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America, Melting Pot or Salad Bowl Society?

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In the year 2013 there are slightly over 7 billion people throughout the world. This means that we have a wide variety of cultures, heritages, ethnic backgrounds, views and opinions. Thousands of people are immigrating to the United States for a number of reasons such as bettering their education and careers, as well as, getting a fresh start. Primarily, immigrants are moving here to take advantage of the many opportunities our country can make available. People are bringing their cultures and differences to the United States thus resulting in what is called a melting pot; however, I would argue that America should no longer be called a melting pot. The term melting pot suggests that immigrants should assimilate into American culture. …show more content…

Many people do not have the chance to travel and experience new parts of the world, so the immigrants that are coming into the United States are able to expose what they know to the native born Americans. America is unlike any other country and for that prime reason we have such a high level of immigration which happens to be “the second highest in our nation’s history” (Chavez). Up until 1882, “the US government practiced an open door policy;” (“Melting Pot America”) however, soon after that the policy began to try to control immigration by excluding Chinese, alcoholics, and criminals from coming into the country. This salad bowl society is very important to the American culture and continually needs to be reevaluated. With the diverse amounts of people, it is almost required that we venture outside of our own boundaries in order to understand and appreciate one another. Whether it be in the work place, school or simply everyday life we are going to be with people that are unlike ourselves and need to be prepared to deal with those situations. As immigrants are coming into the country they are faced with a new world. Assimilation into America is no longer what is used to be fifty or sixty years ago because many different things have changed. Immigrants are essentially leaving behind everything that they have known and are exposing themselves to different language, culture, behavior, etc. This whole experience can be very

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