At the Nexus of Refugee and Labour Migration: US Refugee Policy Formulation after the Second World War

Abstract

After the Second World War, liberal reformers in the US Congress pushed refugee legislation and included refugee provisions in their immigration reform bills. Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were among those who urged Congress to enact refugee legislation. Without a statutory pathway for persons entering as refugees or asylees to become lawful permanent residents (lprs), refugee admissions were reactive. Some presidents would draw on other executive authorities to bring refugees into the United States, relying on Congress to subsequently enact laws providing lpr status. In other instances, Congress would enact refugee legislation aimed at specific populations and limited numbers. As a result, refugee policy was handled in a piecemeal and incremental fashion during this period. It is within this context that this article explores the nexus of refugee and labour migration policies and the role the nativist right-wing political leaders played in shaping US policy in this period.

More than a Wall: The Rise and Fall of US Asylum and Refugee Policy

“…While Senator Joseph McCarthy earned the most notoriety in the anticommunist “Red Scare” period, Senators McCarran and Bridges were arguably much more effective in achieving the right-wing agenda in the 1950s. During the Senate debate, anticommunism comingled with opposition to displaced persons when Jewish refugees were labeled communists and spies (Loescher and Scanlon 1986, 13–14; Wasem forthcoming).…”

“…As educated elites who were freedom fighters against communism, Hungarians marked a turning point in being refugees whom the nativist right would support admitting. Congress passed only piecemeal refugee legislation during the next few decades, most notably the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 and the Refugee-Escape Act of 1957 (Wasem forthcoming).…”