Immigration policies were designed to benefit the ruling class from "summary" of A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Throughout American history, the ruling class has maintained its power and privilege through the manipulation of immigration policies. By controlling who is allowed to enter the country and under what conditions, the ruling class has been able to ensure a steady supply of cheap labor to exploit for their own benefit. From the very beginning, immigration policies were designed to serve the interests of the ruling elite. The Naturalization Act of 1790, for example, restricted citizenship to "free white persons" - excluding not only enslaved Africans and indigenous peoples, but also immigrants from other racial and ethnic backgrounds. This exclusionary policy served to reinforce the power of the ruling class by maintaining a racial hierarchy that privileged white Europeans over other groups. As the United States expanded and industrialized, immigration policies continued to be shaped by the needs of the ruling class. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, for instance, was passed in response to growing anti-Chinese sentiment among white workers who feared competition for jobs. Rather than challenge the economic system that pitted workers against each other, the ruling class chose to scapegoat Chinese imm...
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