A large part of current American culture derives from immigration which occurred over the past 100-150 years. We know this because of our everyday life. We see Italian, Mexican, and Chinese restaurants everywhere we turn, we have children telling stories of their grandparents coming into America, and immigrants sharing their country’s culture by simply living their lives. America truly is a melting pot. However, there’s a question that has to be addressed: was it worth it? In short, yes, but there are many reasons why it was. Immigration was it because it aided people to escape poverty, persecution and unfair treatment, and caused people to be encouraged to work for what they want and build a life for themselves in the new country that they …show more content…
Many people immigrated to America to run away from impoverished countries. After this, people still faced struggles with getting out of the tough times that everyone experiences. However, Document A shows that, as time goes on, the poverty rates of immigrants decrease. For example, immigrants that have been in the US for 4 years or less have a 33.3% poverty rate and people that have been in the US for 4-5 years have a 25.5% poverty rate. This means that within a few years, 7.8% of people that were impoverished successfully pulled themselves out of the terrible times of poverty. 7.8% may not seem like a lot, but people have to remember that these are living, breathing people that are prospering and building lives for themselves in a foreign country and that, in itself, is …show more content…
Many immigrants that came to the US started out with basically nothing. Some people got upset about this, but most were motivated to beat expectations and surpass standards. An example of this is in Document E. Document E is an excerpt from a child of Mexican immigrants, Richard Rodriguez’s autobiography. In this excerpt, Rodriguez talks about a situation where nuns from Richard’s school came to his home and spoke to Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez about his English abilities. They were told that he barely spoke in class and when he did, his English speaking abilities were not as good as they should be for a child his age. Richard’s parents were told to encourage him to speak English to them, so they did. They practiced and worked with Rodriguez in order for him to succeed. Just weeks after this, Richard was finally able to speak in class. This made him feel like an American citizen at last. The bottom line is that immigrants weren’t just sitting back and letting themselves struggle. They knew what was going on and made goals for themselves to make their personal situation
Immigration is still a thing today but it was very different in the early to mid 1900’s. There were many types of people coming in and out of the U.S. They all were coming for their own reason. One of the most known reason was just so them and their family could have a better life. Some would go through Ellis Island, the island was pretty much what national services/customs is today. One good reason for the Irish was the famine (Doc. 1). The Irish couldn't grow their potatoes, their main source of food and money at the time. Another main reason was that the Italians were in some hard times and epidemics(Doc. 1). People immigrated from greece also. A Greek man shared his reason for immigrating. His reasons were “Work over there was very bad.
allowing sponsors to post bonds to guarantee that an applicant for immigration would not become a public charge. President Roosevelt took no position on these issues.
Imagine you’re on a big crowded ship that’s swinging back and forth, seeking for a better life, for protecting on U.S. You are considered as an immigrant. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many people around the world started immigrating to U.S for a new life. The time period of industrialization of the 1800s caused economic growth, and social changes in U.S. Immigrants provided an unskilled workforce fueling prejudice among the American citizens. Industries grew a big gap between the rich and poor. Many started to wonder whether the immigration policy should be open or restricted. Some say that the immigration policy should be restricted because it makes U.S over populated and creates job problems. Other say that there should be
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
In the late 19th, early 18th, century immigration became very prominent in America. Immigrants from around the world began to flood into America each one seeking something different, but it wasn’t always easy. Most immigrants faced many challenges, some negative and others positive. In fact, most immigrants fled to America for all the positive attributes it had to offer compared to the country they were previously living in.
During the late nineteenth century, immigration began to evolve. Advancements in technology made travel easier and quicker, and the advancement of industry in America opened up more jobs. Immigrants came for a variety of reasons, and not all stayed permanently. The immigrant, just like immigration, was changing with the times. There were different situations encouraging people to leave Europe, they had different goals, and many of the immigrants had a plan to return home.
Another major hardship that was faced by most immigrants was the way that they were treated. Often times they were treated like second-class citizens and were thought to be inferior to the natural born citizens. They also seemed to only be able to hold jobs that no one else really wanted to do, for very low wages. Most of the time people would
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
After the Civil War, people started migrating West and more immigrants started coming. The country went through several major changes between 1865 and 1880 that resulted in significant changes in labor and industrialization. The majority of the country owed war debts and there were money issues that caused people to lose money, but the country was quickly industrializing and urbanizing to improve agricultural life. While the North was thriving from new inventions and methods, the South was trying to recover from the affects of the end of slavery.
Without the immigration and slavery from early United States history, especially from the time period of 1880 to 1925 one can only imagine where we would be today. The topic of immigration from 1880 to 1925 is not a largely known subject, though it is taught in many of todays history courses. Around the time of 1880 the United States stood welcome and open to immigrants, the immigrants were being let into the United States because the U.S. needed workers to build railroads, and this was the perfect opportunity. Many of the white race became unhappy with immigrants coming to the U.S., but it was brought to the attention of them by Booker T. Washington that without immigrants and slaves where would the U.S. be? The tensions surrounding immigration
Being an undocumented immigrant is hard and just by when others notice that one is not fluent, they will begin to treat one differently and even look down on them even though the immigrants adapt to the melting pot. They have abandoned their cultures to become assimilated into the American society. In the article, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas, he states, “However, I grew up this is my home yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country. My country doesn’t think of me as one of its own” (236). In stating this, Juan adapted living in the USA he is more part of the melting pot, not the salad bowl he feels American even though he’s
Life as an immigrant in the U.S was not all that great. First, they had to learn English
In the early 17th century, the American Industrial Revolution sent the United States forward in social, political, and economic innovations. Soon after America had been taking strides in development, immigration became commonplace. Immigrants saw opportunities for themselves in America, and wanted to improve their lives in other impoverished countries by offering their services of any kind of labor in the United States. While immigrants contributed greatly to the Industrial Revolution, a variety of issues arose in their lives as the immigrant population climbed. Since they were willing to take any job, foreigners often provided cheap labor, which made them easy to take advantage of. Also, big businesses preferred desperate immigrants to comfortable natives, so immigrants became a hated group among Americans as well. As a result, immigration at the turn of the century was particularly different and strenuous for immigrants because they endured unhealthy and crowded living areas and endure exclusion from the U.S government and citizens. To thrive through these harsh conditions, immigrants formed communities consisting of people of their own race and culture and shaped their own culture rather than attempting to follow the Americans’ way of life.
Richards essay describes how he has to “ trade” his Spanish language identity to find his “public” language identity . He remembers his parents trying their best to speak more English in their home to help their kids fit into society . He talks about how the fact that he lost one identity was worth the gain of the other identity he so longed for . “At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true since my birth: I was an American citizen” (454-455). It was at that moment that he knew for a fact that his whole life he was already an American citizen . To him beign an American citizen meant having an English language identity and being able to speak the public language. As a boy Rodriguez was able to only speak and understand the Spanish language . To him it was the only real identity he ever had growing up . He also discussed that because the Spanish language identity is developed among his family members. That the language is somehow responsible for how they were able to identify themselves
Since its founding, the United States has attracted immigrants from all over the world and consists of a variety of different cultures. Immigration has had an enormous impact on American society and economy and shaped the country remarkably.