Clash of Cultures & the Discovery of Gold      123456

Political Crises in the Cold War World

Overall, the reasons these groups came to the United States are as diverse as the groups themselves. But in the era of liberalization, from World War II through the enactment of immigration reform in 1965, many of those who came did so because of political crises in the Cold War world.

Instability and Change

When the communist People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, American-friendly followers of Chaing Kai-shek were left without a home. Many of these Mandarin-speaking Chinese moved to the island of Taiwan; others were allowed to immigrate to the United States.

Constant political instability in other parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America left some friends of the United States at home in enemy territory. An increasing number of these supporters of American policies were allowed to settle in the United States during this era.

The new beneficiaries of immigration liberalization did begin to make their mark in California, and in important ways. Exiles from the People’s Republic of China and immigrants from Taiwan, for example, settled outside the established west-coast Chinatowns in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Beginning in the 1960s, they moved to the suburban Los Angeles city of Monterey Park, creating the first suburban Chinatowns. When immigration reform was passed in 1965 and enacted in 1968, California had already begun to change in dramatic ways.