In the essay “Immigrants and Family Values”, the author Francis Fukuyama argued that immigrants, are not a threat for American family values, but rather American culture can become a threat for “newcomers”. On the other hand, Fukuyama expressed that as long as first generation immigrants want to keep their culture and language intact in school that will keep them from really assimilating the new culture.
Before explaining why immigrants are not a threat for United States family values, Fukuyama introduced the opposing attitudes about immigrants being a threat for traditional American family values. In the first place, Fukuyama exposed the point of views of American conservatives who believed that immigrants who are not European descendants and Christians could be a threat for American traditional family values. American conservatives like Patrick Buchanan and Peter Brimelow think that what made America a successful country is that it was mostly composed for Europeans and Christian descendants that quickly assimilated “the American way”. However, the author rebutted that argument relying on the constitution of the United States. Fukuyama argued that the constitution never referred to a specific religion or ethnicity to identify an American citizen.
American conservatives and the author also opined that another factor that makes an immigrant stay in the United States a successful one is the assimilation process. American conservatives opined that immigrants from underdeveloped countries have unstable families that could make harder the assimilation process for the children are less likely to do economically well. However, Fukuyama explained that immigrants have strong family values and a greater level of ambition and adaptability...
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...n my American friends and me. For example, when I was in high school I noted how people used to say “I’m sorry” for every minimal or insignificant accidental touch in the hallways or the classrooms. At first, I was a little annoyed because I knew they did not do anything wrong. Over time, I realized that my American friends liked to keep their own space. After that realization, I knew I had to be careful with them because they could get offended if you “violated” their personal space. The point of interacting with the new culture made be able to get used to it faster and tolerate what according to my native culture knowledge is wrong or right and standardized what most Americans consider an inadequate behavior. I am aware that this “cold plunge into English” is not the most conformable method, but according to my experience is the fastest and the most effective way.
America is a land filled with immigrants coming from different corners of the worlds, all in hopes of finding a better life in the country. However, No one had an easy transition from his or her home country to this foreign land. Not every race thrived the same way—some were luckier than others, while some have faced enormous obstacles in settling down and being part of the American society. Many people have suffered
The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute to Social Services and Medicaid through taxes and they help provide the backbone of America, especially by working jobs that natives may have not even considered.
They highlight the diversity among immigrants and across social contexts as the reasons for this variability, another source of variability could be the outcome examined (Greenman and Xie, 2008). As pointed by Park and Burgess, assimilation is a process which takes time and effort. Assimilation may result either a quick or gradual change but it depends on the circumstances of the
Immigration from the Early 1990's still affects America today. The people who came to America from different countries brought their traditions, their families, and their culture. These three things stuck with them through thick and thin and are still thriving parts of what America is today. Many immigrants came with literally nothing in their pockets and had to work their way to success. The Immigrant Experience by Thomas Wheeler tells the story of nine different immigrants' trials and tribulations of coming and living in America. Each immigrant went through different experiences of becoming American but they also had their similarities. Four things that attributed to the assimilation of the immigrants are: language, money, religion, and ambition.
In the United States, the cliché of a nation of immigrants is often invoked. Indeed, very few Americans can trace their ancestry to what is now the United States, and the origins of its immigrants have changed many times in American history. Despite the identity of an immigrant nation, changes in the origins of immigrants have often been met with resistance. What began with white, western European settlers fleeing religious persecution morphed into a multicultural nation as immigrants from countries across the globe came to the U.S. in increasing numbers. Like the colonial immigrants before them, these new immigrants sailed to the Americas to gain freedom, flee poverty and famine, and make a better life for themselves. Forgetting their origins as persecuted and excluded people, the older and more established immigrants became possessive about their country and tried to exclude and persecute the immigrant groups from non-western European backgrounds arriving in the U.S. This hostile, defensive, and xenophobic reaction to influxes of “new” immigrants known as Nativism was not far out of the mainstream. Nativism became a part of the American cultural and political landscape and helped to shape, through exclusion, the face of the United States for years to come.
Immigrants are defined as people who permanently move to a forgiven country from their origin country. Immigrants can move for the purposes of seeking better living, better education, or in order to avoid any sort of issues in their origin country. Despite the reasoning behind the decision of the movement, an immigrant will be affected by the change of culture, way of life, social system and community. The process of the movement effects each individual differently depending on their, age, gender and their level of connection to their past culture. Having that said, the younger the age of the individual, the more venerable and easily they become to changing their way of life in order to feel a part of a community. Gender however is also related to the race of the person. To elaborate, females and black males are more open to the idea of changing any of their factors to adjust to their ‘new society’. An individual’s connection with their past culture, has a great impact on their personality and their standing and belief in their values, morals and culture. Therefore, the stronger and deeper the connection with their original culture and way of life, the more satisfied the individual becomes. Therefore, they don’t feel the urge to compete with another culture. Therefore, their current standing with their own culture has a strong impact on their future judgment on other culture. The weaker the connection the more prone they are to changing their current culture. Thus, an individual’s stability level towards their culture depends on other factors that are concerned with them. [Different age groups are faced with different situation that leads them to deal with different issues and therefore they are exposed to different kinds of expe...
The United States has often been referred to as a global “melting pot” due to its assimilation of diverse cultures, nationalities, and ethnicities. In today’s society, this metaphor may be an understatement. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of foreign born United States residents nearly doubled from 20 million to 40 million, increasing the U.S. population from almost 250 million to 350 million people. With U.S. born children and grandchildren of immigrants, immigration contributed to half of this population growth. These immigrants, consisting of mostly Asian and Hispanic backgrounds, have drastically changed the composition of the U.S. population. In 2010, Asians and Hispanics made up 20 percent of the U.S. population, in contrast to a 6 percent share of Asians and Hispanics in 1970. It is predicted that by 2050, the share of immigrants in the United States will increase to one half of the entire population. With this rapid increase in diversity, many citizens have opposing views on its impact on the United States. In my opinion, an increase in immigration does contain both positive and negatives effects, but in general it provides an overriding positive influence on America’s society (“Population”).
Immigration and assimilation is a divisive topic that has been heavily debated in America ever since we became a country. There are two stories that explore the assimilation issue from different viewpoints’; in Mary Pipher’s story; “The Beautiful Laughing Sisters – An Arrival Story”; provides the viewpoint of immigrants leaving a hostile home for America. Elizabeth Wong details her journey to break with her culture and become Americanized in, “The Struggle to be an all American girl.” and (McWhorter, 2010 pp522-529). At debate today is whether immigrants and their families should blend into American culture even if it means breaking with their past. Once cultures intermingle, they are forever changed.
However, an increase in the number of immigrants to the United States will actually increase the number of jobs provided for people who need them. This is explained through the idea that jobs are not divided up among people in the form of having a fixed number of jobs specifically balanced to fit the number of American workers. By analyzing the effect of immigrants on the economy over the past two-hundred years, we can see that as the number of immigrants increased, the bigger the economy got, which therefore created more jobs. Immigration reform will boost demand for goods and services, which in return, means more demand for labor and more jobs for American workers. Immigrants are ambitious because they have gone through many hardships and overcome many risks to reach life in the United States. This personality trait is so important to speed up the growth of the economy. Their ambition is also an explanation of why immigrant children are more successful in earning their college degree compared to children who are native-born Americans. Immigrant children are also more likely to have an income higher than the income of their parents. Immigration reform will make it easier for entrepreneurs to come here and start businesses, creating good jobs for American workers. Reform will make it easier for highly skilled immigrants and those educated in the U.S. colleges and universities to work right here in America, developing the new technologies and innovative processes that make our economy more productive and more competitive. A highly skilled workforce in a more productive economy increases the rate of return for businesses and companies who invest in the United States of America, which leads to more investment in the future and a dramatic increase in
One element that greatly affects an immigrant’s experience in a new country is how they are viewed and treated by the people of that country. In the article President Obama: “Immigrants and Refugees Revitalize and Renew America”, President Obama is giving a speech at a naturalization ceremony in Washington, DC. He is welcoming new citizens from many different countries. Immigration being a popular topic in America today, President Obama brought some good points about it to our attention. In the speech, President
Since the creation of the United States of America, the country has been a place that attracts immigrants from all around the world. As a result, The United States became a culturally and ethnically diverse country. This is due to the large-scale migration from many culturally, racially, and ethnically different countries throughout the history of the United States. The recent generations of culturally diverse immigrants see themselves assimilating to the American culture differently than the immigrants who came to the US two or three hundred years ago. The effect of assimilation caused some people to embrace the American identity, and detach from their original cultures. Assimilation caused some
Immigration has been a topic that has caused multiple discussions on why people migrate from one country to another, also how it affects both the migraters and the lands they go. Immigration is the movement from one location to another to live there permanently. This topic has been usually been associated with sociology to better explain how it affects people, cultures and societies. Sociology has three forms of thinking that are used to describe and analyze this topic. There are three forms of thinking that are used to tell and describe immigration to society; structural functionalist, symbolic interactionist, and conflict theory. Each of these theories uses different forms of thinking and rationality to describe and explain socio topics.
In America, it is a common misconception that all foreigners are similar; it is believed that they all have similar dreams and each of them end up chasing after the same jobs. However, this is not the case. Not only do immigrants from different countries hold different dreams, but those with a shared background even have varying hopes and dreams for the future. This is evidenced in Bharati Mukherjee’s essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America.” She utilizes several rhetorical strategies in order to show that immigrants have the ability to be assimilated into the American culture, but that they should not be deported if they choose not to conform to said culture.
"Immigrants and the American Dream." Society 33.n1 (Nov-Dec 1995):3(3). Expanded Academic ASAP. Thomson Gale University. 26 Sep. 2006.
...which has caused the changes in American culture in two centuries. It can be approached from many different views. Instead of America being a nation, we can redefine it as a multicultural society; or the lasting establishment of positive action for immigrants based on their race; or immigrant are seen as the big promoter of the America culture because they get into intermarriage relationship that expand their culture mix with American culture as the population increase. The Immigrant has been blamed of decline in educational and environmental standards in areas dominated by Hispanics. At the turn of the century a wave of new immigrants Jews and Italians were believed to be too different to assimilate into American cultural life. Today the same fears are raised about immigrants’ from Asia and Latin America, as their counterparts were in previous historical time.