The Second Largest Immigrant Group Coming Into The United States

The first generation of immigrants who had to flee the country immediately after Sai Gon fell in 1975 were a few of high ranking officers of the Republic of Vietnamese government. They were able to flight to Camp Pendleton under the U.S military protection. The second wave, also the most tragic wave of immigrants was boat people leaving the country in 1978-1979. They gave up every assets in Vietnam to pay for the fee getting on boats. If lucky, they would be able to go offshore without being caught, or sent to reeducation camp. However, the tragedy mostly happened offshore where people encountered pirates from Thailand, and Malaysia. Many families went on boats together, but then lost touch with other family members. There were countless number of people robbed, raped, killed, or lost in the sea. A couple years after the war, empathy with the loss of boat refugee. The U.S government creating program allowing eligible Vietnamese to come to the U.S legally and

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

Unfortunately, Vietnamese Americans make up only a small percent of the total American Population today. There are many stereotypes associated with the Vietnamese, but the truth is, we really know very little about their culture. After the Viet Nam War, many Vietnamese citizens immigrated to the United States to escape political Prosecution and poverty. Faced with a variety of obstacles and

Immigration has a great impact on first generation immigrants. Studies show that acculturation and assimilation have wide-ranging effects on the groups involved, but mostly on the immigrants' lives. There are positive and negative attributes. Attributes that are due to the issues associated with integrating cultures, and broadly related to the greater issue of immigration. The issues and discrimination towards first generation immigrants cause them to have limitations throughout their lifetime, in the country that they have moved to. Furthermore, the Hispanic and Latino community have lived through this problem for so long. They are always the group to be affected by it because they lose a sense

In the United States, the cliché of a nation of immigrants is often invoked. Indeed, very few Americans can trace their ancestry to what is now the United States, and the origins of its immigrants have changed many times in American history. Despite the identity of an immigrant nation, changes in the origins of immigrants have often been met with resistance. What began with white, western European settlers fleeing religious persecution morphed into a multicultural nation as immigrants from countries across the globe came to the U.S. in increasing numbers. Like the colonial immigrants before them, these new immigrants sailed to the Americas to gain freedom, flee poverty and

According to the 2010 United States Census, California has the largest Vietnamese population of 581,946 in the United States. Before 1975 there were very few Vietnamese living in the United States. After the Vietnam War and the fall of Saigon in 1975, many Vietnamese refugees fled Vietnam resulting in three major waves of immigration. The first and second waves of immigration played a major role in Vietnamese refugees resettling in California. The last wave in the 1990s centered on family reunification. Since the 1970s, Vietnamese people escaping communist rule immigrated to the United States. Later they relocated to California hoping to start a life with many new opportunities. Attracted to California because of its clean environment, in turn they also influenced California’s agriculture.

U.S. as an immigration country, has a long history of immigration. It is a complex demographic phenomenon that has been a major source of population growth and cultural change of the United States. People came here because of varies reason, the major reason among them are fleeing crop failure, land and job shortage, rising taxes, and famine. Nearly 12 million people immigrate to the United States between 1870 and 1900, making it the world largest immigrate country.

Povell, Marc. "The History of Vietnamese Immigration." The History of Vietnamese Immigration. American Immigration Law Foundation, 2 June 2005. Web. 27 June 2012. .

        Ever since the United States was founded, immigrants have been arriving on its soil.  The first white inhabitants of the U.S. were immigrants from Europe.  They came for many reasons, such as religion and opportunity.  As the country grew and became more prosperous, it became more enticing to foreigners looking for opportunity.  This continued into the 20th century and finally during the 1920’s, the United States began to restrict immigrants from coming to their country, mostly for cultural and economic reasons.  Even the immigrants that were allowed in during the 20’s faced many hardships such as religious persecution, racism, and xenia phobia.  One of the major groups of immigrants during that

Lastly, the last flux of legal immigrants was from 1975-1980s which became known as the third wave where refugee immigrants such as Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians began to move to the United States seeking security and protection. During this time the Vietnam war was happening between the Vietnamese and the Communist; however, the Vietnamese knew that they would lose as Bich explains in her memoir of Stealing Buddha’s Dinner. The United States was offering aid to the Vietnamese at that time to help them along the way, yet that was not enough. Bich explains that the people in Vietnam knew

Along with its economic classes, American is known for its freedom, its liberty, and the melting pot of ethnicity. This ethnic diversity comes form the immigrant population in the country. However this perfect country is a major falsehood. These untrue ideals of harmony, freedom, success, and equality are deceptive and do not show the struggles that immigrants face when coming to this class dominated country. The immigrants of today do not come from just Europe, but overwhelmingly from Asia and Latin America. “They are driving a demographic shift so rapid that within the lifetimes of today 's teenagers, no one ethnic group – including whites of European descent – will comprise a majority of the nation 's population’ (Colombo, Cullen, Lisle). These immigrants challenge the social myth that everyone has an equal chance in life. They

Ever since the Mid-1970’s the immigrants from Vietnam; have become the sixth largest group to immigrate to the United States right behind Mexico, India, China, Philippines, and El Salvador (Zong and Batalova). When

After a bloody unpopular war that lasted nearly 20 years, one of the most unique immigration patterns occurred from Vietnam to the United States that still prolongs today. Immigration to the United States from the Vietnam War was a struggle, therefore America should create support programs because the Vietnamese citizens were driven out of their war-torn country. The war left the immigrants in desperate need of therapy, and they need help adapting to their new home in America.

In the past, most immigrants came as workers with similar skill levels and from similar societies. Now, most immigrants come as relatives and from underdeveloped countries. As a result, most immigrants are poor, unskilled, and unable to mix into our society.

For thousands of years, waves of immigrants continue joining the developed countries in the world, bringing with them the unique cultures, languages, and ideas. Over time, those unique values might be faded away with each generation because of the new culture exposition. The second-generation immigrants experience a cultural conflict between that of their parents and that of host society. Most of them are unable to preserve and empower their origin cultures. Many differences between the first-generation and the second-generation immigrants arise. Through the analysis of the mother in “Death of a Young Son by Drowning” and the Das family in “Interpreter of Maladies”, I would like to demonstrate the differences between the first-generation immigrants, who travel from other countries, and the second-generation immigrants, who were born and raised on the immigrated land. These differences include the purpose of being in the foreign land, the connections to their homelands, society’s view, and the culture differences.