Labor: Where Have All the Busboys Gone?

Though the U.S. is no longer a nation of immigrants, the continuing influx of foreigners—1,600,000 in the past five years—still plays a considerable part in shaping the country's social, intellectual and economic life. The nation's highly technical economy needs relatively few immigrant laborers; as rising unemployment indicates, there is not enough work for unskilled Americans. But with industry's chronic shortage of specialists, foreigners who have skills are in demand. The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, which tied quotas to the national and racial elements already in the U.S., arbitrarily barred great numbers of blacks, Orientals and Southern Europeans, no matter what...