Clash of Cultures & the Discovery of Gold      123456

The Bracero Program

Although not clearly an instance of immigration liberalization, the Bracero Program was an agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments that legalized the status of around 4 million Mexican agricultural migrants between 1942 and 1964. The program provided for temporary rather than permanent residency, with braceros working on contract after which they were due to return to Mexico.

Welcoming War Brides and Displaced Persons

Immediately following the victory, a series of measures further liberalizing immigration policy were passed. In 1945 the War Brides Act gave the right to immigrate to foreign born wives of American servicemen. A great number of these women were Korean.

Before 1965, quotas permitted only 100 Koreans a year to immigrate to the United States, but many more than that came. By the end of World War II nearly 2 million Koreans were displaced and living in Japan. A number of Korean women in Japan developed relationships with American soldiers during the postwar occupation, and many married. The 1945 War Brides Act allowed these women and their children to immigrate. Estimates indicate that about 100,000 Korean war brides came to the United States in the 1940s and 1950s.

In 1946, the Luce-Cellar Act allowed Filipinos and Asian Indians to be naturalized as U.S. citizens. And in 1948, the Displaced Persons Act opened the door for hundreds of thousands of European adults, children, and orphans to immigrate to the United States.