Nation Of Immigrants example essay topic

Immigration in the United States Immigration has played an important role in the building and formation of America, because of this federal laws have resulted in mass immigration. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders account for a large number of Asians who now reside in the United States and consists of various other groups. These growing populations of immigrants include such groups as Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, and Vietnamese Americans, Hawaiians and Samoans, and people from India, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. According to 1990 census, there are currently over than 7.2 million Asian American and Pacific islanders who currently live in the United States.

Many of these immigrants migrate to the United States in search for better living conditions, better jobs, and just better economic opportunity. Throughout history, Congress has enacted laws and has had to amend them to control the flow of both legal and illegal migration to the United States. Many proposition have been passed to support this halt in immigration Legislation was first enacted in an effort to control the number of applicants fleeing persecution; it permitted 205,000 refugees to enter the United States. Later on into the 20th century there would be laws repealing the older immigration laws and acts making it possible for many more foreigners to immigrate to the United States. Even with the new acts and laws that banned the older ones, no one can just walk right in and become a citizen. One must go through several examinations and tests before he or she can earn their citizenship.

A controversy which wavers through many minds is whether the United States is inherently a nation of immigrants who share the responsibility and the riches for the development of this country or whether the United States a nation where immigrants present the greatest current threat to national security and economic stability. I believe that immigration adds to the progress and formation of the United States. I believe that immigration helps our country's cultural literacy. Cultural literacy can be explained by this: we are constantly receiving new people into our country and as they come, our cultures "rub off" on each other, beginning an intertwining, mixing and integration with another. By understanding these different groups we understand their cultures and we become more culturally literate (to the other person's culture) and our cultures actually mix. America is great because of this.

The concept of cultural literacy is an important one to understand in order to make America a better place to live for everybody. By learning from the various cultures and ways of immigrants we can apply it to our own government to better it. We can teach and inform one another of new and different information that maybe helpful to each other's culture. People argue that our jobs are being taken by illegal immigrants and that it causes a shortage of employment. However, immigrants are the ones who take the jobs that average U.S. citizens do not want. They help in the development of our country in the way that they are employed in these jobs that offer cheap labor and minimum wage, and to add, which is not nearly enough to survive off of.

If you were to ask me a long time ago which single immigrant group has had it harder than the others I would have told you none. Each and every immigrant group has suffered in many different ways and to different extents. They have all had it hard to ways we may not be able to understand. From the Jews and Japanese being forced to go to internment camps, the African Americans and Irish being whipped into submission as slaves to another race, to the Chinese being exiled from their own land. However, I can honestly say that I feel today Middle Easterners have it harder than other immigrant groups due to the tragic event of September 11. Since then, Middle Easterners have faced hate crimes, being falsely stereotyped, face racial profiling from law enforcement officials and from others of another culture.

Those who are innocent live through the alienation caused by the ignorance of others. I do not believe that there is a single official model minority group. Each and every immigrant group has their own differences and hardships. Although their problems may seem relatively alike each face these certain situations in their own way. Each group solely represents their own culture and traditions.

Again, because of September 11 I would have to say that Middle Easterners, today, generate the greatest negative public opinion. This disastrous event has caused some people to wrongly construe negative opinions toward all Middle Easterners. However, not all Middle Easterners are out to terrorize our country. But all the negative public opinion can be explained from the misdoings of others. And from the single minded ignorant views of the media. The media largely plays a role in influencing one's perceptions.

The media -- such as televisions, magazines, and advertisements -- sways the public's view to solely one side. Majority of the time only one side of a story is taken into consideration and exposed. This causes misinterpretations and misunderstanding which can lead people into assuming negative things about Middle Easterners. Immigrants do not present any kind of threat to our country, rather they help form our nation. Immigrants diversify our nation and contribute to the progress of the United States, whether its sharing a little information to expand out cultural literacy to taking unwanted jobs that our citizens reject. America is the large melting pot of cultures, ideas, beliefs, and systems which are greatly diverse.

People need to diminish their negative misconceptions of other races which are falsely publicized by the media. We need to come to the truth and realize that individuals' actions do not account for everyone. There are those who are innocent and mean no harm. They simply migrated to the United States in hope for better economic opportunity and a better life style. We must also see that our nation was largely developed with the help of these immigrants.

Our nation was born from the womb of the lost, the poor and the exiled. Our nation is one of immigrants and should remain in this manner.