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Hart-Cellar ActFrom Welcome to Chinatown NYCThe Hart-Cellar Act, also called the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, abolished the biased National Origins Formula which had been used until this point to determine the number of available visas to different countries. The National Origins Formula established quotas for different based on the number of immigrants who were already living here, so Western European immigration was favored over immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, as well as Asia.[1] However, the passing of the Hart-Cellar Act overturned this racist and biased immigration policy. A maximum of 300,000 visas was established for immigration with no more than 20,000 per country, while family reunification visas were unlimited. This overturned the Chinese Exclusion Act and allowed Chinese workers already in the US to bring over their families and extended families. Chinese immigrants who wanted to study here could also now come and go with less scrutiny.[2] Following the 1965 law, the Chinese population in Chinatown expanded exponentially in the 70s and 80s. The driving force behind this influx, according to Peter Kwong was that "professional Chinese getting a good degree graduate degree can't get a job here due to discrimination and [there are] plenty of good jobs in mainland China. But [starting] in the 60s and 70s, immigration law changed and China was fighting a war." Educated and wealthy Chinese came in droves with all their resources, increasing the capabilities of the Chinese community as a whole.[3]
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