Adiche's Americah

Globally, the United States has been known as "a nation of immigrants" almost from its inception. Beginning in the 1600s with English Puritans and continuing today, America is a melting pot of culture and ethnicity. In fact, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigration was the major source of U.S. population growth. Looking over our 200+ years we find that to clearly be true, with approximately 1 million immigrants coming to America during the 17th and 18th century. Almost 3 million arrived during the 1860s, and another 3 million in the 1870s. In the next four decades, the number of immigrants rose to over 25 million people, most from various European nations, most arriving in New York or one of the Eastern seaports (Damon, 1981). Despite the politicization, as of 2006, the United States actually was the number one country globally to accept legal immigrants into the country, with a current immigrant population of almost 40 million (Terrazas and Batalova, 2009). In fact, the peak of immigration was 1907, when over 1.2 million Europeans entered the country beginning a push towards legislation limiting immigration in the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1924 and the 1921 Congressional Quota Act. These immigrants came for two sociological reasons: the push factor (wars, famine, persecution and overpopulation) and the pull factors (jobs and the promise of freedom). Most came by ship, and a passage often cost the equivalent of an entire life's savings causing many

The United States is a country that was built on immigration. The first settlers, Native Americans, represent less than 2% of the total population; the remaining 98% of the population are immigrants or decedents of immigrants. Today, the US still has the highest immigration rate in the world with 757,434 naturalizations in the 2012 fiscal year only (US Naturalizations 2012, Department of Homeland security). People try to immigrate to the United States for many reasons. Some people immigrate because they have been granted a refugee status or asylum and other people immigrate to fulfill their dreams. Immigration has an effect on the American society and economy. The US cannot survive without immigrants.

Since its founding, the United States has attracted immigrants from all over the world and consists of a variety of different cultures. Immigration has had an enormous impact on American society and economy and shaped the country remarkably.

Before 9/11, the process of immigration was fairly easy. There wasn’t the extensive thorough background checks also boarder control wasn’t as strict like it is today.Also people traveling from different countries were not looked into as possible terrorist. But after 9/11 had occurred this had all change, immigration had decreased and deportation had increased. In fact Pakistan had the most noteable visa and immigration decrease, tourist visa decreased by 70% and immigration decreased by 40%. In the following years of 9/11 deportation,as a whole, rose by 104%. For example, deportation in Central America had increased to 430%. Also deportation of people from Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan had spiked in the years following 9/11. Especially the deportation of Egyptians, which increased to 205% making it have the highest and most notable increase. International tourism was also greatly affected for three years tourism fell. The amount of Americans traveling internationally also declined. It wasn’t until 2004 when tourism had begun to

In 2002, the United States was home to 32.5 million foreign-born individuals. (Gany, Herrera, Avallone, & Changrani, 2006). The United states has often been referred to as the country of Immigrants given the number of people who immigrate here from other countries. Because of immigration, America has become a very multicultural society.

Security measures drastically increased after 9/11. 9/11 was an act of terrorism that would change the way the country handled privacy. Americans needed to voice their opinions after this happened and have their own rights protected. The need to protect individual rights is the utmost important aspect in a thriving U.S. society.

America was not a complete mess with orphaned children and cows roaming around like in The Crucible however, there were still transformations from before to after the mass hysteria of 9/11. A short term effect caused by mass hysteria were hate crimes towards people of the Islamic faith. According to the FBI, anti-Islamic hate crimes spiked by 1,600 percent with 481 incidents during 2001. Another major change was the increase in airport security. A month after 9/11 the Transport Security Administration, also known as the TSA, was founded. The TSA made the following rules to create traveling by plane more safe: more specific ID is required, shoes must be removed at checkpoint, all baggage must be screened, no liquids above 3.4 ounces are allowed past the checkpoint, and enhanced pat downs. Immigration is another long term change that occurred after 9/11. In fear of other terrorist attacks the funding for immigration was increased, many criminals were removed, and regular police officers were turned into immigration officers. Although many of the precautions taken were reasonable, some were

According to Migration Policy institute, the Census Bureau's 2009 American Community Survey, the US immigrant population was 38,517,234, or 12.5 percent of the total US population. They also state that nearly one-quarter of the 7.9 million children under 17 in 2009 had at least one immigrant parent. It is important to note that these

The numbers of immigrants to United States has risen from thousands to a record high of one million immigrants by the year

The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute

The U.S. is slammed by growing numbers in population. It seems that many do not think of the long term effects of this increase. This is one of the most significant problems Americans face today, yet no one talks about the problem, when it comes to the debate over immigration. “The current world population is over 6 billion and increases at a rate of 76,570,430 people every year. Since 1950, U.S. population has nearly doubled - growing from 151 million to over 294 million today. If present trends continue, our population will exceed 400 million by the year 2050. Immigration contributes over one million people to the U.S. population annually. The total foreign-born population in the U.S. is now 31.1 million, a record 57 percent

In 2013, there were an estimated 41.3 million immigrants living in the United States. (Krogstad, 2014). According to present estimates, this foreign-born population consists of 18.6 million naturalized US citizens and 22.1 million noncitizens (Cenato, 2013). Among the noncitizens, approximately 13.3 million are permanent legal residents, while 11.3 million (28%) are unauthorized migrants. (Cenato, 2013). The majority of unauthorized immigrants are primarily from Mexico and other Latin American countries, they live Texas, Florida, California, New York and Arizona (Zong et. al 2015).

Immigrants are a growing part of the labor force. As the foreign-born population has grown as a share of the total population,

Every year, around one million people are immigrating into the United States both legally and illegally. As of now nearly 40 million immigrants live in the United States; 11.5 million of which came to the country illegally (CNN). That is nearly thirteen percent of the total United States population. The role the United States government plays in the handling of immigration from foreign countries both legal and illegal, plays a vital role in the security of the people of the United States and

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2011 prompted the world to reevaluate and drastically modify airport and airline security. “Four targets had been chosen, all iconic American buildings that would send a clear message of the depth of their hatred for the United States. All four planes crashed, killing all on board—terrorists, crew members, and passengers, along with hundreds who were killed inside the structures, on the ground, and the men and women who ran into collapsing buildings in an effort to try and save others” (Smutz 1). As Jason Villemez said “the decade after the 9/11 attacks reshaped many facets of life in America” (Villemez 1). Before the attacks, people did not think that large scale hostility towards innocent people in