alternatehistory.com

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 had huge implications for American politics and society. By tearing down the old quota system that had restricted much non-European immigration to the United States, allowing many from Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere to come to the country. This has directly resulted in America being a much more diverse country today than it was in the 1960s.

But what if the act had never been passed and the quotas never removed? Okay, it's probably unlikely that something like the act would never get passed, even if it happens in a more piecemeal fashion here, with multiple bits of legislation. Furthermore, in the spirit of the Cold War, presidents will still offer refugee status to those fleeing communism (Cubans, Vietnamese if the communists still win, etc). Still, if the desire for immigration liberalization loses just a little bit of momentum going into 1965, it is almost conceivable that relative Republican success in 1966 and a GOP presidential victory in 1968 could lead to much more watered down immigration reform (say, finagling with the allocation of quotas by region). Let's say then, for the purposes of this scenario, that the quotas are only completely abolished in the 1990s or 2000s.

My question is, how would American politics and culture over the last several decades be different without much of the mass influx of Latin American, Asian, and other immigrants that resulted from the act? What other countries could benefit from a more restrictive United States - would European and Commonwealth countries admit more?
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