No WWII; how long does U.S. immigration reform get delayed?

CaliGuy

Banned
In our TL, the U.S.'s immigration system--which favored immigration from Northern and Western Europe--got significantly changed in 1965 when the U.S. opened its doors to immigrants from Asia and other parts of the world.

Meanwhile, my question is this--without WWII (such as if Adolf Hitler gets killed in 1923), how much longer would the U.S.'s pro-Nordic immigration system (based on the Immigration Act of 1924) remain?

Any thoughts on this?
 
Ironically IOTL WWII (and, to a lesser extent the Korean War) was really the turning point in making white American society more tolerant of Asian Americans, paving the way for a rolling back of decades old racial restrictions. At the federal level, this took the form of both granting Hawaii statehood and doing away with immigration bans. Without changing attitudes towards Asians, I have a hard time imagining Americans being okay with repealing the bans they had fought so hard to pass.

Now, we don't exactly know why this shift in attitude occurred, and occurred so suddenly. It's something that's debated a lot in API historiography, and there's a lot of political baggage that comes with each explanation. But it's pretty clear that WWII was the tipping point, likely due to a number of factors associated with it, with Asian Americans going from African American-level poverty to being much closer to whites within the span of two decades due to relatively rapid end to some of the most discriminatory hiring practices. The same process seems to have occurred around the same time in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Race issues aside, I think without WWII the archaic immigration system was still bound to be restructured. Aside from the agriculture sector, the economy simply had no need for large amounts of unskilled workers. This doesn't necessarily mean that there will be a shift to attracting skilled workers like we saw IOTL, but I think the government will feel pressured to switch once it sees the dividends being reaped in other developed countries.
 
Top