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The American dream and immigrants
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The American dream and immigrants
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Recommended: The American dream and immigrants
America has really always been a nation of immigrants and it remains so today. But are immigrants changing the nature of the American identity, or is it being changed by basic values of America. Such as the desire for economic advancement, the love of freedom, or the promise of the American Dream? All citizens share common aspirations and values, even as they celebrate and honor their special racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious heritages. In the first paragraph of J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, "What Then, is the American?" It says "in the era of the revolution, many foreigners celebrated the united states as not only an independent nation, but a new society in which individuals could enjoy opportunities unknown in the old world and
The grand narrative history of the United States falsely believes that we are a nation of immigrants. If one reads between the lines and digs deep...
In the eyes of the early American colonists and the founders of the Constitution, the United States was to represent the ideals of acceptance and tolerance to those of all walks of life. When the immigration rush began in the mid-1800's, America proved to be everything but that. The millions of immigrants would soon realize the meaning of hardship and rejection as newcomers, as they attempted to assimilate into American culture. For countless immigrants, the struggle to arrive in America was rivaled only by the struggle to gain acceptance among the existing American population.
Folklores are stories that have been through many time periods. Folklore include Legends, Myths, and Fairy Tales. Legends are traditional tales handed down from earlier times and believed to have a historical basis. Myths are ancient stories dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes. Fairy Tales are fantasy tales with legendary being and creators.
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.
As we all know that USA is a country build by immigrants from all over the world, particularly from Europe and South America.
Immigration has always, and will always, be an essential part of America’s demographic and cultural diversity. Our country was founded on the immigration of Europeans to the New World. Without them our nation would not be as advanced as it is today. Over the past three centuries, America’s immigration policies have evolved, both positively and negatively. Although we are moving forward, several episodes in our country’s immigration policy have targeted and attacked certain ethnic or cultural groups.
The United States has Changed from a Melting Pot to a Vast Culture with Varying Racial Backgrounds
Some would say, quotes John F. Kennedy, “Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.” Thus, in today’s society, we can say that immigrants are what made America possible—economically and socially. We are in a melting pot era where the impossible was made possible. From the time John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960, making a promise to change the national origins system to unite the nations of all countries equally. Hence, in 1965, under Lyndon Johnson’s administration, Kennedy’s promise came into light, amending the INS—favoring unification of families, not national origins. Although, the unification was made possible, the peacefulness never lasted.
Many people in America want to assimilate to the U.S. because they think that being American is a better option. People such as the Italians in the 1870s tried to assimilate in order to become an American to not become an enemy in the U.S. Also, the Mexicans today are constantly coming to the U.S. to have a better life because they know being American is the best solution for their problems at home. What assimilation mean is when a person leaves one’s own culture to join a different culture the person wants to be. For the purpose of this essay, an American is a person who has commitment to succeed in what one wants, able to speak english, to love the pop culture in the U.S. at the time one is living such as the hit songs, games, T.V. shows, etc. but not to other cultures, and be a citizen in America. People throughout history must assimilate to become a true American
The distance between the new arrivals and the natives fosters a sense of distrust on both ends. However, the concern that the growing population of immigrants will compromise America’s national identity undermines our national reality. Historically, those who have willingly immigrated to the United States have had a desire to become part of American society, crossing borders and seas t...
YES/NO SUMMARY: In the yes summary “Oscar Handlin asserts that immigrants to the United States in the late nineteenth century were alienated from the cultural traditions of the homeland they had left as well as from those of their adopted country.” On the other hand Professor Wyman “argues that as many as four million immigrants to the United States between 1880 and 1930 viewed their trip as temporary and remained tied psychologically to their homeland to which they returned once they had accumulated enough wealth to enable them to improve their status back home.”
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."
When immigrants started to migrate to America many brought with them their ideals and their costumes. With these new ideas and costumes came a change in America to its identity, citizenship system, regional identity and racial identity. Additionally, these changes had major effects on the American people at the time.
Several years ago, America was taught to be a 'melting pot,' a place where immigrants of different cultures or races form an integrated society, but now America is more of a 'salad bowl' where instead of forming an incorporated entity the people who make up the bowl are unwilling to unite as one. America started as an immigrant nation and has continued to be so. People all over the world come to America for several reasons. Most people come to America voluntarily, but very few come unwillingly. For whatever reasons they may have for coming they all have to face exposure to American society. When exposed to this 'new' society they choose whether to assimilate or not. Assimilation in any society is complex. Since assimilation is not simple, people will have negative experiences when assimilating into American society.
I believe that all of these cultural impacts from immigration are a good thing that most Americans will benefit from. Many Americans believe that immigrants will “steal” jobs away or may cause the country to break up into separate cultural units or even affect the fiscal burden. But in fact, they have very little impact on the wages of residents, including those who are low paid and unskilled. For those who believe that the country will separate into different cultural units, I think that 's not true at all, I think many Americans are not as open minded to different cultures and tend to feel threatened. Because of this many immigrants may feel like a target themselves and will start to feel ashamed of where they came from, since the majority of those around them are not as welcoming as they assumed they’d be. As an American citizen and a child whose parents are immigrants, I say that it is important to be prideful of where you are from. No matter the difference in culture, everyone has equal rights and should be able to express their traditions. By doing so, this will not cause any cultural units in the United States; as a matter of fact, it will teach and show others something new they’ve never experienced. I do not see how taking pride in one’s culture is seen as a