HC Deb 11 February 1957 vol 564 cc126-7W
Mr. John Hall

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if, in view of impending revision of the McCarran Act governing immigration into the United States of America, he will now make representations to the United States Government requesting them to assign holders of United Kingdom passports to the immigrant quota for this country and not the country in which the intending immigrant and either of his parents was born.

Mr. Ian Harvey

The changes proposed by President Eisenhower in his message on immigration of 31st January do not include any departure from the principle of registering applicants for immigration visas according to their country of birth, upon which the quota system of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act, 1952, is based. My right hon. and learned Friend sees no prospect of any change being made in this principle as a result of representations to the United States Government along the lines suggested.