Thesis: The waves of immigration and immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century and at the end of the 20th century have faced similar receptions, economic and political issues, and those of assimilation.
The Trend Toward Complexity & Restriction
Comparison to Other Immigration Waves
The immigration wave between 1890 and 1930 into the United States was labeled the “new immigration” and the Germans, Italians and Irish who made up the majority of immigrants during this period came to this country for a host of reasons. Many fled deplorable economic conditions and overpopulation. Others fled because of corrupt governments. Likewise, the immigrants who have come to the U.S. over the past three decades, primarily from Latin America, have done so for similar reasons. From assimilation to racism, the waves of immigrants in the first part and last part of the 20th century experienced many similarities though differences do exist. For example, immigrants in the first part of the 20th century were expected to learn and use English as their primary language. This is not necessarily the case with the modern wave of immigrants from Latin America. The legal status and reception by the U.S. of both waves of immigrants also contains similarities and differences.
In general, both in the early 1900s and the late 1900s, strong waves of emigration occurred because of population overcrowding in donor countries and because the economic systems of donor countries were at least partly integrated into the U.S. (i.e., the receiving nation). One need only look at the high numbers of immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean after the passage of NAFTA to see that this is certainly true for immigrants from the south. The following chart shows the origin of immigrants to the U.S. in 1992:
There are some different aspects of society that one reviewed for both waves of immigration demonstrate the similarities and differences o...