Pros and Cons of Immigration to American Society

Ever since the 1800s, America has been undergoing a gradual change that would change the lives of Americans further on. Americans has been constantly debating whether immigration is or is not beneficial to the country and its inhabitants. Such is why immigrants have difficult times assimilating, more importantly joining, into the American culture. While some would argue that immigrants have been cultural benefactors to the American society, others would argue that they are rather a threat to everything American. Immigrants, who believed that their freedom would come from America, found the exact opposite of what they were expecting. As an immigrant, coming to the United States from a foreign country came with the price of difficulties and imminent hardships.
As Foner simply puts, “the early twentieth century was a period of massive immigration to the US” (VF p.73). Of these immigrants, many believed the US to be a land of freedom and opportunity; a new start to their lives. These immigrants came from Europe, Mexico, Canada, and several more countries. Similar to the Santellas of Gamio’s research, immigrants enjoyed the American life, for the comfort, the quietness, and the less amount of danger compared to their previous home (VF p.75). America became the safe haven for immigrants who disagreed with the lifestyle of the countries they used to live in, and for those who sought the life of peace over the life of struggle.
The Santella family continues to be a main example, as a family whose wish is to make their lives, especially those of their children, much better than it was in Mexico, which at the time was severely suffering from the Mexican Revolution. The children easily assimilated into the American culture, with paying job...

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... (GML p.1113). While the movement was very large, immigrants and the government could not agree upon their terms and has become a delicate issue to speak about today.
Immigration has been an issue that has come up many times over the past centuries, with two sides for each argument: immigration either beneficial or detrimental to the American society. Foreigners, tempted by the siren call of freedom and happiness, came to the United States to find what seemed to be the opposite. Immigrants had to struggle through many challenges to assimilate into the American culture, leaving behind cultures that were once their lives. As time went by, anti-immigration seemed to have disappeared, but its shadow lingers over America as a delicate matter. Immigrants have come far from what they had to go through in the past as they strived to find the freedom they have longed for.