Immigration to the United States
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- Category: Politics
- Date Submitted: 02/02/2010 05:46 AM
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Immigration to the United States
The United States is a land of immigrants. Presently, there are about 38 million foreigners (Wikipedia) who moved there for different reasons. Generally, they search for better opportunities or freedom and that is why they decide to settle in America. Yet, from the nation’s founding, immigration has been a controversial issue, particularly when the newcomers were in some way “different” from the dominant group at the time. Today, anti-immigration sentiment remains very strong but despite many anti-immigration arguments, increased immigration is important for both the cultural and economic well being of the United States.
Those who argue against immigration often make seemingly common sense arguments. They claim that immigration is threatening not only the English language, but also American culture. Thomas E. Lehman, Professor of Economics and Western Civilization from Indiana Wesleyan University, said: “Traditional culture is being sabotaged by an influx of immigrants who are unfamiliar with and perhaps even hostile toward its institutional framework. Immigrants of the late-twentieth-century variety do not possess the same ethnic characteristics of earlier immigrants, and therefore do not have an appreciation for the American way of life” (Lehman). Such an argument may suggest that recent immigrants who come from Third World nations controlled by regimes have no understanding of the traditional institutions that have made America great. Allowing these immigrants of considerably different culture and ethnic heritage into the United States will cause divisions of American society into distinct racial groups that will ignore political and economic institutions of United States. Apart from this, religion also has been part of anti-immigration sentiments. The largely Protestant new nation proclaimed religious freedom, but the arrival of many Roman Catholics caused anti-immigration sentiments early in the nineteenth...
The United States is a land of immigrants. Presently, there are about 38 million foreigners (Wikipedia) who moved there for different reasons. Generally, they search for better opportunities or freedom and that is why they decide to settle in America. Yet, from the nation’s founding, immigration has been a controversial issue, particularly when the newcomers were in some way “different” from the dominant group at the time. Today, anti-immigration sentiment remains very strong but despite many anti-immigration arguments, increased immigration is important for both the cultural and economic well being of the United States.
Those who argue against immigration often make seemingly common sense arguments. They claim that immigration is threatening not only the English language, but also American culture. Thomas E. Lehman, Professor of Economics and Western Civilization from Indiana Wesleyan University, said: “Traditional culture is being sabotaged by an influx of immigrants who are unfamiliar with and perhaps even hostile toward its institutional framework. Immigrants of the late-twentieth-century variety do not possess the same ethnic characteristics of earlier immigrants, and therefore do not have an appreciation for the American way of life” (Lehman). Such an argument may suggest that recent immigrants who come from Third World nations controlled by regimes have no understanding of the traditional institutions that have made America great. Allowing these immigrants of considerably different culture and ethnic heritage into the United States will cause divisions of American society into distinct racial groups that will ignore political and economic institutions of United States. Apart from this, religion also has been part of anti-immigration sentiments. The largely Protestant new nation proclaimed religious freedom, but the arrival of many Roman Catholics caused anti-immigration sentiments early in the nineteenth...