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Immigration Argumentative Essay

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Statistics indicate that forty million citizens, or 13% of the entire U.S. population, are foreign born. I am one of these forty million. Unfortunately, discussions about immigration have come to revolve around curtailment, rather than about immigrants themselves. Presidential candidate Donald Trump has risen to fame by painting immigrants as “murderers, thieves, and rapists.” Trump’s popularity signifies a radical shift from the time in which the words, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... I lift my lamp beside the golden door,” were boldly inscribed onto the Statue of Liberty. Immigrants are no longer seen as people, but as a pathology. Even discussions about the benefits of immigration aren’t about immigrants themselves, but about what immigration can do for the national economy. As if an immigrant's value to society can only be measured in terms of capital. …show more content…

We immigrants are not a pathology to be curtailed; nor are we just a valuable commodity to be measured by charts and indexes. We are people with incredible resolve, amazing stories, interesting world views, and unique backgrounds. And so, if I were given the opportunity to teach my peers and instructors during the week of Paideia, I would teach them about the immigrant experience and the true value of immigrants. A course that would go beyond discussions about policy and economics, and would focus on the experiences of these people themselves.
I would begin the course with a discussion about the changing demography of the United States. This would provide a context for my teaching, as well as allow for a discussion about xenophobia, a phenomenon that is the underpinning of the dominant narrative about immigrants. I would then build upon this discussion with stories and experiences from immigrants about their experiences with xenophobia and

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