So there were no American immigrant success stories pre-1990, when the H-1 program started?

The H-1 program started as a "correction" to the tightening of immigration rules as a whole over time.

Consider that, in 1905, my great-grandfather got on a boat in Italy, sailed across the Atlantic, arrived in New York, went through a very simple immigration process on-site, and at that point was legal to live and work in the US for as long as he wanted. He eventually naturalized as a US citizen in 1920, only needing to prove his residency and present the record of his legal entrance 15 years prior.

We're a long way from that state of affairs now. The H-1 program was developed because we weren't getting enough of an influx of skilled work due to the reduction in immigration caused by new, more-restrictive immigration laws enacted over the prior decades.

	▲	tho2i3423o42342 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, but race was also very very central then, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1907_Bellingham_race_riot (and even with that regime, Italians/Irish/Catholics etc. were discriminated LOL). Today, US is forced to comply with anti-racial position so it can't quite do what it really wants - to open the doors to white-immigrants but to restrict it to everyone else. This happens in the background with the way the green-card process is structured, but frankly, I think everyone is well-served if we stop this farce and just have racial quotas. US empire is failing, so there's no need to keep up such pretences today. There's quite a bit of research on how anti-racism was a strategy adopted by the US/West after WW2 to prevent the then freed countries (starting with India ironically) from seeking revenge for the centuries of total devastation and mass violence imposed on them.

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tzs 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't think their statement implies that. Note that they said it will be the end of the American success story, not the end of the American immigrant success story.

The nature of the American success story changes over time and with that the nature of immigrant success also changes.

In the last decade or so tech, especially information tech, has been one of the biggest contributors to growth in the US economy, and first generation immigrants have been a big contributor to that. For example, first generation immigrants have founded many of the tech unicorns (although I think he overstated it a little--my searching suggests it is closed to 40-50% rather than a majority).

In earlier decades the biggest contributors at various times included manufacturing, farm technology, defense, the Gulf Coast petroleum industry, and construction.

There were certainly immigrants involved in all those but not nearly to the extent that they are in present day tech, especially at the top.

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throwawayq3423 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

No, there was no immigration process back then, you just came.

Which is why all the people yelling about immigration today, who are second and third generation, need to be quiet.

	▲	bamboozled 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I can see you’re downvoted , but I think you’re right. It was much more liberal time.