bodia, and Laos were resettled in North America in
the early 1980’s. In 1980 alone, over 170,000 people
from these three countries entered the United States.
By 1990, the United States had received 149,700 ar-
rivals from Cambodia, 214,100 arrivals from Laos,
and 687,800 arrivals from Vietnam.
Cuban refugees had been coming to the United
States since the 1960’s. A first wave from Cuba had
left the island nation between 1959 and 1962, follow-
ing the revolution led by Fidel Castro. A second wave
followed from 1965 to 1974, when the Cuban and
American governments agreed to arrange flights be-
tween the two countries for Cubans who wished to
leave. The Cuban refugee flow slowed substantially
after the halting of the flights. In 1980, though, the
Cuban government faced internal unrest. This un-
rest led to a third wave of Cuban refugees. Hoping to
ease public unrest on the island, the Cuban govern-
ment decided to open the port city of Mariel for un-
restricted emigration. Vessels from Mariel brought
more than 125,000 refugees from Cuba to the United
States over a six-month period.
The Mariel boatlift became highly controversial,
because the Cuban government placed some con-
victed felons and inmates of mental institutions on
the boats. Some of the Marielitos, as members of this
third wave came to be known, became involved in
criminal activities in their new country. Although
U.S. immigration officials determined that only
about twenty-five hundred individuals were legally
excludable because of criminal activities or other un-
desirable characteristics, many Americans believed
that the Cuban government had used the boatlift to
dump their socially unacceptable citizens on U.S.
shores.
Refugees from the Soviet Union also made up a
part of the refugee movement to the United States be-
ginning in the 1970’s and continuing into the 1980’s.
Over 100,000 refugees came to the United States
from the Soviet Union between 1970 and 1988. Most
of these refugees were Soviet Jews, but they also in-
cluded members of Christian religious groups and
ethnic minorities.Undocumented Immigration The 1980’s saw in-
creasing concern over undocumented immigration,
also called illegal immigration. Numbers of immi-
grants entering the United States illegally showed an
apparent sharp increase, rising from an estimated
130,000 undocumented immigrants each year dur-
ing the 1970’s to an estimated 300,000 per year
in the 1980’s. Mexico, the largest source of legal mi-
gration to the United States, was
also the largest source of undocu-
mented migration. This was due
both to economic problems in
Mexico and to the demand for
Mexican workers in the United
States. Over 70 percent of Mex-
ico’s export revenues came from
oil at the beginning of the 1980’s.
As the price of oil declined begin-
ning around 1982, Mexico had
less revenue coming in, and the
poverty of its citizens increased.
At the same time, American com-
panies began hiring Mexican im-
migrants for relatively low wages
to work in the poultry industry,
for carpet manufacturers, and at
other labor-intensive jobs.
Concern over undocumented
immigration led to the Immigra-
tion Reform and Control Act
(IRCA) of 1986. This act created
fines for employers who hired ille-506 Immigration to the United States The Eighties in America
During the Mariel boatlift, a tugboat laden with Cuban refugees sails toward Key West,
Florida, on May 6, 1980.(AP/Wide World Photos)