Impact Of Immigration On The United States

With the rise of foreign people permanently settling in America, the immigration policy has affected all aspects of society in terms of growth and development of economy, societal issues, and national security. As the immigration policy is a broad topic among senators, it needs to be prioritize for it to be better understood. In doing so will improve the immigration policy and grasp the significance of its impact in America.

With riots and protests to his previous veto of the bill, President Chester Arthur signed “An Act to Execute Certain Treaty Stipulations Relating to the Chinese” into law.” Nicknamed the Chinese Exclusion Act, it was one of the first Federal laws that discriminated against immigrants by their ethnicity. It remained law for over sixty years before Congress repealed it in 1943 to help improve Chinese morale against Japan. While originally intending to stay law for only ten years, it was renewed many times. In 1892, it was renewed as The Geary Act and in 1902 it was made permanent; requiring that Chinese immigrants carry with them there certificate of residence.The hostility against Chinese immigrants had been going on for decades prior to the Exclusion Act, going as far back as the end of the California Gold Rush. While Chinese immigrants were often discriminated it was at a local, not federal level. The Chinese Exclusion Act was the Gilded era’s worst policy because it negatively helped redefine the US federal government's stance on immigrants, had many people openly opposing it, and the arguments for the Act were mostly untrue.

Besides, in congress debates, people talked about racism and discriminatory prejudice against Chinese and African American. One senator said this, “the Caucasian race has a right, considering its superiority of intellectual force and mental vigor, to look down upon every other branch of the human family…we are the superior race today.” The Chinese Exclusion Act began being harsher and harsher. Chinese immigrants who have right to return were also forced to go back to China in 1889 by the Scott Act. Later on, other Asians were also prohibited from entering the United States. This is the first law of prohibition of race-based restrictions. After 1882, Chinese visitors who want admission to America had to take strict screening process so that they could prove that they met the requirements for entering. In 1892, the Geary Act was enacted. The Act has three requirements. One is to extend the ban on Chinese immigrants for ten years. Two is to create a presumption that persons of Chinese descent were residing in the United States unlawfully. Three is a requirement for labor to acquire a certificate confirming their legal status.

Immigration in the United States is a complex demographic activity that has been a major contribution to population growth and cultural change throughout much of the nation's history. The many aspects of immigration have controversy in economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, crime, and even voting behavior. Congress has passed many laws that have to do with immigrants especially in the 19th century such as the Naturalization Act of 1870, and the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, or even the Immigration Act of 1903 all to insure specific laws and boundaries set on immigrants. The life of immigrants has been drastically changed throughout the years of 1880-1925 through aspects such as immigrants taking non-immigrants

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was a U.S. congressional act with a profound impact on American society and the world. It was introduced by California Senators to deter Chinese immigration to the United States. They were under immense pressure from their constituents and many white American citizens in other states to put forth this act. These citizens believed that the rapid influx of cheap Chinese laborers would dominate the industry and take over their jobs, and wanted that threat to be terminated. This political climate, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the many related acts following it, would influence the United States, China, and the rest of Asia greatly during that time, and even for centuries to come.

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.

As our economy continues to grow, as does the world that we live in. With this more and more people are continuing to travel and immigrate across borders. With over 175 million people accounting for 3% of the world’s population (Kerr, Kerr 2011) living permanently overseas, the landscape of global business and economics is continuing to grow. This shift in demographic can leads to many changes and adjustments for countries, some of which can reap benefits others may cause financial harm. Major impacts of immigration can be observed in several forms of a countries economic system such as employment opportunities for both immigrated workers as well as current citizens along with unemployment rates, wages, profit margins, the ability of local and international business’ to grow and the overall GDP of the specific country. For this paper specifically the developed country that will be analysed will be Australia. Considered to be one of the worlds “major immigration nations” (together with New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America) (Phillips, Simon-Davies 2016) Australia is fast becoming a go-to country for those looking for a fresh start. Entering through either the “Migration Program” or “Humanitarian Program” depending on the specific level of expertise Australia is quick to start the process of entering these immigrants to the workforce. With a high percentage of Australians that have been born overseas (7.2 million) Australia needs to prepare and plan

One of the first significant pieces of federal legislation aimed at restricting immigration was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese laborers from coming to America. Californians had agitated for the new law, blaming the Chinese, who were willing to work for less, for a decline in wages.The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. Those on the West Coast were especially prone to attribute declining wages and economic ills on the despised Chinese workers. Although the Chinese composed only .002 percent of the nation’s population, Congress passed the exclusion act to placate worker demands and assuage prevalent concerns about maintaining white “racial purity.”

The impact of immigration is a highly controversial topic that gets touched on with the media outlets frequently. With the development of newfound criticism and the rise of popular slogans such as “Immigrants take Jobs,” immigration has become an increasingly prominent economic topic that contains multiple viewpoints and requires discussion. Many economics have noted that alterations in immigration impact a variety of economic policies that make it virtually impossible to make conclusive models on both it’s short-term and long-term effects. Yet, there seems to be agreement that rapid changes such as the ones occurring in our country right now may lead to a decline in economic growth. Therefore, as proposals of reducing legal immigration increase, it has become necessary to view immigration as a serious fiscal issue, that although on the surface may seem to solve a plethora of problems, really doesn’t.

In the 1800’s, immigrants from different areas of the world began coming more frequently to the United States. With these immigrants, came the Chinese. After some time, an Exclusion Act was passed by the United States to keep the Chinese from immigrating. This happened in 1882 and was even extended in 1892. This act was supported in being passed because the Chinese were taking many jobs from the Americans, and also because the Chinese brought conflicting cultural elements to America.

This thesis compares events that occurred from 1875 to the 1930’s and present day that highlights that America had a bi-polar view on immigration from the 1875 to the 1930’s and still has a similar view on immigration today. The first part of this timeframe during the 1870’s and 80’s immigrants were welcomed with open arms and were offered incentives to come to the United States, then middle class Americans realized the new immigrants coming into America could be a threat to their lively hood and profits, they changed their stance and their welcoming attitudes towards new immigrants. Middle class Americans, whose ancestors were once immigrant’s their-selves, lobbied their political parties for immigration reform, and this is still happening

What have been the similarities and the differences regarding immigration between the 1880s-1924 and the post-World War II era until 1964? This will be the main question toward which my essay will be about. To answer this question I will highlight the main characteristics of these two period and compare different institutions, organizations, and legislations around immigration during these two periods. Then I will conclude by pointing out the main similitudes and the differences between these two periods.

The number of immigrants entering the United States legally is greater today than it was at the turn of the century, so as the US economy. US economy has proved to be raised dramatically in the past few years. This made me think about Immigration and the US economy on a same page in my mind. Many questions started populating in my head such as Does immigration in some way affect the US economy? If yes, how? After doing some research, I found that Immigration plays an important role in the US economy. I’ll start with my own background, how this question is connected to me and what other people think about immigration. Next, I’ll talk about my research findings and the unexpected answers I got to my question. Are those answers same as people’s view. As a final point, I’ll talk about what I learned in the process of researching the impact of immigration on the US economy before concluding my essay.

From 1875, a number of laws had started being enacted creating restrictions on immigration. While a number of laws had been passed earlier (1862 and 69) to regulate Chinese labor (this was meant to deal with cheap Chinese labor), the Act of 1875 was implemented and outlawed the importation of women for prostitution purposes as well as prohibiting other alien convicts. In 1882, another immigration law was passed by Congress, imposing a federal tax (50 cents) on every passenger that arrived from foreign countries. This was also aimed at controlling the numbers of those who entered the United States. This law also prohibited convicts, lunatics and other people with contagious diseases from entering the States. In particular, in 1981, Congress passed another law to deal with the influx of immigrants. This law prohibited various people such as polygamists, those who did not pay for their

How important was the impact of the Volstead Act in influencing American society in the 1920s?