Abstract
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 represents a crucial shift in the history of American immigration. This reform set the basis of the modern immigration policy as we know it today, by implementing a new system based on two criteria, called "preferences". These are: family reunification and scarce work skills. The system created by this piece of legislation, ending the old race-based quota system, has had many consequences in the last 40 years. The Hart-Celler Act, however, still contained country quotas regarding the Eastern Hemisphere, and a global quota regarding the Western hemisphere, but did not limit the number of family reunification visas. The reform produced unexpected effects, among which was the arrival of a huge number of immigrants from Latin America and Asia (south East Asia in particular). As a matter of fact the law did not intend to attract immigrants from those continents who, on a long term, have definitely changed the ethnic and cultural composition of the American population, which used to be predominantly white in 1965.
