Immigration and Gender

[Page 925]Migration is a phenomenon that continues to shape and reshape the world. In the United States alone, there are close to 40 million immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers—a historic number that represents almost 13% of the population. Moreover, another 33 million individuals who were born in the United States have at least one immigrant parent, which constitutes an additional 11% of the population. Family reunification, economic needs, and humanitarian refuge are three driving forces that influence migration.

The United States has a long history of using gender, race, and sexual orientation as factors to determine who could and could not immigrate. For example, the Page Act of 1875 barred Asian women from immigrating to the United States. In 1965, with the Immigration and Naturalization Act, ...