Asian American Surgery: A Short History of Immigration, Naturalization, and Refugee Laws and Policies that Brought Asians to America.

The article focuses on the history of Asian American immigration, naturalization, and refugee laws and policies in the United States from the mid-19th century through the late 20th century. It details restrictive measures such as the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), the Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan (1908), the Asiatic Barred Zone Act (1917), and the Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act), which collectively limited Asian immigration and denied naturalization rights based on race. The article also describes the gradual dismantling of these exclusionary policies after World War II, including the extension of naturalization rights to Asians allied during the war, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act (Hart-Celler Act) that abolished national origin quotas favoring northern Europeans, and the 1980 Refugee Act, which established humanitarian criteria for asylum independent of country of origin. These legislative changes facilitated significant Asian immigration, reshaping American society and medicine.