America was built through the success and hardships of immigrants. One of the earliest examples of immigration was when the pilgrims migrated to what is today the United States to escape religious, political, and economic persecutions. Although immigrants are looked down upon for numerous reasons, today they work in jobs that very few will work in. In "Jacob Riss describes…" the author says the poorest immigrants comes to America in hopes of a better life (Riss, 1890). Although there are many pros and cons to immigration, generally it's been a positive aspect in American society. Other than the pilgrims we see indentured servants, African slaves, Asians, and Latin American immigrants come and implement a little bit of their culture into America. Americans are afraid that immigrants will take away American culture, but in reality what is American culture? In the book Speaking of America by Laura A. Belmonte we read the views of the immigrants during the beginning of immigration.
Immigrants were in search of finding an economic opportunity. For most the price of a passage to the new world was expensive which caused many Europeans to go on the voyage as indentured servants. Just like the African Americans some of the Europeans were captured and forced into servitude in America. African Americans were also one of the first immigrants in America that helped built the country economically. They were forced to come to America as slaves unlike the Europeans that had the choice to come. Most of the African Americans were responsible for the manual labor work: pick cotton, sugar canes, rice, etc. After the civil war, and emancipation proclamation, African Americans were still not equal to white men. President Johnson believed African Americans were threating to the white race. He said in a speech that, "…they shall rule the white race, make and administer state laws," and questioned if, "…trust and power [would] be safe in such hands?" (Johnson, 1867). Even though slaves worked in cruel conditions and gave the states economic benefits, they were not seen or treated the same as white men.
The United States is currently the leading country with the most immigrants. In the late 1700s to mid 1800s we see groups of immigrants like the Scottish, Irish, Dutch, French, and Germans mostly all from Europe. These groups of people came to America for a mixture of religious, political, economic reasons that include starvation and diseases at their homelands. From this year on every year we will see immigrants finding their ways into the United States. All these different types of immigrants that came here during the turn of the century were rejected by society. Society made them feel different and didn't believe that they can fit into American culture. During this time the process on coming to America was very easy, there was no stopping immigrants from coming in.
The fears America had when the Europeans came to America is the same fear people have today with the Hispanics and Asians. Immigrants like the Chinese, Japanese, and Asian countries came to American for the job openings. The labor for the Chinese was cheaper with longer working hours in a day/week with bad working conditions. These people got taken advantage of when it came to work, all they wanted is to make more money to support their families because what they were getting paid back home was worst. After they did majority of the work people complain that they took their jobs when in the first place they would not be successful in. "They all came voluntarily, as their consular paper certified, and their purpose in leaving their home and friends was to get honest work." (Yan, 1889)
Most of the workers that operated the steel, mining, railroads, and meat packing industries were made up of immigrants. The Hispanics, for example the Mexicans came to America with the help of the Johnson-Reed act of 1924. This enabled around 500,000 of Mexicans that came to the U.S for labor. These people conquered jobs like agriculture and construction. This was a time when the United States was prosperous and there were many jobs that required no skill available for people. The Mexicans were also being discriminated against in their land that was taken away from them.
The United States is known as the nation of immigrants. All the continuous waves of immigrants have made America rich with different cultures and new ideas. The U.S has really profited from all the different type of people that have come from all over the world. Are the immigrants really forcing Americans out of employment? The reason why I would disagree with this is because many immigrants cannot apply to the skilled jobs because they are not qualified to do so. What they do is take jobs most Americans will not take like being janitors, or working in manufacturing, etc. In addition we always hear the issue that immigration caused overpopulation in the United States. If immigration didn't exist the labor force would get smaller and the jobs the immigrants work in would be free. The schools in America from elementary-university to would lose thousands of its foreign students.
The problem in the United States isn't closing the borders to keep immigration out. When you look at the bigger picture America has not done a good job keeping the bad people out. A Present day issues for example is trying to keep the hard working people from coming in order to build a better life but we help people like Osama Bin Laden by supplying him with weapons and teaching him our tactics. We complain that we have tons and tons of immigrants in America but the real problems didn't come from the illegal immigrants. We as the most powerful nation in the world can do something to improve these problems.
Aside from the immigrants bringing new ideas they continue to be discriminated against. The African Americans were still being persecuted against after they were freed. The southern states passed "black codes" in order to protect white supremacy and in a way have African Americans as slaves. An example of a black code is "No negro shall be permitted to preach, exhort, or otherwise declaim to congregations of colored people, without a special permission in writing from the president of the police jury..." (Belmonte 2007) We see different immigration acts stopping immigration like the 1882 Chinese Exclusion act. The Chinese exclusion banned the Chinese laborers from coming to America. Ellis Island was the country's immigration station; it was used to slow down the immigration coming in. Over time immigration rules became restrictive.
On the other hand keeping immigration isn't all to good, we do have to control the borders to prevent people with bad intentions from coming. While the American cities were being industrialized and immigrants were flowing in so did infectious diseases and posed large threats to the Americans already here. The introduction of new immigrants meant new diseases, these diseases spread to other cities as well and caused people to get infected. "Epidemics of typhoid, smallpox, tuberculosis, and other diseases were routine." (Riss, 1890)
A large amount of immigrants get involve with gangs, which result in crime rates to go up. The illegal immigrants are known to not pay taxes, which does not help the U.S in any way. Including the fact that many immigrants receive money for education, and health care including welfare. "They do not comprehend or appreciate our social ideas, and they contribute but little to the support of any of our institutions, public or private." (Belmonte 2007) Today we can improve immigration by looking at all of its flaws due to the amount of growth of immigrants and how we can make them cooperate more. Acts are passed in order to control the flow of immigration in the United States.
The United States went through many waves of immigration from the beginning of its establishment to now. Immigrants like the Pilgrims, to the thousands of African Slaves that came against their own will to the Asians and Latin Americans. Even though it seems that every wave of immigrants cannot assimilate into American culture we need to look back and realize that there is no such thing as American Culture. It was the immigrants that made up what is known as American Culture because without their help America will not be the way it is right now. After reviewing the positive and negative outcomes of immigration in the United States the conclusion is that it has helped shape America.
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Immigrants were in search of finding an economic opportunity. For most the price of a passage to the new world was expensive which caused many Europeans to go on the voyage as indentured servants. Just like the African Americans some of the Europeans were captured and forced into servitude in America. African Americans were also one of the first immigrants in America that helped built the country economically. They were forced to come to America as slaves unlike the Europeans that had the choice to come. Most of the African Americans were responsible for the manual labor work: pick cotton, sugar canes, rice, etc. After the civil war, and emancipation proclamation, African Americans were still not equal to white men. President Johnson believed African Americans were threating to the white race. He said in a speech that, "…they shall rule the white race, make and administer state laws," and questioned if, "…trust and power [would] be safe in such hands?" (Johnson, 1867). Even though slaves worked in cruel conditions and gave the states economic benefits, they were not seen or treated the same as white men.
The United States is currently the leading country with the most immigrants. In the late 1700s to mid 1800s we see groups of immigrants like the Scottish, Irish, Dutch, French, and Germans mostly all from Europe. These groups of people came to America for a mixture of religious, political, economic reasons that include starvation and diseases at their homelands. From this year on every year we will see immigrants finding their ways into the United States. All these different types of immigrants that came here during the turn of the century were rejected by society. Society made them feel different and didn't believe that they can fit into American culture. During this time the process on coming to America was very easy, there was no stopping immigrants from coming in.
The fears America had when the Europeans came to America is the same fear people have today with the Hispanics and Asians. Immigrants like the Chinese, Japanese, and Asian countries came to American for the job openings. The labor for the Chinese was cheaper with longer working hours in a day/week with bad working conditions. These people got taken advantage of when it came to work, all they wanted is to make more money to support their families because what they were getting paid back home was worst. After they did majority of the work people complain that they took their jobs when in the first place they would not be successful in. "They all came voluntarily, as their consular paper certified, and their purpose in leaving their home and friends was to get honest work." (Yan, 1889)
Most of the workers that operated the steel, mining, railroads, and meat packing industries were made up of immigrants. The Hispanics, for example the Mexicans came to America with the help of the Johnson-Reed act of 1924. This enabled around 500,000 of Mexicans that came to the U.S for labor. These people conquered jobs like agriculture and construction. This was a time when the United States was prosperous and there were many jobs that required no skill available for people. The Mexicans were also being discriminated against in their land that was taken away from them.
The United States is known as the nation of immigrants. All the continuous waves of immigrants have made America rich with different cultures and new ideas. The U.S has really profited from all the different type of people that have come from all over the world. Are the immigrants really forcing Americans out of employment? The reason why I would disagree with this is because many immigrants cannot apply to the skilled jobs because they are not qualified to do so. What they do is take jobs most Americans will not take like being janitors, or working in manufacturing, etc. In addition we always hear the issue that immigration caused overpopulation in the United States. If immigration didn't exist the labor force would get smaller and the jobs the immigrants work in would be free. The schools in America from elementary-university to would lose thousands of its foreign students.
The problem in the United States isn't closing the borders to keep immigration out. When you look at the bigger picture America has not done a good job keeping the bad people out. A Present day issues for example is trying to keep the hard working people from coming in order to build a better life but we help people like Osama Bin Laden by supplying him with weapons and teaching him our tactics. We complain that we have tons and tons of immigrants in America but the real problems didn't come from the illegal immigrants. We as the most powerful nation in the world can do something to improve these problems.
Aside from the immigrants bringing new ideas they continue to be discriminated against. The African Americans were still being persecuted against after they were freed. The southern states passed "black codes" in order to protect white supremacy and in a way have African Americans as slaves. An example of a black code is "No negro shall be permitted to preach, exhort, or otherwise declaim to congregations of colored people, without a special permission in writing from the president of the police jury..." (Belmonte 2007) We see different immigration acts stopping immigration like the 1882 Chinese Exclusion act. The Chinese exclusion banned the Chinese laborers from coming to America. Ellis Island was the country's immigration station; it was used to slow down the immigration coming in. Over time immigration rules became restrictive.
On the other hand keeping immigration isn't all to good, we do have to control the borders to prevent people with bad intentions from coming. While the American cities were being industrialized and immigrants were flowing in so did infectious diseases and posed large threats to the Americans already here. The introduction of new immigrants meant new diseases, these diseases spread to other cities as well and caused people to get infected. "Epidemics of typhoid, smallpox, tuberculosis, and other diseases were routine." (Riss, 1890)
A large amount of immigrants get involve with gangs, which result in crime rates to go up. The illegal immigrants are known to not pay taxes, which does not help the U.S in any way. Including the fact that many immigrants receive money for education, and health care including welfare. "They do not comprehend or appreciate our social ideas, and they contribute but little to the support of any of our institutions, public or private." (Belmonte 2007) Today we can improve immigration by looking at all of its flaws due to the amount of growth of immigrants and how we can make them cooperate more. Acts are passed in order to control the flow of immigration in the United States.
The United States went through many waves of immigration from the beginning of its establishment to now. Immigrants like the Pilgrims, to the thousands of African Slaves that came against their own will to the Asians and Latin Americans. Even though it seems that every wave of immigrants cannot assimilate into American culture we need to look back and realize that there is no such thing as American Culture. It was the immigrants that made up what is known as American Culture because without their help America will not be the way it is right now. After reviewing the positive and negative outcomes of immigration in the United States the conclusion is that it has helped shape America.
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