Should Immigration Be Limited? Essay

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 first settled by the Pilgrims, the United States has been a nation of immigrants united together in a common ideology of democracy. The concept of cultural assimilation is inapplicable to the United States, considering its very existence as a giant mixture of different cultures. Recent political events have been very foreboding towards the future of immigration into the United States. Therefore, it is important to recall that throughout all the 239 years the U.S. has been a country, immigrants have consistently shaped our nation into what it is today.

America as we know it today has been shaped by immigrants. It can be argued that America shapes immigrants as well. It is a nation that people, nationalist or foreign-born, desire to assimilate partially or fully into. According to a New York University professor, “Immigration, however, played a key role not only in making America’s development possible but also in shaping the basic nature of the society” (Diner, p. 2). It is a nation built on this idea of the “American dream” which varies depending on the person. However, it is something that holds steadily in an immigrant’s mind that is possible to achieve. America’s past, present and certainly future will be formed by immigrants, and once they get here America will coincidentally form their being as well.

Debate over immigration and immigration policy is not new to the nation's history. For a long time, Congress debated legislation to control the immigration problem. As immigration rises and hatred grows more laws will be carried out trying to release some of the pressure. Immigrants offer cheaper labor to businesses. Immigrants do not get minimum wage, but instead they get paid lower, this gives the business an edge over other competitors.

In 2012, the immigrant born population was around 40.7 million people in the United States. Even though we initially came to this land as immigrants from mainly the European countries, we are still very protective of our country. Americans have this greediness when it comes to having our own land and not sharing it. Remembering back to when Americans first came to this region of the world, we kicked out the true natives and made this land our own for our safekeeping. Hundreds of years later, we still have the same mentality of keeping The United States away from others who were not there in the first place to take it over. Jones-Correa and Mendoza both address the issue of letting in immigrants and whether it could benefit our society or not. They

We are now in the 21st century and like the beginning of the 20th century the United States finds itself in the throes of a period of mass immigration. More then one million immigrants enter the Unites States, both legally and illegally every single year. Many argue that this new wave of mass immigration may help sustain the success that our nation is having in regard to the way of living that many American have come accustomed to and yet others believe that although our nation was created by immigrants it is time to "shut down" our borders. The truth of the matter is that there will always be issues in regard to immigration and the policies that the government sets forth in order control who comes into this country. Also now

Illegal immigration will cost the United States $280 billion dollars from 1995-2004. And that only counts for the immigrants that enter this country illegally. What of the legal immigrants that come to the United States and find it harder than they thought it would be? Most of these immigrants just go on welfare. Legal immigrants participate in 20.7 percent of all welfare programs while native citizens only participate in 14.1 percent (Borjas). This costs the American public millions of dollars every year.

We are currently living in era were diversity and inclusion is more important than ever. The start of the colonization of America from many different countries is what makes up the heritage of America. When asked about a person’s heritage, one always replies with a vast number of different races. In the past we welcomed these immigrants. Today, the people that were born and raised by immigrant parents and grandparents do not want more immigrants in America. Immigration laws have always been a controversial topic but with the recent rise in illegal immigration and a rise in unemployment, there has been a greater push for stricter immigration laws. America has always been offered as a safe haven or as a place for immigrants to find a better

The Syrians are leaving their country for so many reasons, like they often decide to finally escape after seeing their neighborhoods bombed or family members killed. Thousands of Syrians are leaving their country each day. The risk on the journey to the border can be a high risk like, families walk for miles through the night to avoid being shot at by a snipers or being caught by soldiers who will kidnap young men to fight for the regime. Also, Latinos who are coming to the United States are coming to get a better life their inspired by the “American dreams”, but that’s not the only reason the want to come to the United States because life out there can be very hard. Poverty, political instability and recurring financial crises often conspire

The United States should limit immigration. In recent events, there have been terrorist attacks in Europe from a group called ISIS. There are concerns that America might be next. Terrorist threats, extremely high populations in parts of the country, and possible financial problems for US citizens and the government are all reasons that the United States should limit immigration. This can all be proven by using public opinions, government websites, and news articles.

Immigrant students are among the fastest growing populations in American public schools. “The lives of secondary level immigrant students are extremely complex because they undergo change in many dimension in their lives at once. Not only are they grappling with obvious cultural and linguistic differences, but they must learn the institutional culture of school in order to be successful” (Pam McCollum, Ph.D. and Juanita García, M.A.) When students immigrate at school age, some of them go through the transitioning process with little to no issues. However, there are many who face issues in regards to cultural adaptations and social interactions. As David B. Tyack states in his text, ‘The One Best System,’ “challenges like Americanization of

Most Americans place their pride in being apart of a country where a man can start at the bottom and work his way to the top. We also stress the fact that we are “all created equal” with “certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” (Jefferson 45) During the early 1900s white Americans picked and chose who they saw fit to live in America and become an American. “Those that separate the desirable from the undesirable citizen or neighbor are individual rather than race.”

Total inhalation of immigration would not be a healthy choice for the United States. However, setting out for stricter laws to become a citizen is in need. There are over 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the United States (poll 2011). Therefore, having restrictions on immigration overall can help the economy grow, security at airports, docs, borders, and on the streets would not only lessen the illegal immigrants around the country, but supply more jobs for Americans. Illegal immigrants not only live in the U.S, but are supplied jobs in which were made for American workers.

Immigration has become both a controversial and widely debatable topic in contemporary governmental affairs. Within David Miller’s Immigration: The Case for Limits, we are faced with many trivial ideas on what constitutes the opportunity for people to legally immigrate to where they please, how matters are dealt with in the case of refugees, and to what level we hold everyone’s right to make a living. As I was investing myself in Miller’s book excerpt, I became aware of several debatable and agreeable content sections that stuck out to me. For instance, Miller states that “There is something fundamentally unfair about a world in which people are condemned to relative poverty through no fault of their own when others have much greater opportunities, whereas if people were free to live and work wherever they wished, then each person could choose whether to stay in the community that raised him or look for a better life elsewhere.”; I believe that Miller is correct in stating this fact due to the idea that everyone is entitled to make themselves the most well off that they can. However, a problem arises when Miller states that the basic rights consist of freedom, security, etc., and proclaims that freedom of movement is also a basic human right. I find fault in this because for most Miller’s conversation about immigrants (excluding refugees) it seems as if he is approaching the scope without putting his previous statements into perspective. He seems to contradict himself when

The United States is often called a melting pot because of the vast array of cultures that all live in the country. People have come from every corner of the world to settle in the United States. In recent years, the influx of immigration has become a contentious issue. Some people believe that the US is overpopulated and that further immigration poses a danger to the country while others contend that the US was built on immigration and that it is un-American to prohibit people from living here if they so wish. The articles "5 Myths About Immigration" and "The Challenge of Diversity" detail the different issues which are related to the immigration issue, both discuss the amount of immigration that occurs, the fear of immigrants taking jobs from American citizens, and the idea that immigrants are reluctant to assimilate into the American culture.