Is the term ‘chain migration’ a racist term?

Chain migration is a term used by demographers since the 1960s to refer to the social process by which migrants from a particular town follow others from that town to a particular destination city or neighborhood. The destination may be in another country or in a new, usually urban, location within the same country.

Today on the news, some democratic leaders were quoted calling the term ‘chain migration’ a racist and a slur.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is quoted as saying President Donald Trump used racist rhetoric, which included the term “chain migration” that she called a “racist slur.”

Nancy Pelosi is quoted as saying “When someone uses the phrase chained migration, it is intentional in trying to demonize, literally trying to demonize families and make it a racist slur. It is not right. We have to change the debate. These are people. These are families.”

Personally I have heard this term used and did not think of the word ‘chain’ as inherently negative. I thought chain was just a descriptive word that implied the groups of people were linked by a common origin and by a common intended destination. As shown above, it is a term used since the 1960s so it was not Trump who made it up.

What do you all think? And, if you think it is racist, is there a better term to use to describe this type of immigration?