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Immigration over the last 100 years

This research will trace the actions and attitudes of Americans toward immigrants over the past 100 years. The research will set forth elements and patterns of change and continuity that can be discerned from the behavior of Americans with regard to the presence and behavior of immigrants during this period and then discuss factors that appear to have influenced attitudes toward immigrants, as well as evaluate the influences themselves.

Until recently, America has been the promised land for millions throughout the world. That seemingly simple statement, however, conceals a more complex truth about the immigrant experience of America. For, as Barkan points out, "Migration involves the choices and actions of individual men and women and their families" (p. 4). This is true whether the individuals in question are making choices in their country of birth or in the United Sates. Thus, for some, America was the golden land of economic or social opportunity. For others, it was a refuge from oppression. For still others, it was (or it turned out to be) both. And for others, it was a disappointment, not least because of the kind of reception they received or because of their inability to transform their dream of America into their lived experience of reality.

Before the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Americans in general appear to have welcomed the newcomers. Workers were needed for the growing industries; farmers were needed to fill out the wide spaces in the West, and pamphlets and posters advertised the riches and beauty of the country in order to encourage the settling of the prairies (Kraut, p. 15). During this period and continuing afterward, America was the destination of the greatest mass migration the world had ever seen.

Between 1840 and 1880, about 10 million immigrants came to the United States. Between 1880 and 1914, at least another 20 million arrived (Study Notes Diagram, p. 5). What is important about the natur...

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Immigration over the last 100 years. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 16:33, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1709542.html