gration and Naturalization Service (INS) that they
had been living continuously in the United States
since 1982. Second, it imposed financial and legal
penalties, known as employer sanctions, on employ-
ers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants. This
measure was designed to reduce the demand for ille-
gal labor, which was cheaper than legal labor. To ac-
complish this goal, the act resulted in the creation of
the I-9 form, a document attesting to one’s legal em-
ployability in the United States, which all potential
employees in the nation were required to file.
One of the goals of the IRCA was to increase the
number of independent immigrants—those with
no family connections—in the United States. Previ-
ously, potential immigrants with siblings already re-
siding in the United States were given preference in
obtaining visas to enter the country. The IRCA elimi-
nated this “sister-brother” preference. The IRCA
was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on
November 6, 1986.
Impact The Immigration Reform and Control Act
of 1986 sought to curb a trend toward the exploita-
tion of illegal labor in the United States. This trend
had created an underground market for cheap la-
bor that affected the “legitimate” labor market and
caused a great many people, both Mexican and of
other nationalities, to enter the United States ille-
gally. The pattern continued after the act’s passage,
so it did not seem to accomplish its goal. However, as
a result of the act, more than 2 million immigrants
were removed from the underground labor market
by being made legal residents of the United States.
Further Reading
Hufbauer, Gary Clyde, and Jeffrey J. Schott. “The
Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.”
InNAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges.
Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Eco-
nomics, 2005.
Magaña, Lisa.Straddling the Border: Immigration Policy
and the INS.Austin: University of Texas Press,
2003.
Zolberg, Artistide R. “Reforming the Back Door:
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of
1986 in Historical Perspective.” InImmigration Re-
considered: Histor y, Sociology, and Politics.New York:
Oxford University Press, 1990.
Alison Stankrauff
See also Business and the economy in the United
States; Conservatism in U.S. politics; Demographics
of the United States; Immigration to the United
States; Latin America; Latinos; Mexico and the
United States; Reagan, Ronald; Unemployment in
the United States.Immigration to Canada
Definition Arrival and settlement of people fromLiterature in Canada
Following the adoption of a new immigration law, Cana-
dian immigrants became more diverse in ethnic and racial
origins. Asians, in particular, made up a larger portion of
the immigrants admitted to Canada in the 1980’s.At the end of the 1970’s, Canada liberalized its immi-
gration law with the Immigration Act of 1976. This
law prohibited discrimination against immigrants
on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, reli-
gion, or sex. It described immigration as a positive
means of achieving national goals, and it established
a separate class for refugees. The number of Cana-
dian immigrants did not begin to increase immedi-
ately following the adoption of the new law. Only
in the late 1980’s did such an increase occur. Be-
tween 1981 and 1986, about 678,000 people immi-
grated to the country; between 1986 and 1991, about
1,164,000 people immigrated. However, the aboli-
tion of discrimination contributed to the beginning
of an increase in the national and ethnic diversity of
immigrants, and it led to an especially rapid rise in
immigrants from Asia. Between 1981 and 1990, total
Asian migration to Canada rose to 443,545—up
from 311,270 between 1971 and 1980 and from
90,065 between 1961 and 1970. These Asian immi-
grants of the 1980’s came from several different
countries, but the top three were Hong Kong, India,
and Vietnam.Immigration from Hong Kong and India Long a cen-
ter of trade and manufacturing, Hong Kong emerged
during the 1970’s as a major world center of finance
and banking. At the same time, though, many peo-
ple in Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world began
to question how long the island would remain under
British control and when it would be returned to
China. During the early 1980’s, as the end of a
ninety-nine-year lease from China to the UnitedThe Eighties in America Immigration to Canada 503