Getting At The Roots Of Illegal Immigration Summary

Immigrants began moving to the United States in the 1850s in search of new freedoms and opportunities. They were soon viewed as threats by the American people because they could potentially take away job opportunities from native born Americans. Additionally, the morality and capabilities of these foreign people were unknown. As a result, new social and economic policies that favored “real Americans” were enforced. These affected a large group of foreigners, including Jews, Catholics, Italians, southern Europeans, and the Chinese. (Fry 1)

Since the dawn of American colonization in the early 1600s, the notion of immigrating to America has long been instilled upon various people as a stimulating opportunity to begin a fresh chapter in their lives. Even now, this possibility has brought many variations of people to America, culminating a society that brims with dreams and aspirations to form the diversified nation of today. When speaking of the current state of immigration, it is easy to conclude that immigration is heavily discussed from political standpoints. Though this current condition is composed of highly controversial perspectives, many of the early-century viewpoints found in literature genuinely embrace reality, for these writers were indeed immigrants themselves, thus adding an authoritative standpoint over immigration. The Americanization of Edward Bok (1921) by Edward Bok and The America I Believe In by Colin Powell, display the perspectives of two authors, who have lived as immigrants, through their own personal anecdotes. Both Edward Bok and Colin Powell convey a sincerely grateful tone and develop the idea of Americanization and the quest for opportunity through the use of connotative diction in contrast to the Immigration Chart and Political Cartoon which have a downright concrete and pessimistic tone and supports the idea that immigration exposes various challenges to incoming immigrants.

When most people think about immigration to the United States, they think of the U.S. as being the “land of opportunity,” where they will be able to make all of their dreams come true. For some people, immigration made their lives richer and more fulfilled. This however, was not always the case. A place that is supposed to be a “Golden Land” (Marcus 116) did not always welcome people with open arms. Even after people became legal citizens of the United States, often times the natural born Americans did not treat the immigrants as equals but rather as outsiders who were beneath them in some way. In some situations, people’s lives were made worse by coming to the “land of opportunity.” Often times people were living no better than they

Immigrants came to America with hopes to be accepted and make an honest contribution to the country’s advancement. Instead they were ostracized and segregated. Pietri states, “thirty-thousand dollar home, the first spics on the block proud to belong to a community of gringos who want them lynched” (106-108). Although some

More than 11 million undocumented illegal immigrants fill the US. Over the past hundreds years immigrants have been coming into the United States,this process has continued. And some may disagree and believe in that immigrants should not have a path to citizenship. It is immigrants should have a path to citizenship. Undocumented immigrants should get a path to citizenship

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

Who deserves to be a citizen of the United States (U.S.)? The founders of The United States of America believed people who immigrated and spent years building lives in this country deserved citizenship. They were also keenly aware that making new immigrants wait for citizenship while denying them the very rights that Americans had just fought to claim for themselves would be detrimental to our relatively new and fragile country. Today, it’s a question President Barack Obama and Congress have been trying to answer. As the President and lawmakers, alike, negotiate the contours of an immigration reform bill, they should keep in mind that the granting of legal status to undocumented immigrants would be a boon for the United States’ economy. Moreover, allowing undocumented immigrants to become U.S. citizens would be equally beneficial to America. Legal status and citizenship enable undocumented immigrants to produce and earn significantly more than they do when they are on the economic sidelines. The resulting productivity and wage gains ripple through the economy because immigrants are not just workers, but they are also consumers and taxpayers. Once illegal immigrants are granted citizenship, the newly welcomed citizens can begin to spend their increased earnings on goods and services that will stimulate demand in the United States’ economy, which will, ultimately, help create jobs and expand the economy as well.

As stated by premise two, undocumented people do come here illegally, but this does not automatically mean that they should be deported. Most people who immigrate here illegally, are only doing so because it is so difficult and takes so long to do so legally. The majority of them seek only to have better lives and create more opportunities for their families than they had. For example, one of my coworkers’ parents immigrated here illegally before he was born. I’ve talked with him multiple times about the topic of illegal immigration and he has always emphasized to me how grateful he is to his parents for coming here because if they had not, he would not have any of the opportunities he has now of going to college, and making a career as an engineer. Because they came here, even though it was illegal, he and his siblings have the chance to live better lives than their parents had, and give better lives to their own children than they would have had in Mexico. So, just because someone came here illegally, doesn’t mean they did so with bad intentions and doesn’t mean they deserve to be deported.

Many immigrants came to America seeking freedom, jobs, and land while others were running from famine and war. While immigrants ran from the problems of their native land, they were running into new problems in America. Americans feared the immigrants would take their jobs or have the right to vote. This fear caused discrimination against the immigrants due to their diverse backgrounds from Germany, Ireland, and China. Immigrants that came to America faced the hardship of discrimination because they did not only stand out with their culture but also because Americans didn’t necessarily want them in America.

Immigration makes up of the United States. The life of an immigrant faces many struggles. Coming to the United States is a very difficult time for immigrant, especially when English is not their first language. In Oscar Handlin’s essay, Uprooted and Trapped: The One-Way Route to Modernity and Mark Wyman’s Coming and Going: Round Trip to America, both these essays describes the life of immigrants living in America and how they are able to make a decent amount of money to support their families. Handlin’s essay Uprooted and Trapped: The One - Way Route to Modernity explains how unskilled immigrants came to adapt to the American life working in factories to make a living. In the essay, Coming and Going: Round Trip to America, this essay describes the reality of many immigrants migrating to the United States in the midst of the Industrial Revolution. Many were living and adjusting to being transnational families. Both these essays show how the influx of immigration and industrialization contributed to the making of the United States. With the support from documents 3 and 7, Thomas O’ Donnell, Immigrant Thomas O’Donnell Laments the Worker’s Plight, 1883 and A Slovenian Boy Remembers Tales of the Golden Country, 1909, these documents will explain the life of an immigrant worker in the United States. Although, the United States was portrayed as the country for a better life and a new beginning, in reality, the United

I think within the complex web of illegal immigration, the migrants and the companies that employ them are contributing factors to perpetuating the issue. Capitalism at its best; maximizing the economics of supply and demand in the labor market. Might be a little difficult to call these companies out as they have to be discovered, investigated, charged, entered into the cumbersome legal process...doubt the Federal Government has the resources to go down that road. Besides, will the benefits outweigh the cost?

One major contemporary movement that is very near and dear to my heart is the fight for the rights of undocumented immigrants. Many of the people in my life entered this country illegally, and there are many people in my life who are still undocumented. It baffles my might how much prejudice is expressed towards immigrants especially since we are a nation that is founded my immigrants. It is by pure luck that anyone is born as citizen of the United States and those who were lucky enough to be born in the United States are oppressing those who are fighting to come to this country in search of a better life. While examining the movement the concept that is most clear to see at play is intersectionality. The stereotypical immigrant is one who

“We are nation of immigrants. Some came here willingly, some unwillingly. Nonetheless, we are immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants, one, and all. Even the natives came from somewhere else, originally. All of the people who come to this country come for freedom, or for some product of that extraordinary, illusory condition. That is what we offer here—freedom and opportunity in a land of relative plenty.” (Middletown Journal 2005)

For the past 120 years- “between 1891 and 1920- [America has] received some 18 million men, women and children from other nations” (Bush 554) and causes one of the serious problem in the society. Therefore, immigration reform has been intensely debate among the citizen due to illegal immigrant issues that have become prevalent in United States. However, validating the illegal immigrant workers status should be considered strongly because their strong work ethic and other important American values such as an entrepreneurial spirit that strengthens the economy justify their need for a legal system that protects them from employer’s exploitation.

As long as you are living in the United States, you are entitled to some rights no matter your legal status; at least that should be the case. This isn’t true for most immigrants. As Jorge Ramos stated, “I don’t want to live in a country in which some people have privileges and rights and then you have 11 million people who have no rights whatsoever.” (Manjarres). Anti-Immigration laws are degrading, and cause a lot of racial profiling. There are also times when an immigrant will get harsher punishment for the same crime as somebody who is legal, or even have to wait months in order to find something out about their case. Laws should be upheld in the same manner for all people; immigrant or