Fraternity-Testvériség, 1964 (42. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1964-09-01 / 9. szám

FRATERNITY

AN -*N- A A ^

OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED FEDERATION OF AMERICA Edited by the Officers of the Federation

Published monthly. — Subscription for non-members in the U. S. A. and Canada $2.00, elsewhere $3.00 a year.

Office of Publication: Expert Printing Co., 4627 Irvine St., Pittsburgh 7, Pa. Editorial Office: 3216 New Mexico Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20016

Volume XLII SEPTEMBER 1964 Number 9

A NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY

The United States will not have fully mounted its war against discrimination until it revises its unfair immigration law.

Immigration quotas are now assigned to each country on the basis of the national origin of this country’s population as of 1920. This system was designed quite deliberately to give preference to immigration from northern Europe. But immigration from this area is never large enough to fill the assigned quotas. Since the vacancies cannot be transferred, the real effect of the system is to cut down immigration far below the authorized total and to shut the doors to many people from less favored lands.

As Attorney General Kennedy told Congress recently, this system is a source of global embarrassment to the United States. Other nations — especially those whose citizens are discriminated against — reject and resent the implication that they belong to “lesser breeds”. Our rules keep out many scientists and others with special skills, talents and attainments this country needs. And they separate thousands of families of American citizens with close kin abroad.

This is, in short, a system that should be abolished, and President Johnson, like President Kennedy before him, is sponsoring a program to abolish it. There is no intention of raising the immigration total above the 165,000 a year now authorized — a small enough number for a nation approaching 200 million in population. And immigration from any one country would be limited to 10 per cent of the authorized total. But the national origin quotas would be abrogated gradually over a five-year period during which unfilled quota numbers would be redistributed to countries wanting and needing them.

The Congress should say yes before adjournment.

(The New York Times — Aug. 11, 1964)