Understanding Americans ' Perspective Toward Immigration Essay

Immigration has played a large role in the history of the United States since the very founding of the country. As even the founding fathers of the United States were immigrants coming to the U.S. to seek a better life. For varies reasons, immigrants have been traveling to America to seek a better life whether to achieve better economic opportunity, religious freedom, and/or political refuge (Jiménez). These reasons have caused immigrants to flood into the U.S. In the most recent years’, weather to allow immigration to keep going as it is has been a hot topic for America. This controversy over immigration has grown as Americans continue to wonder if immigration is still good for the country. Therefore, the immigration controversy has many Americans

Immigration issues have been a problem throughout history. This Society holds different perceptions on the topic. Some people favor the flow of immigrants while others oppose it. Immigration is a social problem that must constantly be reviewed due to the complexity of the problems. In this situation, different factors such as the quality of life for immigrants, how they impact the economy, how the implementation of policies would benefit them, have to be taken into consideration. Immigration policies affect all aspects of today’s society. The key figures in the immigration issue are immigrants, documented/undocumented, political figures.

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

America is traditionally a country of immigrants. Very few people today have relatives who were Native Americans, many of them because of religious persecution, and others because of they were just looking to start a new life on the exciting untouched frontier. For instance, in Florida, the first arrivals were European, beginning with the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon who explored the land in 1513, following French and Spanish settlement during the 16th century. From the past, America was seen as a country of opportunities. People from all over the world have moved here looking for better opportunities. There are a lot of reasons why immigrants should live in this country, but I would like to mention three of them.

Immigration has been an essential but disruptive aspect of the people and the political state of the United States; however, debates related to immigration and its benefits are intensified significantly. Opposing immigration keeps ranting on how government should exercise better law to control over the people entering into the States from the foreign land. One of the most buzzed argument is that American citizen is unemployed because immigrants stole their jobs and disrupted the economy (Hoban, 2017). Also, an appeal to National security and vulnerability after several terrorist attacks all over the world and also to the government to keep track and maintain the no. of immigrants to create a safer environment (Cafaro, 2009). However, the contrary to these arguments have often been proven right. The pattern of the immigration shows that the contribution of the immigrants has resulted in an economic boost that cannot be overlooked by the government.

The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute

The U.S. is slammed by growing numbers in population. It seems that many do not think of the long term effects of this increase. This is one of the most significant problems Americans face today, yet no one talks about the problem, when it comes to the debate over immigration. “The current world population is over 6 billion and increases at a rate of 76,570,430 people every year. Since 1950, U.S. population has nearly doubled - growing from 151 million to over 294 million today. If present trends continue, our population will exceed 400 million by the year 2050. Immigration contributes over one million people to the U.S. population annually. The total foreign-born population in the U.S. is now 31.1 million, a record 57 percent

In 2013, there were an estimated 41.3 million immigrants living in the United States. (Krogstad, 2014). According to present estimates, this foreign-born population consists of 18.6 million naturalized US citizens and 22.1 million noncitizens (Cenato, 2013). Among the noncitizens, approximately 13.3 million are permanent legal residents, while 11.3 million (28%) are unauthorized migrants. (Cenato, 2013). The majority of unauthorized immigrants are primarily from Mexico and other Latin American countries, they live Texas, Florida, California, New York and Arizona (Zong et. al 2015).

The foreign born population in the United States has increased significantly over the past decades, with projections for the future demanding great attention. The growing population of people born outside of the United States reached 13.7% in 2015, not far from the country 's all time high of 14.8% in 1890 (Gomez, 2015). Out of this population, Mexico and El Salvador are placed in the top ten countries of immigrants origin (Figure 1.)(Zong and Batalova, 2015). Undoubtedly, the Latino migrant population has significant power in the United States, but this clout extends far beyond the United States and into their countries of origin, particularly through the impact of remittances

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

Within half a decade Latinos will outnumber African Americans as the nation’s largest minority population. (Palen, John J., pg. 94.) Immigration has been a debate among Americans for years. The country is divided on what they believe should be done. Some believe that illegal immigrants that are in the country should be granted amnesty, meaning automatic citizenship. Others believe all illegal immigrants should be sent back to where they came from, and if they still want to be in the United States, they will have to go through the long process of becoming a legal American citizen.

Immigration is one hot topic in today’s conversation and society. Many think that immigrants coming to America are taking many jobs away from who need them. Some also think that there are jobs being taken away are not ones that Americans would not perform due to the horrible working conditions, low pay, and lack of important medical coverage. The immigration issue has come to a point where the United States must make a decision to spend a lot of money to curtail the amount of immigrants coming here.

Historically immigration has been the fuel to the U.S. growth and development. Figure 1 is fundamental to understand the patterns of immigrations to the U.S. from 1900 to 2013. Since the 70s, the U.S. has experienced a dramatic growth in both the number and the share of immigrants related to the total population. During this period the number of immigrants have quadrupled and reached 13.1% of the American population with 29% entering in between 2000 and 2009, 10% since 2010, and the 61% before the 2000s. (Migrationpoplicy.org)

Another challenge is the foreign-born population in the United States. Many immigrants plan to have a child in the U.S. on purpose of staying. In 2012 for example, the foreign-born population consisted of 40.7 million people, wherein 18.6 million naturalized U.S. citizens and 22.1 million non-citizens (Cillizza, 2014). There was an increasing in the foreign-born population in the last decade. Between 2000 and 2012, it increased 31.2 %, and the immigrant population grew from 31.1 million to 40.8 million people ( Rodriguez, 2014). Since the 1960s, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population has doubled; in 2012 they were 13 percent of the total U.S. population. However, the immigrant’s origin today is more diverse than they were 50 years ago in 1960 for instance, 75% of the foreign-born population that resided in the United States came from Europe, while in 2012, only 11.8 % (Ceneta, 2014).

“In 2013, 13 percent of the U.S. population was foreign-born. Current projections suggest that by 2065, nearly one in five people in the United States will have been born outside the country” (Hing 25).3 Immigration has been an integral part of the United States since its colonial days. Over a million legal and illegal immigrants take up residence in the United States each year. With the country struggling to support the huge intake of new comers, life in America has been suffering tremendously. The excessive stress put upon the welfare system, overuse of the family reunification laws, and the exploitation of employment based immigration are reasons for immigration reform. The American Government is trying to solve the deep rooted problems of immigration including the 1965 law, Chain immigration, and Latino immigration.