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The Silent Embargo: Russian Immigration to the United States and its Effects on Foreign Policy

Zvi Gitelman, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Will Englund, Associate Editor, Baltimore Sun; Alec Brook-Krasny, Executive Director, Council of Jewish Emigre Community Organizations, New York; Edward Goldberg, President, Annisa Group, New York

Date & Time

Tuesday
May. 17, 2005
3:30pm – 5:30pm ET

Overview

At a recent Kennan Institute talk, Zvi Gitelman, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Will Englund, Associate Editor, Baltimore Sun; Alec Brook-Krasny, Executive Director, Council of Jewish Émigré Community Organizations, New York; and Edward Goldberg, President, Annisa Group, New York, discussed the history of Russian immigration to the United States and how immigrants and questions of immigration have influenced U.S. policy.

Goldberg began by quoting Theodore Roosevelt as saying that hyphenated Americans—Irish-Americans, German-Americans etc. have a major influence on U.S. foreign policy. Until recently there has been no Russian-American constituency to politically support Russia and create a Russian cultural identity within American society, despite the fact that 3.5 million people have come from Russia to the U.S. No U.S. presidential candidate ever needed to worry about loosing a big state because he did not support warmer relations with Russia, Goldberg argued. In many cases, Russian immigration helped to foster fear and misunderstanding between the United States and Russia.

Gitelman discussed Jewish emigration from Russia in the early years of the 20th century and its effects on U.S.-Russian relations. He argued that a 1903 pogrom in Kishinev, which was covered extensively in the international media, was a pivotal moment in U.S.-Russian relations. The pogrom spurred further Jewish emigration from the Russian Empire to the U.S., initiated one of the first major mobilizations of the international Jewish community, and damaged Russia's international reputation. Russia's damaged reputation, Gitelman argued, contributed to its defeat in the Russo-Japanese war two years later, because American and European financial institutions sympathetic to the Jewish cause prevented Russia from securing much-needed war loans. He contended that immigration became a barometer of U.S.-Soviet and U.S.-Russian relations in the second half of the 20th century, with migration increasing when relations between the two states are good.

According to Goldberg, the Russian Jews and other immigrants coming to the United States in the early 20th century became a contentious issue in American politics. By the end of the First World War, he argued, many Americans were concerned that worker unrest and radical ideology were being exported from Europe to the United States through immigration. Although all immigrants were suspect, those from Russia were particularly feared because they were seen as the bearers of Communism. Goldberg contended that most immigrants from Russia were not ethnic Russians and had no love of either Russia or Communism, but they were nonetheless considered a threat by many Americans and were persecuted in the Red Scare of the 1920s. Throughout this period, Russian immigrants did not appear to have had significant influence on U.S. foreign policy.

Emigration from the Soviet Union became an important issue in U.S.-Soviet relations in the 1970s, according to Englund. During the so-called "let my people go" era, he explained, the Jewish community in the U.S., with the support of both anti-Communist conservatives and liberals concerned about human rights, tried to pressure the Soviet Union to allow free emigration to its Jewish citizens. In 1974 the U.S. Congress passed the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which stipulated that states with non-market economies that restricted emigration would not be granted most-favored-nation trading status. This was one of the first instances of human rights issues being directly tied to U.S. foreign policy, Englund contended, and the results of the amendment were mixed. Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union decreased substantially immediately following the passage of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, but increased again in subsequent years. The amendment was an irritant in U.S.-Soviet relations, he argued, and it remains an irritant in U.S.-Russian relations. Englund concluded that the Jackson-Vanik amendment is an example of idealism overdone in foreign policy.

Brook-Krasny explained that after a century of Jewish emigration from Russia and the Soviet Union, the Russian community in the United States today is approximately 70 percent Jewish. However, he noted that very little research has been done on this community, so it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about it. Immigrants who came to the U.S. in the 1970s and early 1980s, Brook-Krasny argued, tended to be very strongly anti-Soviet and to support the Republican party in the U.S. because of their hard line against Communism. These immigrants had little sense of community and no desire for community involvement or activism. Immigrants who arrived after 1988, he contended, have a different mentality and tend to support the Democratic party in the U.S. Brook-Krasny argued that Russian-Americans are beginning to come together as an ethnic and political community. So far, they have not played much of a role in U.S. politics, but he believes that this will change within the next decade.

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Kennan Institute

The Kennan Institute is the premier US center for advanced research on Russia and Eurasia and the oldest and largest regional program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Kennan Institute is committed to improving American understanding of Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the surrounding region though research and exchange.  Read more

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