Immigration Issues in the U.S.
This is an excerpt from the paper...
The United States is a nation of immigrants. Only the Native Americans are indigenous to this continent, and at some point in their history they may also have come to this region from Asia across the Bering Strait or by some other means. In this century, consecutive waves of immigration from different parts of the world created tensions with Americans already living in this country, for they believed that the immigrants were taking their jobs, gorging the welfare roles, and somehow reducing their overall standard of living. Even many of those who support the values immigrants bring with them have emphasized that no nation can allow unfettered crossings of its borders and that some sort of immigration policy has to be set in place and enforced, though there may be large differences among groups as to what is an acceptable policy. The issue has also been raised as to who is an American and what does it mean to become an American. This is often bound with the issue of whether one can be an American and not speak English, and English-only movements have developed with the answer that one cannot. Much of this discussion is clearly motivated by a concern that immigration, legal and illegal, is out of hand and that too many people are coming into the United States. Usually it is thought that there are too many because they are taking jobs that Americans could otherwise have and so damaging the economy. At a time of slow economic growth, such arguments are especially compel
. . .
air way:
FAIR portrays itself simply as an organization advocating limits on immigration but its ties to the Pioneer Fund hint at darker motives. Besides being an omnipresent spokesperson against immigration in the media, FAIR has also sponsored the formation of numerous local citizen action groups against immigrants (Lacey 21).
Underlying the debate on immigration is the ever-present question of who can be an American. This is not a new debate, though it may sound new to some because much of it has been revived or reshaped from earlier versions. The issue of bilingualism and whether an American has to be able to speak fluent English in order to be an American, for instance, was a debate on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. President Roosevelt and others took a political stand against bilingualism, holding that the continued use of foreign languages was somehow un-American. There was at the same time a scientific and professional literature that claimed that there were intellectual limitations associated with a lack of fluency in English:
Paralleling in many ways the evolution of theories about migration and mental health, these works gave scientific legitimacy to the calls for restriction and linguistic assim
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Marilyn Lacey, Immigration Reform, Jack Miles, Bering Strait, Americans British, Portes Rumbaut, Pioneer Fund, Act Immigration, Trade Center, United Usually, immigration reform, developed countries, taking jobs, immigration policy, concern immigrants, becoming american,
Approximate Word count = 1551
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Immigration Issues in the U.S.
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
