How the U.S. 'accidentally became a multicultural nation'

Tom Gjelten's new book is all about immigration, and, in a case of perfect timing, it hit shelves right when debates over the subject have reached a fever pitch.

Gjelten joined MPR News' Kerri Miller to talk about "A Nation of Nations," and how the recent opinions in the news sound like they could have been ripped from history books.

Gjelten began by sharing an email that landed in his inbox from the Ben Carson campaign, in which Carson argued for closing the doors to Syrian refugees.

"The refugees have no cultural connection to America," the email from Carson said. "They cannot speak English. They don't understand the constitution and Western culture is complete foreign to them."

"That, word for word almost, is what you have heard throughout American history, particularly in the early part of the 20th century, the last time we had a huge immigration influx," Gjelten said. "At that time, they're talking more about Italians and Slavs and people from Mediterranean countries ... This insecurity, this fear of people who are different or seem different, goes way, way back."

Gjelten's book touches on the ripple effects of the 1965 Immigration Act, which contributed to a demographic shift across the country.

Prior to the act, immigration to the U.S. was subject to national origin quotas. Only a certain number of people from each country were allowed, and those quotas were skewed. Northern and western European countries had as many as 40,000 visa slots available annually; countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia had as few as 100.

The 1965 Immigration Act eliminated the quotas. The original intent of the act was to grant entry to the U.S. based on people's relevant skills instead — what they could offer to the U.S.

At the last minute, Gjelten notes, the act was changed. Instead, preference was given to immigrants who already had relatives in the U.S.

"The idea of elevating family reunification as the main principle was that if we gave people who already had relatives here preference, we were more like to bring in people of the same ethnic backgrounds as those who were already here," Gjelten explained. It was a move by conservatives to create "a naturally-operating national original system."

It didn't work that way.

Gjelten ventures that if the authors of the act could have seen what happened, they might have changed the law.

"If they had known that 50 years later, 9 out of 10 immigrants to the U.S. would be coming from non-European countries, I'm not sure they would have written it the way they did," Gjelten said. "We accidentally became a multicultural nation."

By the time the act was authored, the urge to leave Europe for the U.S. had dissipated. European countries had bounced back from WWII, and were experiencing economic gains. In other areas of the world, however, that was not the case.

"All the pressures to migrate to the U.S. were from outside Europe. Politicians didn't recognize that once they opened the doors, that's where people would be coming from," Gjelten said.

"As it turned out, a lot came, and America has more or less proved capable of absorbing people from many different nationalities, many different ethnicities. I think it's a real testament to America's resilience."

Gjelten's book follows the experience of immigrants and their families from Korea, Libya and El Salvador as they settle in northern Virginia. Kirkus Reviews called it "a timely, well-informed entry into a national debate."

To hear the full interview with Tom Gjelten about immigration policy and the reality of immigrants in the U.S., use the audio player above.