Marinari, Maddalena

OUR SYNOPSIS: Maddalena Marinari chronicles Italian and Jewish resistance to restrictive immigration laws in the United States. She asserts: “Representing the two largest immigrant communities in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, Italian and Jewish reformers profoundly influenced the country’s immigration policy from 1882 to 1965 as they mobilized against immigration laws that marked them as undesirable.” (1) She also emphasizes “the changing rationales and strategies these activists used to make a case for less discriminatory immigration laws.” (3) Italian and Jewish reformers generally took distinctly different approaches to American immigration, with the former maintaining ties to their homeland and the latter cutting European ties and embracing naturalization. She deems “Appeals to American family values” the primary effective tool in the struggle against restriction. (6) Her analysis makes clear that activists carved out room for immigration even in eras of so-called restriction. Both Italian and Jewish Americans formed migrant advocacy organizations in the U.S. that assisted new arrivals while also mobilizing against restriction. However, “The greatest challenge for all antirestrictionist organizations, one that persists to this day, remained the difficulty of bringing all in the immigrant groups together.” (33) As support for restriction surged during World War I, opponents failed to agree on a united response. At the same time, they lost allies. Restrictionists triumphed with the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, then the Great Depression further entrenched their beliefs. After World War II, Cold War foreign policy considerations and civil rights solidarity boosted opposition to the quota system. Reformers then pieced together gains in the 1950s before finally ending the restrictionist 1924 era through the flawed but pivotal Hart-Celler Act of 1965. This 1965 system essentially remains today.