In American history, there is a repetitive trend of either fearing and neglecting immigrants, or welcoming those needed for inexpensive labor. The rise of violence and hatred against immigrants began in 1798, once President John Adams signed the four Alien and Sedition Acts into law, which was motivated by the Federalists fear of incoming French after the French Revolution. Although this small, rational fear originally derived from competition for work, the fear of immigrants soon escalated into the involvement of racial and religious factors which frightened American citizens during this time. While during the 1850s Chinese immigrants were needed for their hard work and cheap labor, they were soon after banned from working in the United States …show more content…
Immigration has been an inherent, beneficial part of American culture since the Puritans docked on American soil. The cultural composition of America has constantly changed over the last few centuries due to immigration, allowing the United States to be coined as the “Melting Pot” by Israel Zangwill. The inscription on the Statue of Liberty, one of the most renowned symbols of the United States, shows America’s acceptance of the “tired… poor… wretched refuse [and] the homeless”. America is supposed to be a haven for refugees of other countries, which brings a whole new culture and skill set to stir into the Melting Pot. Immigrants will often accept “unwanted jobs” or jobs that do not fit the traditional American’s skill set. Between 2000 and 2007, immigrants accounted for over one sixth of the size increase in the total civilian labor force. Although America was built on the value of accepting everyone, no matter their race, religion, ethnicity, or culture, policies have failed to reflect this ideal. Legislation, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Quota Act of 1924, and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, has been passed throughout American history barring anyone who falls short of “perfect”. “Perfect” referring to skilled, white, wealthy people. Citizens fear the economic effects of immigrants on society. Many immigrants enter illegally in search of better economic …show more content…
It is imperative that change is enacted: strengthening security around borders and easing the process of citizenship will not only benefit American citizens but also undocumented immigrants. Increasing security around the border will ensure that the cycle of illegal immigration will halt. Currently, obtaining U.S. citizenship is a lengthy process that can take multiple years-even decades. The unlikeliness of obtaining U.S. citizenship in countries with low socioeconomic statuses results in the citizens of these nations to resort to illegal immigration in order to provide for their family and fulfil their ‘American Dream’. A more accessible path to amnesty would generate about 12 billion USD and competition in labor markets. Due to increased competition or demand, minimum wages would increase while returning jobs to US citizens. Currently, deportation or incarceration is used to solve the problem of illegal immigration, however neither is a viable solution the national epidemic. At recent rates, it would take nearly seventy years to deport all of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants, with expenses partially covered by taxpayer money. The U.S. economy is very temperamental, thus deportation would be
Throughout history, Americans have always been intimidated by immigrants. The idea of an immigrant coming to America and easily being able to get a job scared Americans. Americans feared that good jobs would be taken from hard working Americans and given to immigrants for less pay because they required less money to live on or were used to no wages or lower wages in their Country of origin. People would immigrate to America in search of a better life, and often times they could find homes and jobs that made them want to stay. A melting pot is described as being a mixing of different cultures into one universal culture. In Erika Lee’s, The Chinese Exclusion Example, immigrant exclusion helped re-define the melting-pot
The United States has been known as the “Melting Pot ”and “The Land of Opportunity” for decades, but the title is slowly diminishing as scrutiny has been bombarding immigrants for wanting a better life. As questions arise of what is needed to protect the borders from possible terrorist other factors come into play such as what immigrants have to contribute to the country. Immigration is actually vital to our country since it provides the government more income, it brings the country a positive image, and DACA helps the community come together.
The United States was formed by the immigration of many people from all over the world. Americans take pride in knowing that we are a people of vast ethnic backgrounds and culture. However, at the present time, the flow of illegal immigration, as well as a large influx of other legal immigrants is placing a strain on our land of "huddled masses." Legal immigration to the United States can easily be handled and is welcomed by most Americans. However, the flow of illegal immigrants, especially from Mexico, must be stemmed, due to the strain it is placing on the government, (at the local, state and federal level), as well as the general population. Illegal immigrants are costing the United States over 24 billion dollars a year in taxpayers money (National Review 12.13.93). Something must be done to reduce the flow of illegal immigration into the United States. The focus of this paper will be the problems caused by and possible solutions to the problem of illegal immigration.
Discrimination of Immigrants in 1920's America Beginning in the early nineteenth century there were massive waves of immigration. These "new" immigants were largely from Italy, Russia, and Ireland. There was a mixed reaction to these incomming foreigners. While they provided industries with a cheap source of labor, Americans were both afraid of, and hostile towards these new groups.
...nese immigrants that came to America in the mid 1800’s came for the same reasons as every immigrant group, dire situations in their native lands and the opportunities for economic prosperity. Having escaped their misfortunate pasts, the Chinese immigrants took the opportunities afforded to them in the gold mining fields and on the railroad tracks. Providing a much needed labor force to America at the time, the Chinese would never get their just credit. Instead they would be discriminated more in the years to come. Acts such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 would greatly reduce the number of Chinese immigrants allowed to come into the country ("The Chinese," n.d.). Coupled with measures put in place by the state of California such as the “Anti-Coolie Act of 1862”, the Chinese immigrants faced humiliation after contributing so much to the United States of America.
As America continued to recruit workers from other countries, they continually worried about an immigration problem. In 1924, the Federal government passed the Immigration Act which officially barred further immigration from Asia and Europe to the U.S.
As reported by Senator Charles E. Schumer, an author from Upfront Magazine has expressed “...our immigration laws… force our government to expend precious resources to deport millions.” Though others may claim that keeping illegal immigrants will be just as expensive since it will cost the taxpayers money, considering that the taxpayers are the ones who pay for the governmental services, nevertheless, this argument is insignificant. Deportation expenses are just as much, or higher than the expenses taxed upon the people. Furthermore, if we were to provide a “path to citizenship”, it will result in immigrants being taxed, causing costs to decrease. Thus, we should offer illegal immigrants a “path to
As more and more people traveled from Europe and Asia to America, anti-immigrant hate grew as well. The United States was in the middle of an economic depression, and immigrants were blamed for taking jobs away from the Americans. Racist articles were springing up in the press, making these theories that the immigrants were childish and criminal more and more popular (Wikepedia.com, 2007).
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”).
Immigrants have been a vital part of the U.S. ever since the day the country was founded. But perspectives on immigrants have varied through time and one of the most popular ways of presenting them was through political cartoons. From the 1860s-1910s one of the biggest issues the U.S. was facing was how to properly regulate the flow of immigrants into the country. We also see this tying of Americanness and whiteness, where even certain Europeans weren’t considered full American even though they were white. White Americans wanted more white seeming migrants which would help further establish the American identity as white. The political cartoons show the shifting perspective placed on immigrants, from a universal fear of them, to a more divided
Historical Background: Colonial America and The United States that followed were created by repeated waves of immigration. Those immigrants came from every part of the globe, but particularly from England, France, Germany, and Western Europe. The descendants of this first wave of immigrants would view later immigrants from Italy, Poland, and Russia with a great deal of suspicion and uncertainty. This is not surprising as our country’s uncertainty about immigrants is reflected in our policies. For instance, there were no numerical restrictions or central regulation on immigration until one hundred years after our nation’s founding. When they were finally introduced they were created with bias against would be immigrants from certain countries. Among the first on that list were Chinese laborers followed by immigrants from the Asian Pacific (Ewing, 2012). These restrictions were first adopted in 1921, and were in favor of European immigrants. They would later be followed by national quotas that placed restrictions on immigrants based on existing proportions of the population. A shortage in laborers brought on by World War II would result in lifting those restrictions. This eventually led to a growth in immigration and a change in the origin of those arriving from Europe to Latin America and Asia. As the number immigrants from these countries began to grow, so did the concern about the number of them who were illegal (Ewing, 2012). Resulting policies issued to address those concerns would arguably lead to a resurgence of the problem that they were intended to correct.
America is sometimes referred to as a "nation of immigrants" because of our largely open-door policy toward accepting foreigners pursuing their vision of the American Dream. Recently, there has been a clamor by some politicians and citizens toward creating a predominantly closed-door policy on immigration, arguing that immigrants "threaten" American life by creating unemployment by taking jobs from American workers, using much-needed social services, and encroaching on the "American way of life." While these arguments may seem valid to many, they are almost overwhelmingly false, and more than likely confused with the subject of illegal immigration. In fact, immigrants actually enhance American life by creating, not taking jobs, bolster social service funds through tax payments, and bring valuable technical knowledge and skills to our country. If we are to continue to excel as a nation, the traditionalists who fear an encroachment of foreign-born Americans must learn to accept that we achieved our greatness as a result of being "a nation of immigrants."
Since the creation of the United States of America, immigrants from all backgrounds have sought refuge, a home and a life in this country of prosperity and opportunity. The opportunity of freedom to exercise natural rights is a large pull factor that causes many people to come to America. Others come because it is a country where one can prosper. Prosperity of people in a country, however, is a more challenging phenomenon to explain than opportunity. Immigrants seek economic, social and educational as well as cultural prosperity. The question of how to gain such prosperity is a difficult one to answer. Some immigrants come to America, cast off their past identity and attempt to find a new, less foreign one. By assimilating to American culture with this new identity, they start a long and treacherous journey to seek prosperity in a land vastly different from the one they once called home. Many will gain educational, economic and social prosperity, but never gain cultural prosperity. Assimilating to American culture so hastily, some immigrants are never able to explore and keep up with their cultural backgrounds. Their families grow up and became Americans, never cognizant of their given up ethnic identities. Those immigrants, however, who are able to gain cultural prosperity through the help of other immigrants of their respective background, become integrated into American society while keeping their ethnic identity. This is the sort of opportunity that the United States of America has provided new arrivals since its founding. Although many immigrants become overwhelmed with American culture and assimilate into it, those who contribute to a working ethnic society are able to dela...
Millions of immigrants over the previous centuries have shaped the United States of America into what it is today. America is known as a “melting pot”, a multicultural country that welcomes and is home to an array of every ethnic and cultural background imaginable. We are a place of opportunity, offering homes and jobs and new economic gains to anyone who should want it. However, America was not always such a “come one, come all” kind of country. The large numbers of immigrants that came during the nineteenth century angered many of the American natives and lead to them to blame the lack of jobs and low wages on the immigrants, especially the Asian communities. This resentment lead to the discrimination and legal exclusion of immigrants, with the first and most important law passed being the Chinese Exclusion Act. However, the discrimination the Chinese immigrants so harshly received was not rightly justified or deserved. With all of their contributions and accomplishments in opening up the West, they were not so much harming our country but rather helping it.
Most of the people who enjoy these benefits on the United States are its immigrants. America has always been known as a “melting pot” of different cultures, races, and languages; but today many Americans have decried th...