Essay About Immigration

The pursuit of happiness for some is a journey that can lead to new and great horizons. Sometimes it means to leave everything behind to start something from the bottom up. More and more people decide to leave their hometown, others their state, and others their country to go and find what their hearts desire. In most case that is the vision of an immigrant, to seek and find that better life. In one way or another we are all immigrants in this earth. Since the foundation of the U.S., immigrants from all over the world have marked its history, even though some oppose to this idea; immigration is a key point for this nation.

In the early years of this nation, a group of people, pilgrims, coming from the eastern side of the world, established

didn’t stop in the 1600’s, it will only get bigger. The time went by and the nation grew, U.S. was now well known country around the world. The first wave of modern Immigration occurs between 1880 and 1925, where people from all over the world, mostly from Europe, came to America. The receiving point for most of these people was Ellis Island according to history.com, “Millions of newly arrived immigrants passed through the station during that time–in fact, it has been estimated that close to 40 percent of all current U.S. citizens can trace at least one of their ancestors to Ellis Island” (Ellis Island). This island and the statue of liberty were a signals of freedom for most of the people arriving at the shores. A lot of these people were running from the oppression of their governments, the lack of economic stability, and also from some military activity. The life during that wave of immigration was different, especially in New York, the people coming from other countries also brought parts of their culture. This was known as the melting pot; it was the assimilation of all the cultures into one. The country kept evolving and assimilating the different cultures and by midst and latest 1900’s a new wave of immigrants was arriving to the U.S. a wave that will continually change America. This time there were new type of immigrants. Even though the goal was the same, the American dream, the origins differ from those of the first wave, “Over the next

Since the early 2000’s illegally immigration increased drastically; more and more people from Latin America have immigrating to this country. Not like the Ellis Island, where immigrants were welcomed in one station, this time they have multiple access where there not so welcome, “Entering the United States illegally is risky; unauthorized immigrants must either use falsified documents to deceive an immigration official, come ashore by boat without being detected, or sneak across the nation 's land borders with Mexico or Canada—which the government spends about $18 billion a year to protect” (Immigration Policy). Most of this people risk their life in order to come here, but why? They are after the American dream. The countries where these people are coming from have little to zero opportunities; most of them live in poverty forcing them to take the long journey to the American dream. This journey has many effects, it not only affects America but also those countries from where people are immigrating. Some people in the U.S. believe that immigrants are destroying the nation, “The population today includes a far higher percentage (12 percent) of foreign-born Americans than in recent decades, yet the economy is strong, with higher total gross domestic product (GDP), higher GDP per person, higher productivity per worker, and more Americans working than