Public Attitude Towards Immigration And Clarify Implementation Gaps

The topic of immigrants has been debated for centuries, and has been an even larger topic for discussion since the attack on the two towers in 2001. Many people contemplate whether immigrants are a reason to be scared, not; and if so, then why? If one finds themselves asking this conflicting question, Jeremy Adam Smith’s article, Our Fear of Immigrants, provides an answer. Relying on research from psychologists and sociologists, Smith gives sufficient evidence for why immigrants bring such intense feelings of both hatred and compassion, and recommends a way to increase empathy toward them.

This paper explores the United States, Immigration Policy from an historical, fair and factual perspective. The Immigration Act of 1990 States limited “unskilled workers to 10,000 a year. Skilled labor requirements and immediate family reunification were major goals. The Act continued to promote the nuclear family model, foreign-born in the US was 7%”. This paper will also explore the demographics and diversity, of immigrants, throughout the U.S. This paper includes an article form the website of the Washington, D.C., Immigration Policy Center, and American Immigration Council. This paper will examines significant research data from the Pew Research web site on Hispanic trends and immigration, around the United States. This paper will also cover numbers, facts and trends which shape the immigration policy. This paper will also include five different books written by authors concerning the immigration policy and public issues which most concern Americans. This paper will cover topics of history of social problems and the policies that address immigration, special interest groups advocacy groups, political party and supporters, social justice and ethical issues, policy outcomes of illegal immigrants and how other countries compare to the United States when dealing with immigration.

But one prevalent issue that has continued to be the source of much controversy is immigration. Founded on immigration this issue is not new to this country. Although it’s an issue that has been around for many years the mixed sentiments directed at it have only continued to become more prevalent. This may be due to the various perspectives from which it is viewed. The way in which an issue is looked at is influenced by various factors which become evident when the issue of immigration is discussed.

Giving into the demands of upset citizens, different political parties began to campaign with planks in their platforms dedicated to legally destroying immigration. The Austrian Freedom Party, for instance, campaigned to increase the amount of laws that prevent immigration and to make it more difficult for non-Austrians to live and work amongst the Austrian people (Doc 6). By creating a platform to change a country’s laws, it is clear Europeans were so upset with immigration that they wanted to make fundamental changes in their governments’ policies. People were unhappy with how their society was transforming and they wanted to put official rules in place that would allow Europe to return to its former state. Enoch Powell, a member of the Conservative Party, brought this common desire to light by explaining that people did not want to live in a country filled with immigrants, so action needed to be taken in order to curb the high immigration levels (Doc 2). The fact that many Europeans wanted politicians to take a stand against immigration shows how upset people were with the rising numbers of immigration, which became roughly 500,000 immigrants per year. By involving the government, European citizens were able to project their anti-immigration sentiment into the rest of the continent. Involving politicians and political parties shows how adament some Europeans were about keeping foreigners out of

The U.S found itself confronted to new challenges that they didn’t think of before. This new challenges led to a shift of American attitudes towards immigration. This was due to the high influx of the immigrants coming from Europe and of the liberal paradox related to immigration (Tichenor 2002, 51). The United States found itself caught between two stools where immigration benefited the economy but the on the other side its obligation to set limits regarding social and publics welfare available to the new wave of immigrants.

The United States has created an injustice perception of immigrants. There are issues that are needed to be addressed for immigration as a whole. In a scholarly article titled “U.S. Immigration Policy: What Should We Do?” speaks about how Americans view immigrants and what needs to be fixed (“Automatically”). Within the article, it contains solutions such as adjusting immigration laws in order to allow more immigrants in, making sure families stay together in the immigration process, making sure immigrants are granted basic health care and education, etc. (U.S. Immigration Policy: What Should We Do?). These solutions will help settle many of the issues that immigrants face. Another solution that the article lists is to find ways of detecting

In a world that has been constantly changing since the beginning of time, the news it brings is no different. In watching the news over the course of a month it is political upset that over and over again earned its place on the front page. Issues within the Middle East often led as the most breaking news; reports on ISIS, upset in Iraq. In addition to Middle Eastern political issues, immigration issues often found their way into the news. Immigration may become more of a growing issue as globalization increases as well, allowing people the ability to easily migrate. For example, in the article “Britain 'struggling to cope' with immigration, says official report”, it accounts that Britain has seen one million immigrants within the last

The attitudes of immigrants who have arrived recently differ from those who have arrived earlier in many ways. From 2002-2009 the percentage of votes from a series of questions has changed drastically. One of the questions that was asked if the immigrant spent most of their time with another native from their country. The next one question was if they called another immigrant in their country at least once a week on the phone. The final question was if that immigrant spoke their native language at home.

Caldwell argues that “Western Europe became a multi-ethnic society in a fit of absence of mind.” European policymakers imported people from Africa and the middle east to fill short term labor shortages in post-war Europe, Germany especially. For the first time in modern history, immigrants have a substantial presence in Europe. Islam is the continent’s second largest religion. These immigrants continued to multiply even as the jobs disappeared: the number of foreign residents in Germany increased from 3m in 1971 to 7.5m in 2000 And by 2050, the foreign-origin populations in most European countries will be between 20 and 32%. even though the number of foreigners in the workforce did not budge. Today immigrants account for about 10% of the population of most west European countries, and up to 30% in some of Europe 's great cities. These same policymakers made the assumption that immigrants would quickly adopt the moral and cultural norms of their host societies. The heavy industries

The changing tides of immigration have all been impacted by the attitudes of society, it has caused change and halted change from occurring as well. Government action and inaction have been impacted by political opinions of the public. Throughout the history of immigration in the United States, “opinions on the government's ability to handle immigration issues, in addition, reveal extremely clear and negative attitudes.” For a long time, the public has seen a problem with the government and their capability when it comes to addressing illegal immigration. It can be inferred that due to the lack of support from the American people, the government were pushed to increase political action toward illegal immigration. By doing so, again there is a correlation with the restriction that has pushed people to illegal measures. There is a strong unified relationship between how history, and the opinions of society have governed immigration in the United States. Most notably, immigration has been divided into clear distinctions where some carry more weight than

Bradley, David, and Ryan Finnigan. "Does Immigration Undermine Public Support for Social Policy?" American Sociological Review, 1 Feb. 2014. Web. .

The main objective of the author is to have open and honest debate of immigration policy in the United States. It is not that there is not an immigration policy. The author presented two points of view: for immigration and for restricted immigration. For a true democracy, policies are formulated, adopted, implemented and evaluated. In the evaluation phase, challenges are made as to the effectiveness of a “living” policy. All government’s action or inaction, affects the people governed, and immigration is no exception. In fact, it directly affects all citizens. The conflicts that immigration draws are a good one. It tests the pulse of how persons think and what they believe, thoughts and beliefs, which can and do change with time, based on situations and circumstances. The issues surrounding immigration are many, most being centered on legal immigration, illegal immigration, national security, and labor and economics, which forms part of the immigration reform agenda. The issue of immigration is not new nor is there a panacea for resulting problems now and in the future.

Whether Americans will admit it or not, there is an everlasting bad opinion toward immigrants. Because most immigrants do not fit the stereotype of a lazy, welfare mooch, Americans should change their poor attitude toward immigration. Migration Policy states that, “In 2016 the U.S. immigrant population stood at more than 41.3 million, or 13 percent, of the total U.S. population of 316.1 million.” We have such a large population of immigrants that it is the actual norm and the bad judgement needs to change in order to ensure liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness for all.

People from other countries view the United States as the land where dreams come true, the land of freedom and opportunities. Over time, many people have travelled here seeking this better life but as of the last few centuries there has been opposition by its population. American citizens have many misconceptions about immigrants in the United States which can turn anyone against the newcomers. The three main positions on the issue are to deport immigrants, accept immigrants and in some case pass restrictive laws. According to the most recent census, “An estimated 12.1 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the United States on January 1, 2014” (Baker), which makes the immigration problem one where careful consideration must be made.

To measure societal acceptance towards immigrants, attitudinal data can be utilized to better understand the effects of immigration on both societies. One way to measure the general political reaction of each country towards the influx of immigrants. Though such data is constrained by temporal boundaries, a blanket understanding can be gleamed from surveys taken in nations during different periods. Further, in both countries, support for the importance of mainstream right-wing strategies has exacerbated the politicization of the immigrant issue. A survey asking identical questions in the two countries was conducted by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in 2000. The Swedes tend to be more positive than the Danes, but the differences are not dramatic. However, similarly to Denmark, societal attention to the issue increased in the 1980s, not least due to a considerable growth in the number of refugees from the Middle East. In both nations, there are clear trends that reveal a significant rise in negative attitudes towards immigrants; but, the levels of said societal and political attention towards immigrants and the policies enacted which affect immigrants differ greatly in Sweden and Denmark.