Introduction | xxi be implemented. Employers were designated as responsible for checking employee documents, but this presented problems. Immigration and other documents such as Social Security cards could be forged, and employers were not always interested in, nor were they mandated to make sure that, the papers were legitimate. Furthermore, rather than checking documents, employers might simply refuse to hire Hispanics so as to avoid any investigation that would lead to penalties (Reimers 1992). The success or failure of the IRCA rested more on the state of the economy and society than on other issues in both Mexico/Central America and the United States. If jobs were available in the United States and employers needed workers, no law would stop the flow from the south. The undocumented kept arriving even after the border patrol was strengthened and the journey led to some immigrant deaths (Reimers 1992). It should be noted as well that Hispanics were not the only ones to enter the country illegally. Europeans such as the Irish also showed up at the border, and due to the same economic push-pull factors (Daniels 1990). This Act also began a lottery to help nations that the 1965 Immigration Act had negatively affected. Generally this applied to countries such as Ireland, whose im- migration numbers had decreased. With the lottery, they could enter without regard to any preference category (Daniels 2004). IRCA was generally a failure, since it stopped neither the border crossings nor the hiring of undocumented employees. While many legal and illegal immigrants were adjusting well, acculturating to American society, and adding to the U.S. economy and society, the American public was not satisfied on a number of points. Anger existed in regard to the governmentÊs failure to control U.S. borders, the growing Hispanic influence on American culture and language, and continued im- migrant ties to the old country. Nativist concerns of earlier years reappeared in the form of fears of the new Americans out-breeding and overwhelming the traditional Americans of European ancestry, and fears of the quickly increasing foreign-born in such regions as the American South, which had not been significant immigrant receiving areas previously (Barkan 1996). While it is very clear that Cubans revital- ized Miami and South Florida and Koreans emerged to provide merchant services in depressed minority neighborhoods that virtually saved the economic life of these areas, ethnic conflict emerged as a by-product of the new immigrant waves (Re- imers 1992). As always, new immigrants and older groups fought over resources: schools, neighborhoods, government aid, politics, and jobs. Korean grocers and the surrounding black population did not always get along, nor did Hispanics and blacks who fought over political power and neighborhood control (Foner 2000). Controversies regarding racial identity also reappeared. Many African, Caribbean, and Hispanic newcomers were surprised at the level of racial discrimination and consciousness still evident in the United States For those who had come from all- black nations or from areas that were biracial, the intensity of white American at- titudes toward skin color was astonishing (Foner 2000). This issue was readily
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