the South Side: Three Generations

of S

ovaks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1880–1976. Lewisburg,

Pa.: B

ucknell University Press, 1985.

———. The Slovak Americans. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.

CZECH IMMIGRATION 73