Hardships of Immigration to America

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Immigration keeps America diverse; there is a lot of value in such diversity. It teaches citizens to respect and bond with one another regardless of differences. However, America has a dark history as it pertains to immigration. Our ancestors removed Native Americans when all they wanted was this: "Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself- and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty" as Chief Joseph stated in For the Record: An Indian's Perspective, (51-53). Even though there are many great things about being and becoming an American, there are a lot of difficulties for immigrants to face when arriving in the United States. For example you would hope that tension does not just arise randomly between people that have never met before. However, that is the case between the newly immigrated and native born Americans. This is because of ignorance and immigrants being labeled as "outsiders" trying to steal the so called native’s jobs. There are many obstacles taken for granted by non-immigrants. Some current Americans do not truly appreciate the struggles their ancestors had to endure so that they would not have to. An example of immigration struggles would be my Grandfather. He is an American who moved to South Korea. He went to Korea for work. He saw an opportunity to teach, and took it. He just needed a change. It was a fantastic choice according to him (Personal communication, 1-21-2014). He loved every minute of it. Luckily, South Korea is pretty westernized, so there was not much culture shock or anything. Seoul consists of about 20 million people, so it is... ... middle of paper ... ...ism could choose to say that America is in trouble because of immigrants. This could be due to multiple reasons. A popular argument from people that display nativism is that immigrants steal jobs. On the other side, some immigrants could feel America has not really gained or lost ground in its higher evolution as nation. They may feel America is still just as unaccepting as it has ever been. For every person against immigration there is someone out in the country supporting it. Sometimes, these best and worst examples occur at the same time in history. What Americans choose to see in its country could say more about their view than it does about the country itself and that is on them. Works Cited Jones, Frank. Personal interview. 21 Jan. 2014. Joseph, Chief. “An Indian’s Perspective.” For the Record. 5th ed. Vol. 2. New York & London: Norton &, n.d. 51-53. Print.

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