How is an American Identity created? An American identity is created when immigrants to the United States assimilate into the American culture while still retaining their own culture as well. Immigrants can come from any country, like Japan, South Africa, Vietnam, Uruguay, etc, and can still be considered American in essence. An American identity is not determined by where you’re from, or who you are, but it is determined by if you take on the American culture along with your own, creating a unique, personal hybrid of a culture. American culture is also not a static thing, it changes as more and more people are assimilated into it and bringing their own piece of heritage, much like bringing a food item to a banquet. Therefore, American identity is created when an immigrant or new person to the country assimilates into the culture while still retaining …show more content…
For example, a popular belief is that the American culture represents a quilt with many different colored and patterned squares representing immigrants and their cultures. In the essay A Quilt of a Country by Anna Quindlen, she states: “That’s because it was built of bits and pieces that seem discordant, like the crazy quilts that have been one of its great folk-art forms, velvet and calico and checks and brocades. Out of many, one. That is the ideal.” (Quindlen, 14) This piece of evidence shows that the culture and heritage of the immigrants represents a quilt, with each unique immigrant and their heritage representing a unique square on the quilt of America. Also, the contributions which immigrants have made in America all help reflect upon the American identity shared by all, as each wave of immigration left a mark on the fabric of American progress. In the essay The Immigrant Contribution by John F. Kennedy,
Immigration has existed around the world for centuries, decades, and included hundreds of cultures. Tired of poverty, a lack of opportunities, unequal treatment, political corruption, and lacking any choice, many decided to emigrate from their country of birth to seek new opportunities and a new and better life in another country, to settle a future for their families, to work hard and earn a place in life. As the nation of the opportunities, land of the dreams, and because of its foundation of a better, more equal world for all, the United States of America has been a point of hope for many of those people. A lot of nationals around the world have ended their research for a place to call home in the United States of America. By analyzing primary sources and the secondary sources to back up the information, one could find out about what Chinese, Italians, Swedish, and Vietnamese immigrants have experienced in the United States in different time periods from 1865 to 1990.
Moving from the unpleasant life in the old country to America is a glorious moment for an immigrant family that is highlighted and told by many personal accounts over the course of history. Many people write about the long boat ride, seeing The Statue of Liberty and the “golden” lined streets of New York City and how it brought them hope and comfort that they too could be successful in American and make it their home. Few authors tend to highlight the social and political developments that they encountered in the new world and how it affected people’s identity and the community that they lived in. Authors from the literature that we read in class highlight these developments in the world around them, more particularly the struggles of assimilating
Quilt of a Country by Anna Quindlen and Making the Future Better Together by Eboo Patel are two different books that overlap with each other multiple times. Eboo Patel focuses mainly on the future of our youth while Anna Quindlen writes about our patchwork nation. In both essays you see talk of diversity and unity.
The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute to Social Services and Medicaid through taxes and they help provide the backbone of America, especially by working jobs that natives may have not even considered.
In the United States, the cliché of a nation of immigrants is often invoked. Indeed, very few Americans can trace their ancestry to what is now the United States, and the origins of its immigrants have changed many times in American history. Despite the identity of an immigrant nation, changes in the origins of immigrants have often been met with resistance. What began with white, western European settlers fleeing religious persecution morphed into a multicultural nation as immigrants from countries across the globe came to the U.S. in increasing numbers. Like the colonial immigrants before them, these new immigrants sailed to the Americas to gain freedom, flee poverty and famine, and make a better life for themselves. Forgetting their origins as persecuted and excluded people, the older and more established immigrants became possessive about their country and tried to exclude and persecute the immigrant groups from non-western European backgrounds arriving in the U.S. This hostile, defensive, and xenophobic reaction to influxes of “new” immigrants known as Nativism was not far out of the mainstream. Nativism became a part of the American cultural and political landscape and helped to shape, through exclusion, the face of the United States for years to come.
After the United States had gained its independence, immigrants began to arrive to the American lands. And in the late 1800s the immigrants’ situation has changed. Many Americans started to look at the immigrants, as that they are different. The Industrial factions moderators viewed immigrants as a source of good revenue and considered them as that they were cheap labors. Then every faction started to look at the immigrants in the way where their benefits are. As results, the government of the United States have had issued a restrictions on the immigrants. (Immigration Since the 1870s, 1). Some Americans who Return to origins of Japanese, Filipino, and Mexican roots had the problem of the mysterious identity, where they were treated as immigrants or non U.S. citizenships in several period of times. Japanese Americans and Mexican Americans were two of the big American parties who faced racism as a nation in the United states.
Some would say, quotes John F. Kennedy, “Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.” Thus, in today’s society, we can say that immigrants are what made America possible—economically and socially. We are in a melting pot era where the impossible was made possible. From the time John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960, making a promise to change the national origins system to unite the nations of all countries equally. Hence, in 1965, under Lyndon Johnson’s administration, Kennedy’s promise came into light, amending the INS—favoring unification of families, not national origins. Although, the unification was made possible, the peacefulness never lasted.
The world is a vast and deep pool of people who vary in just about every detail, from their background, to their religion, and their ethnicity. Across the globe, insights, thoughts, and opinions differ and in as many ways as the people do. The differences in each individual is what makes them unique. Through this diversity, humans can find common ground in order to collaborate. Two texts from this unit exemplify the need to connect with one another and find common ground. In Anna Quindlen’s argumentative article “A Quilt of a Country”, Quindlen argues that despite the odds of America’s conflicting nature as a nation, it is able to unify the variety of people within itself. In addition, Abraham Lincoln urges the North
The American experiment is one that has been ongoing since the moment the first settler stepped foot on the newly discovered continent. The definition of what it means to be someone in this new place has changed frequently, and a common national identity was not something that was common until about halfway through the occupancy of said new place. This is because unlike other lands, American has been left untouched by our European style of thought for most of its inception. America changed that, only certain people came over, and these are the people that have had the most impact on our way of thinking. The identity known as being American took time to develop, starting with the writings of the explorers, flowing to the thoughts of religious
The. Kessner, Thomas and Betty Boyd Caroli, “Today’s Immigrants, Their Stories.” Kiniry and Rose, 343-346. Print. The. Portes, Alejandro and Ruben G. Rumbaut, “Immigrant America: A Portrait.” Kiniry and Rose, 336-337.
Culture and identity are two very strange ideas. They are received at a very young age, yet they are very hard to give to someone else. They will affect you for the rest or your life, yet for the most part you are born into them. However, they soon become very important to us and we cannot, no matter what we do, live without them. They are a part of us, and a vital aspect of society. However, it took me a very long time to recognize that I had an identity and a little while after that before I knew what it was.
The Culture of Americans is diverse and evolving constantly, due to changing interests, landscapes, religions, and geography.
Before beginning the explanation of how an identity is formed, one must understand what an identity is. So, what is identity? To answer this, one might think of what gives him individuality; what makes him unique; what makes up his personality. Identity is who one is. Identity is a factor that tells what one wants out of life and how he is set to get it. It tells what kind of a person one is by the attitude and persona he has. And it depends upon the mixture of all parts of one’s life including personal choices and cultural and societal influences, but personal choices affect the identity of one more than the others.
I live in this huge mix of culture. Culture is personal. People can have many cultures especially in America and because of globalization. Cultural identity is not one or the other, it is not Mexican or American. Cultural identity is an individual relevant thing.
United States usually known as the “melting pot” and it is a typical immigrant country. In the past 400 years, United States has become a mixture of more than 100 ethnic groups. Immigrants bring they own dream and come to this land, some of them looking for better life for themselves and some want to make some money to send back home or they want their children to grow up in better condition. Throughout the history there’s few times of large wave of immigration and it is no exaggeration to say that immigrants created United States. For this paper I interview my neighbor and his immigration story is pretty interesting.