Hungarian Refugee Policy, 1956–1957
The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 28 (2017) Copyright © 2017 Akiyo Yamamoto. All rights reserved. This work may be used, with this notice included, for noncommercial purposes. No copies of this work may be distributed, electronically or otherwise, in whole or in part, without permission from the author. US Hungarian Refugee Policy, 1956–1957 Akiyo YAMAMOTO* INTRODUCTION The United States did not politically intervene during the Hungarian revolution that began on October 23, 1956,1 but it swiftly accepted more Hungarian refugees than any other country.2 The fi rst airplane, which carried sixty refugees, arrived at McGuire Air Force Base located in Burlington County, New Jersey, on November 21, 1956, only seventeen days after the capital was occupied by Soviet forces, and were welcomed by the Secretary of the Army and other dignitaries.3 A special refugee program, created to help meet the emergency, brought 21,500 refugees to the United States in a period of weeks. By May 1, 1957, 32,075 refugees had reached US shores. The United States ultimately accepted approximately 38,000 Hungarian refugees within a year following the revolution.4 The acceptance of Hungarian refugees took place within the framework of existing immigration laws, along with the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. The State Department’s Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs developed this program to bring Hungarians to the United States.5 The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, known as the McCarran-Walter Act, permitted entry by a quota system based on nationalities and regions, and only 865 people from Hungary could be accepted each year.
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