Openly race-based immigration selection persisted until the 1960s-70s

Evidence

The exceptions are countries which give preference to people considered to be returning to an ancestral homeland: “patrials” to Britain, “ethnic Germans” to Germany, Jews to Israel, and so forth. This situation contrasts with the quite recent past, in which race was seen as a legitimate criterion for selection of immigrants. The “White Australia policy” was not fully abolished until 1972, and other countries, such as Canada and the USA, had openly racist selection policies until the 1960s. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3814

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to migration history literature and to debates over ‘ancestral return’ policies as a residual form of racial preference.