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Immigration Dbq Analysis

Decent Essays

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

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