The Displaced Persons Act
The Displaced Persons Act was a temporary law allowing the entry of 400,000 people who were displaced by World War II. This was the first time Congress articulated a federal refugee policy. The strong post-war economy in the US through the 1950s helped facilitate the entry of European displaced persons into American society.
At the end of World War II, there were an estimated 7-11 million displaced persons throughout Europe. In response, Congress passed and President Harry S. Truman signed the Displaced Persons Act which allowed over 400,000 of these wartime refugees to enter the US. President Truman had wanted a more extensive easing of immigration policy and more refugee visas, but Congress was not willing to go that far. In speaking to the public about the act, Truman called out the antisemitic and xenophobic sentiments embedded in it.
The prospective immigrants were required to have both a resident sponsor in the US as well as secure employment prior to their arrival. In addition, the employment could not be of a type that would displace an American citizen. This definition tended to alleviate concerns that America’s compassion for Europe’s displaced persons would place a burden on American tax-payers.
As the US assumed its role as a global superpower, dedicated in large part to the containment of communism, a more strategic basis for favoring refugee protection emerged. In welcoming and encouraging refugees from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, US foreign policy-makers saw the power and utility of evoking the nation’s history and mythology as a haven for freedom-loving people. This was the first time in American history that refugees became an important component of immigration.
