Capitalism and Immigration

In the last half of the 20th Century, late capitalism, the post-industrial state, emerged and

was characterized by the de-industrialization of the American economy. Capital invested itself

in high technology and society was restructured to create a highly educated, professional class

and an accompanying growth of a service class to serve this privileged section. A duality of

class emerged in the modern American scene: capitalism was in crisis and racism intensified,

labor union membership declined as First World industries moved into developing nations with

cheap labor, free trade policies favorable to this enterprise.


The world economy became globalized in the new de-industrialized age. The market

now was a worldwide phenomenon as developing countries became industrialized. Successful

industrial nationstates, like Japan and South Korea, emulated the United States by outsourcing its

heavy industry to underdeveloped countries. In these countries, restructuring created a highly

educated professional class that could migrate to the United States for high paying jobs.

This search for cheap labor source is characteristic of American capitalism. We see this

in the enslavement of Africans to work in the southern plantations economy, eastern Europeans

migrating to America to work in factories, and in the immigration of the Pacific Coast of Asians,

pulled in by the promise of high pay in industries that needed cheap labor -- whether in the

railroads or on the farm. Asians were preferred because the people did not know the language of

the West and could do hard and dangerous work.


Global imbalances in power also affected immigration. Immigration is not random; it has

patterns that are sensitive to super power conflict. For example, the Cold War, fought by

Western powers, especially the United States with its ideology of anti-Communism and

containment of this menace to capitalism and foreign policy, influenced migrations. The

Communist revolution in 1949 was a major blow to U.S. hegemony and the tiny island of

Taiwan was one of the bulwarks against the insidious spread of godless, totalitarian

Communism. The United States poured billions of dollars to westernize and industrialize its

economy. Taiwan became a major trading partner. Immigration law changed to accommodate

Taiwan's immigrants to the U.S. We could not afford to have any racial strains on its white

banners of freedom. Immigration now reflected the inclusiveness of American state policy the

West was in mortal conflict with the enemies of the free world.


Asian immigration was racialized and the United States has a long history of racial

exclusion. The United States has an obsession of cheap labor, whether in agriculture or modern

industry. Capitalism drives the farmers and the factory to achieve maximum profits in the

western expansion of the United States, fueled by the ideology of the highly racialized ideology

of manifest destiny, the Big Five in California imported Chinese men of working class status to

build the railroads connecting the east and the west. Money earned by hazardous labor was sent

to family back in China. These immigrants were not white Americans, migrating to California to

find permanent homes. This was a temporary sojourner population. But white Californians

came to see these Chinese men as the other, totally foreign, a menace worthy of genocide. These

workers were expelled in the 1882 Chinese Expulsion Act.


But the California economy, especially agriculture, still needed cheap labor and looked

again to Asia as a source. Japanese immigrated and then experienced expulsion. The

Philippines were an easily negotiated source of labor. America rescued that country from Spain

in 1595 in the Spanish American War. The Philippines were colonized and could provide

unskilled labor to the United States. But eventually they were seen in an unfavorable light and

the Davis-Tyding Bill granted independence to the Philippines and immigration ended.

The United States maintained its white identity in the early 20th Century despite this

immigration. This was a terrible time for minorities: African-Americans were subject to harsh

Jim Crow laws as the country maintained its cultural hegemony of racial superiority. This

changed with the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the advent of World War II. The

country had to shed its racial exclusion in the fight against the Nazis. The United States was

allied with China and could not afford to be seen as prejudiced. Chinese again migrated to the

United States and we have the emergence of the model minority: the driven to succeed Asian

American like David Kuo and his two brothers, all great at math and headed to Harvard and a

future life of money and privilege -- the American dream. This is the myth of Horatio Alger --

success by independent effort not state and not Affirmative Action and other programs helping

people out of poverty. The logical question to other minorities, beset by high rates of teenage

pregnancy, gang culture and high unemployment: Why can't you succeed in realizing the

American dream?


We have in these examples two populations of Chinese immigrants in two different

times. We see a big change in racial identity that is deeply, inherently connected to state policy.

The immigrants had not changed, the same genetic material in the two populations. State policy

changed to meet the demands of global, world wide events. Immigration can be seen as

historically specific. We let in immigrants based on shifting internal and national goals. Race

then in America is a social construct -- not a biological identity. International events like World

War II and the late 20th Century shift of capital, and the emergence of the global economy

directly affected migration. With a need for certain immigrants, unskilled workers or a

professional class, immigrants are preferred and selected out: a filtering system is created to keep

out undesirables and attract the preferred immigrants. This is a coded exchange, an unspoken

gentleman's agreement of the privileged white elite. Race is a component of immigration. We

are not an inclusive society -- even though almost all our citizens came eventually as immigrants,

symbolized by the Statue of Liberty.


Even the Immigration Act of 1965, passed by the liberal Democratic Legislature in a time

of the Civil Rights Movement when America was embarrassed by such racially exclusive

immigration quotas, had a filtering function. Although this Act that stated intention that "... no

person shall receive any preference or priority," the Bill prefers or selects the unmarried sons and

daughters of migrants. The young are more easily socialized than adults and adjust to their new

environment to be integrated, by American society. Further, in Section 3 of this Bill, which

purports to "repeal discriminating policies toward Asian immigration" Section 3 states that the

professional class or those skilled in the arts and sciences will be the preferred immigrants.

Surprisingly, Section 6 allows the migration of unskilled labor who, if the history of America has

set a pattern, will work for low pay and will facilitate the needs of the professional class.

With the Immigration Act of 1985 and a glance at the sad tale of Asian immigration in

the United States, the obsession capital has with unskilled labor who will consent to work for

low pay is evidence of preference. Immigration further is racialized in the selective process of

determining the American identity, excluding those who do not measure up. The United States

is still a segregated society dominated by the elite. This country maintains its ideological

hegemony as an integral and necessary brand of racism.