Quindlen and Kennedy similarities and differences essay
Everyone was once an Immigrant. America is full of immigrants says quindlen and kennedy but rather if that is a good thing or not? We don't know. The answers are in the passages “Quilt of a Country” and “The Immigrant Contribution”. “Quilt of a Country” and “the immigrant Contribution” are similar and different in many ways.
One way theses articles are similar is they both believe immigrants are a big part of America. For example,in the passage “Quilt of a Country” it states. “A mongrel nation built of forever changing disparate parts,..” (Quindlen 13).This is saying that our nation is made up by parts from all over the world. Meaning immigrants are the main part of America. In
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For example, in the article “Quilt of a Country” the author, Quindlen believes that immigrants coming to america is a completely good thing and there is nothing bad about it. In the text it says “ No matter what the English-only advocates try to suggest, The new immigrants are not so different from our own parents or grandparents”. (Quindlen 15).What this evidence is showing is that Quindlen says no matter what bad things immigrants have done or what people have said about them they are still no different or worse than our own grandparents. This means Quindlen believes all Immigrants in America are good. The difference from the article “The Immigrant Contribution”. Is that kennedy believes not all immigrants in America are good or did good things. For example, in the article it says “Immigration plainly was not always a happy experience. It was hard on the newcomers, and as well on the communities to which they came. When poor. Ill-educated and frighten people disembarked in a strange land, they often fell prey to native racketeers,unscrupulous businessmen and cynical politicians.”.(Kennedy 26). This shows that kennedy was saying that immigrants coming to America where always not that good. That is different to what Quindlen believes because she says they are always
In class we had to read two stories, Quilt of a Country and The Immigrant Contribution. Both of these stories were similar but also very different. I will be telling about the similarities and differences in these two stories.
The “new” immigrants came over hungry for work and were willing to work for a fraction of what the “old” immigrants would. The “new” immigrants came in unskilled and unaccustomed to American society, took the “old” immigrants jobs and shook up their neighborhoods; this created much tension between the two groups. Riis like others, hated some ethnic groups more than others, and in How the Other Half Lives establishes a general hierarchy placing the “old” immigrants on the top, groups such as Germans, Irish and the English. In the middle Riis ranks the Italians, Jews, and blacks. On the bottom of the ladder Riis places the Chinese.
When you look at the books closely together, you can see how alike they are. Both authors use many analogies to get their points across. For example Eboo used the Martin Luther King Jr. and George Washington analogy. King knew Washington was a slaveholder, and a symbol of democracy, and it “Neither paralyzed him nor made him cynical.” Both the essays also use repetition with words and phrases such as, “What is the point?” in Quilt of a Country or the use of, “you” in Making the Future Better Together. The biggest and most astounding part of both pieces is that they talk about change. Eboo Patel tells you to be the change and Anna Quindlen writes about how the United States is change. These pieces go hand in hand with each other because change is the point they both try to put across. Diversity is also in both pieces. Quilt of a Country talks about how the United States is full of diversity and Making the Future Better Together talks about uniting by being diverse.
Immigration and labor unions are one of the biggest parts of United States history in my opinion. The abolishing of slavery led to immigration and freedom in America for foreigners and equality would shortly follow. Strangers in the Land helps me realize the struggle that immigrants and foreigners had to go through to become a citizen of the United States. They had to fight hard to earn their freedom and rights as a citizen. Immigrants and foreigners have a different experience in America than someone who is American and born in the United States. I think this book was a great eye opener to the struggle immigrants had to go through. It has made me earn a whole new respect for them and I look at them differently now, but in a good way. I would use this book as a reference to someone who is still not sure about having immigrants and foreigners in the United
The two articles that had a profound impact to my understanding of race, class and gender in the United States was White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh and Imagine a Country by Holly Sklar. McIntosh explains the keys aspects of unearned advantage (a privilege that one group hold over another) as well as conferred dominance (the act of voluntarily giving another group power) and the relationship that these factors hold when determine power of a social group. Additionally, the purpose of McIntosh’s article was to demonstrate the privilege that certain individuals carry and how that translates to the social structures of our society. Furthermore, conferred dominance also contributes to the power of the dominant group
Once Kwok discussed about immigration that: "My family had a dream of America," she said. "When we live in the United States, we tend to underestimate what America represents to the rest of the world. It is still a powerful symbol of freedom. And it certainly was for us."No matter how our difficult our experiences in the United States were, my parents never regretted coming here. They were always so glad that we had the freedom to choose our own futures here." "People give up their language, their family, their culture, their diplomas. They give up everything to come here so their kids can have a better life and a better chance. It’s a cliché, but it also is true." Kwok said first-generation immigrants are incredibly heroic and sacrifice so
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.
In the articles that I have read which are, “A letter to America” by Margaret Atwood and “ And our Flag was still there” by Barbara Kingsolver happen to have some similarities in there writing but also some differences. Both authors know that their country has some issues but one questions the actions of her country and the other author reclaims patriotism for Americans who love their country.
The United States cannot afford to lose the economic gains that come from immigrant labor. The economy would be suffering a greater loss if it weren’t for immigrants and their labor contributions, especially during the 2008 U.S. recession. The U.S. economy would most likely worsen if it weren’t for the strong labor force immigrants have provided this country. Despite the mostly negative views native-born Americans have towards immigrants and the economy, their strong representation in the labor forces continues today. Immigrants aren’t taking “American” jobs, they are taking the jobs that Americans don’t want (Delener & Ventilato, 2008). Immigrants contribute to various aspects of the economy, including brining valuable skills to their jobs, contributing to the cost of living through taxes, and the lacked use of welfare, healthcare, and social security when compared to native-born Americans, showing that the United States cannot afford to lose the contribution immigrants bring into the economy.
The issue of immigration has been around for many years. The first immigrants, who came from Ireland, arrived to the U.S through Ellis Island in January 1, 1892.Now in the modern era, there are diverse populations of immigrants emigrating from their respective homelands to find opportunities and make a better living here in the U.S. The idea of immigrants migrating here to the U.S is to be part of an enrich capitalist society that offers them a broader world of freedom, free speech, preference of religion, right to own businesses, titled to an education, ECT… “The crux of the aspirations of the average immigrant is motivated by the notion that one can achieve the American dream through hard work and perseverance and, ultimately, hard work and perseverance are rewarded by upward mobility via their children’s educational achievement” (Kao 1). Many immigrant parents often make the decision to emigrate, not for their own beneficial needs, but to give their child the opportunity to be...
What did it mean to immigrants were more than Americans? Chuck Palahniuk wanted to show Americans that immigrants were not a bad thing to United States. Immigration is just the action of leaving their own countries and come to live in the new countries. The purpose of immigration were found a new better homeland to survive. There was nothing wrong with wanting to remove to another country for got a better life. The different immigrations always had different cultures and educations. When all of the cultures and education mixed together, it became United States.
...immigrants made sacrifices. Not only were the parents affected but children were also affected. By looking at situations from a Immigrants point of view and how they express things the way they do, you will be able to see that they are more than grateful for the opportunities given to them.
Immigrants have done many accomplishments for the U. S and are a critical piece of the puzzle. Immigrants have come to the United States to build a better live for themselves but, in the process have done much more. The topic of immigration is debatable one. Many Americans agree that immigrants are essential to the economy. However, several individuals would disagree. Eric A Ruark and Matthew Graham argue, ‘“Regardless of views about the overall economic effect of immigration, almost all economists agree that poor native workers bear the brunt of its negative consequences” (par.12). Ruark and Graham state that many may have different views on how immigrants have impacted the U. S economy but, most don’t see that natives have to take the negative hit economically. Immigrants are taking away what natives are supposed to be benefiting from, millions of jobs are being taken away from natives by immigrants resulting in a profit for immigrants and nothing for the natives also when it comes to healthcare immigrants inability to pay for medical attention is causing hospitals and emergency rooms to shut down due to the lack of profit and not being able to afford to stay open, which affects the natives who work in these hospitals and ER’s and who go in for medical care. Ruark and Graham fail to realize that immigrants do not come to the U. S to take away what so many have built for themselves
Immigrants traveled hundreds of miles from their homes, only with what possessions they could carry, in order to obtain the rights and chase the promise that America had to offer. Mary Antin illustrates in The Promised Land how if given the chance, immigrants will represent the promises and virtues of American society. Antin shows that public education, freedom from religious persecution, and freedom of expression as a citizen are aspects of life Americans may take for granted but immigrants certainly do not.
...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.