Essay On The Progressive Era

For many decades the history of the United States and immigration has always been a very talked about topic of debate. Many Americans did not like the collision that immigrants would have upon the native-born American people, while others welcomed the flow of people as adding to America’s multiculturalism of difference. According to Immigration: Good or Bad for America (2016), a large amount of immigrants try to enter the U.S. borders without proper documentation, in this manner being labeled as illegal immigrants. In addition, the United States unusual position as a nation of immigrants is being questioned by

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

Since the start of our country, America has been known as a land of immigrants, a melting pot of different cultures and ethnicities working towards the American motto of the land of the free, home of the brave. Since colonial times, immigrants have been an integral part of society, majorly contributing to U.S culture and economy, yet many Americans have always had very conflicting ideas on immigration. Many people look past the benefits immigrants bring to our economy and society and instead scapegoat them for many of the United States’ problems surrounding unemployment and budget. The positive effects of immigrants, both legal and undocumented, in our country far outweighs the negative effects because of their important impact on society and the economic help that American relies on.

One of the most defining traits for the United States of America is that the nation is one made up of immigrants, it is a basic building block that can not be overlooked, nor should it. That being said, it is important to countless citizens to be open when it comes to immigration, while keeping the country hospitable to its citizens for generations to come. However, this attitude to immigration is a fairly recent phenomenon in American history, especially in regards to immigrants coming in from non-Western European countries. With the introduction of the Immigration Act of 1965 and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) came about the changes to immigration policy that would forever change the face of the nation and create the diversity that has become a point of pride. The sentiment is not felt nationwide, however, as the immigration patterns brought about with these two acts has brought hostility as well, especially from those who feel that immigration is a threat to the country as a whole, specifically illegal immigration. Immigration, and its illegal counterpart, is an issue that defines this period in American history, and while it did not necessary start off targeting Mexican and Latino immigrants, it has very much been immortalized within the communities and become the face of immigrants to the nation as a whole.

The Progressive Era was an era that used social reforms to rapidly transform the major problems of the United States. The two major reforms that took place during the Progressive Era was the Populist Movement of the 1890s and the Progressive Movement of the 1900s. During the period of the 1870s and the 1880s, referred as “The Gilded Age”, most American citizens supported the principles of a laissez-faire. Many people would disregard the Congress and the government, because they were expected to not make any reforms during this time. Because of this, the Democratic party, who controlled the House of Representatives, and the Republican, who controlled the Senate, are now so equally balanced that they decided to take stands on controversial issues,

Progressive Era reformers such as Theodore Roosevelt, Jane Addams, and W.E.B Dubois were largely successful in prompting national reform in issues regarding direct democracy, social equality, and economic regulations through the use of political power, public pressure/opinion, and muckraking however, the progressive change was not met without resistance as multiple political and social belief obstacles prevented such progress, but the overall impact of the Progressive Era was its lasting success.

Since the early 1990’s, the immigrant population in America has doubled to over 40 million. The population could be higher factoring in illegal immigrants with the number estimated to be over 11 million. Majority of these immigrants both legal and illegal are mainly from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Uncontrolled immigration has been blamed on loss of jobs, higher crime rates and housing problems in the US. While these immigrants play a unique role in the economy, the executive and the legislature have found it necessary to control the inflow of these immigrants for various reasons. A number of laws and immigration policies have been enacted to create order in this issue. How these laws are perceived by immigrants and the general American population has varied and has been a major topic for debate.

American historians commonly refer to the period between the 1890s and the end of the First World War as the Progressive Era (Cocks, Holloran, & Lessoff, 2009, vii). The Progressive Era is mostly associated with the presidencies of Republican heads of state Theodore Roosevelt (1901-09) and William Howard Taft (1909-1913) but also, with Democrat Woodrow Wilson (1913-21). It is generally remembered as a time of political reforms and of governmental desire to tackle social evils and inequality.

Has the way we see immigration change? Immigration laws have effected many illegal immigrants that live and work in the United States by changing the status of the undocumented good and bad. With also affecting their children’s education, too many parents is the number one priority to their children, but what is the next step after high school and starting a career, immigrants face problem such as being a citizen in applying for college, scholarship, financial aid and work permits.

Immigration is what Makes America Great. Immigration is a beneficial policy for America. Since the early ages immigrants have helped America be the country it is today. An immigrant, by definition, is a person who migrates to another country permanently in hope for a better life. The 2016 presidential election has changed many things. Instead of “Making America Great Again” like Trump says, he has caused all the nationalist, racist people to rise up against immigrants just because they feel like they have a leader who is powerful, who “speaks what is on most Americans' minds – they are just too scared to say it." (Campbell,4) As time flies by, it was starting to seem that in this generation we were becoming together as a nation, where the color

The United States of America to the rest of the world is a place of liberty, freedom and a land of opportunities. Thousands of people every year leave their Motherlands in search for better life, for political, religious, and economic reasons. In most of the world, citizenship is defined by race or ethnicity, but an American may belong to any ethnic group. Despite that the U.S. immigration policy have always favored those who came from Western Europe to the exclusion of other groups. In the beginning of the country there was an “open-door immigration policy” on immigration (White, 214). The first significant federal legislation restricting immigration was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act law that suspended Chinese immigration for ten years and barred Chinese in the U.S. from citizenship. The Immigration Act of 1924 imposed the overall numerical quota to 165,000, and was passed in response to political and public opinion calling for restrictions on immigration from South-Eastern Europe following events such as 1919 recession and high unemployment, civil unrest and the Red Scare (Daniels, 47). In 1965, Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, which ended quota system that favored Western European immigrants, and today, the majority of the country’s immigrants come from Asia and Latin America. Known as a nation of immigrants, many Americans still developed a strong hostile feelings toward immigrants. In contrast, the Founding Fathers were looking at immigration as at

The United States was founded by immigrants and is known as the land of immigrants, yet controversy continues regarding immigrants. There has previously been talk about illegal immigrants and the want for their deportation, but recently the desire to deport all illegal aliens has grown. When the topic of illegal immigrants is brought up for discussion the same arguments are brought up from the same approaches; people fail to realize who illegal immigrants are, their benefits, and rather speak of getting rid of them rather than means of legalizing them.

Immigration is the action of coming to live permanently in a foreign country. However, this is a very controversial subject in the United States. On one end of the spectrum, immigration is viewed as a way to help grow the economy and increase cultural diversity in America. At the other end, it’s seen as poor people leaving their countries to steal American jobs or live off the free programs that help those out who don’t have much. The United States has tried almost everything, including increasing border security all the way to deportation of millions of undocumented people and it still hasn’t stopped the flooding of immigrants to this country. There’s clearly something enticing about the country to make them want to come and that is the promise of a better life for themselves and their families. Nobody deserves to be stuck in poverty-struck areas for the rest of their lives. Immigration laws shouldn’t be tightened, but reformed to benefit the people coming in and also the country they’re entering.

On any given day, any media connected American will be bombarded by numerous views and commentaries on the immigration debate. On this Saturday morning, the 30th of January 2016, a perusal of CNN main homepage leads to 6 direct or indirect (political due to the upcoming election) references to the immigration debate. It is a hot topic in the media and it is a source of constant argument and rhetoric for and against with very little resolution or decisional procedure ever finalized.

Immigration is a controversial topic that has impacted our society for decades perplexed by policies media coverage, perceptions based on one’s own lack of knowledge, personal experiences and a host of other factors that influence how our society views immigrants and immigration policies. The United States is a diverse population of people and filled with experiences that come from various walks of life that contribute to enhancing our social culture, economic development, and cultural acceptance.