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Summary of Lifeboat Ethics by Garrett Hardin
Summary of Lifeboat Ethics by Garrett Hardin
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“Immigration could account for all the yearly increase in population. Should we not at least ask if that is what we want (Hardin, 1974)?” Well! The audacity of Garrett Hardin’s 1974 essay, “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor” to ingeniously imply concern for illegal entry, but in all actuality supports partiality to who is advantaged to populates the United States! Thus, Immigration policies in America continuous changes reflects discriminatory processes of past and biased judgement by elected officials. Case in point by Hardin: Just consider the numbers involved. Our Government acknowledges a net inflow of 400,000 immigrants a year. While we have no hard data on the extent of illegal entries, educated guesses put the figure …show more content…
In 1924 immigration was reduced further to 160,000 a year, and in 1929, immigration was cut to 157,000 and quotas were again reset based on national origins in the 1920 U.S. Census. The rationale was that these laws would ensure the existing ethnic composition of the country and help assimilate the 15 million southern and eastern Europeans who had entered the previous forty years (endillegalimmigration).” Clearly then, Hardin’s alleged concern on the quantity of immigrants entering the United States doesn’t compute with the current regulations imposed already on how many immigrants are allowed to come legally yearly anyway! However, “the door was left open for Mexicans (who even then were desired by employers for their cheap labor) and northern Europeans. As history would show, this legal immigration led to illegal immigration and foreshadowed today’s debate on these topics (endillegalimmigration).” So, America left the door open for illegal immigration per their discretion to capitalize on cheap labor, not as a concern for the “lifeboat” but Hardin’s essay fails to address this important fact as do
America is a nation consisting of many immigrants: it has its gates opened to the world. These immigrants transition smoothly and slowly from settlement, to assimilation then citizenship. These immigrants are first admitted lawfully as permanent residents before they naturalize to become full citizens. In her book “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America”, the historian Mae Ngai draws our attention to the history of immigration and citizenship in America. Her book examines an understudied period of immigration regulation between 1924 and 1965.
All throughout Senator Ellison DuRant’s “Shut the Door” speech presented in 1924 in Washington D.C at a congressional debate, he explicitly states the need to stop the steady stream of immigration into America. DuRant reiterates his thesis, uses emotional appeals and questions the image of America in order to pass the Johnson Reed Act.
The Great Depression destroyed most of the “aspect of American life, and the immigration was no exception” (Daniels, 59). The Great Depression occurred in 1929 was a worldwide hopelessness. The altered conditions affected a large numbers of people to leave, some used their own resources and the others were assisted by the United States government. During this time, it caused American government to give each country a maximum number of people allowed to enter the country, it did not disturb Latin American or Canadian immigrants. The Mexican immigrants that work in the United States had become very important to the economy of the country. Later in the 1950s, there was about 200,000 Mexican crosses the border without permission. They worked hard under poor conditions and accepted lower pay than the native workers. During the 1930s, the number of people leaving the United States had outdone the number of people arriving. While the American facing tough time with Great Depression, the “LPC clause” was passed by the President Hoover to prevent the Mexican from immigrating into the country. In 1848, the 80,000 Mexicans living on what had develop American soil could either transfer to what was left of Mexico or continue to stay and automatically become a United States citizen. The Great Depression caused the Mexican workers to move from one work place to another job and budgetary losses. Robert Divine a historian, describes that when immigrant answered “that there he had been waiting for job; the anti-contract labor clause could be used to deny the permission to enter.” This means that an official would have asked an immigrant, if they are looking for a job in the United States and if the answer was yes then the person was denied to enter the
Mark Wyman, the author of the brief essay known as Coming and Going: Round-Trip to America, had a different perspective about immigration to America from the various counties during the 1880’s through the 1930’s. A common belief, regarding the immigration to America, held that immigrates stayed in America during the massive shift of population, due to the enormous creation of factories and cities that erupted in America. The past day literature entices readers to believe that all immigrates came to America to work and eventually settled down to create their own families. It’s taught that all of these families stayed in America for their entire life span. Although despite the common belief, Wyman held to his own thoughts on the controversial debate and pioneered a new way of thinking. He believed that countless immigrates, which came from all over the world, actually only
There are several theories to look into when discussing the morality of borders. I specifically look into Stephen Macedo’s chapter “The Moral Dilemma of U.S. Immigration Policy, open borders versus social justice?” in Debating Immigration and Joseph Carens article “Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders.” Using political theory back up his argument, Carens uses Rawlsian, the Nozickean, and the utilitarian to support and explain his claims that there is little justification for keeping oppressed people from other countries seeking a better life out of the United States. Macedo also uses similar liberal philosophy referencing Rawlsianism to support the opposing idea of a more restrictionist society, posing the question of cosmopolitanism
As depicted in John Steinbeck's novel Grapes of Wrath the 1930's was a time when migrant workers like the story's Joad family had to leave their homes, cross a perilous desert, live through the social injustices of the time, and work at jobs with low insufficient pay just to have a better life (Steinbeck). Seventy years later, the situations and experiences stay the same but the people are no longer native-born Americans but illegal immigrants who sacrifice everything to come to the United States to live a better life, as a result of that the 500,000 immigrants that illegally enter the United States through the Mexican border annually and stay in the country are the Joads of today (Aizenman).
Between 1880 and 1920 almost twenty-four million immigrants came to the United States. Between better salaries, religious freedom, and a chance to get ahead in life, were more than enough reasons for leaving their homelands for America. Because of poverty, no future and various discrimination in their homelands, the incentive to leave was increasing. During the mid-1800's and early 1900's, the labor and farm hands in Eastern Europe were only earning about 15 to 30 a day. In America, they earned 50 cents to one dollat in a day, doubling their paycheck. Those lower wage earners in their homeland were st...
In the 1860’s, when the book begins, America is taking in a great deal of immigrants. America did not realize at this time that it was a natural and necessary course that the country was having to go through. The dominant group did not understand why this was having to happen in America because they thought that immigrant would cause a problem in the country. During the 1870’s and 1880’s, there was no feeling of threat posed by the immigrants on Americans that would make them feel like there was going to be a problem in the nation at all. The labor unions had originally allowed only the immigration of contract laborers, but by 1896 the American Federation of Labor had followed Gompers in his aggression to immigration, and American workers continued to stand against free immigration until the restriction movement finally succeeded. Even though Progressives and Socialists had a strong democratic placement, they changed their minds and began to support immigration because they did not want their jobs or lives to be interrupted by excessive immigration. In the early 1900’s, the South and the West favored free immigration because they were curious to increase their population. The South and the West voted against the literacy test whose purpose
“I do not believe that many American citizens . . . really wanted to create such immense human suffering . . . in the name of battling illegal immigration” (Carr 70). For hundreds of years, there has been illegal immigration starting from slavery, voluntary taking others from different countries to work in different parts of the world, to one of the most popular- Mexican immigration to the United States. Mexican immigration has been said to be one of the most common immigration acts in the world. Although the high demand to keep immigrants away from crossing the border, Mexicans that have immigrated to the U.S have made an impact on the American culture because of their self sacrifices on the aspiration to cross over. Then conditions
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2).
Wellman, Christopher, and Phillip Cole. Debating the Ethics of Immigration is There a Right ti Exclude?. New York : Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.
Immigration has been part of America since before the 17th century. America has evolved into what it is today due to immigration; however immigration as negative effects as well. Immigration is the building blocks for America. Every one that lives in America today are here because their ancestors immigrated here long ago. Over the years immigration as evolved into a more sophisticated matter. There are many laws they have been put in place to monitor and stop immigration. Immigration I a big factor in America but must be done correctly to insure Americas safety.
Among many of the highly disputed issues in the United States, illegal immigration is near the top, as it is continually growing and must be brought to an end. The term “illegal immigration” is used to describe the migration of people into another country without the government’s permission. Due to the United States’ highly desirable lifestyle, illegal immigration is more common than many other countries in the world. Even before the Constitution was written, significant political and social idols, such as Benjamin Franklin worried about the outcome of immigration. His ideas were particularly towards the increase of German immigrants, for he would caution that “Pennsylvania will in a few years become a German colony; instead of their learning our language, we must learn their, or live as in a foreign country.” Although Franklin’s thoughts influenced a large number of people living in the country, the first hundred years of the nation were established with an open border (Hing). This would welcome foreign nationals displaced by the ravages of war or persecuted by totalitarian governments in hope of a better life. The fourteenth amendment, ratified in 1868, would establish the rights of citizens, or legally recognized subjects or nationals of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized (McClenaghan). Many illegal immigrants refuse to assimilate into their surroundings of which they have brought themselves upon. They also take a variety of unskilled jobs that citizens could use, but instead become unemployed. The concept of immigration is what allowed the United States to flourish in its early years to the present day; however, when it is done illegally, it can hurt the domestic tranquility and security of the nation, as we...
The arrival of immigrants to the United States is often associated with fear. Immigrants are vulnerable to attacks if they are cast as threats to the way of American life. A deeper look into immigration policies reveals that immigrant restrictions are seated in racialized notions. Immigrants before the founding of the nation came for the opportunities of a better life. The immigrants who would continue to come thereafter came for much the same reasons. But government policies demonstrate repeated attempts to block the immigration of undesirable immigrant communities.
American immigration policy is supported by a number of laws, which some of them date back as far as 1798. Laws range in all manner of presentation. Top in the list is security, employment, and the quota system. It should be noted that American immigration policy is centered on brain gain benefit, which is seconded by a friendly philanthropic commitment to spread job opportunities to economically challenged countries. This research will prove that the American immigration policy is responsive to local and global issues, but it needs some improvement in the way it is oriented. The research is defragmented into two main sections; firstly, the background section of the immigration section; seconded, by the discussion. The discussion part will analyze the issues, and provide possible policy changes.