Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
This inscription, which is found on the Statue of Liberty, greeted years of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island to America. It describes the idealized view of the United States as a nation of immigrants, where anyone can achieve the American dream. However, does this accurately describe our immigration policy today? Our current policy is better described by this version, written by Chris Willey (Willey et al.):
Give me your athletes, your scientists,
Your artists, writers, and actors,
Your politicians and businessmen.
Send these, the best and brightest, to me.
To these lies open the golden door:
You can keep the rest.
Under current U.S. immigration laws, it is not difficult for those immigrants labeled as desirable to receive admittance. The Immigration Act of 1990 created new categories of immigrants. "Within the employment category, first preference was given to aliens ‘with extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers, multinational executives'..." (Richmond 143). It may be true that these creative and skilled people have just as much of a right to pursue the American dream as anyone else. But do we, as Americans, have the moral right to exclude the needy from our country?
Refugees have two basic choices. They can return to their home country, or they can try to settle in another country. Most refugees, however, cannot return home because conditions in their native country have not changed sufficiently to eliminate the problems from whi...
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...ess, Boulder, CO, 1996.
The Holy Bible. New Revised Standard Version. Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, 1989.
Hunter, Gordon, ed. Immigrant Voices. Signet Classic, New York, NY, 1999.
North Carolina Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. Environmental Facts. http://ntbox.owr.ehnr.state.nc.us/earthday/facts.htm.
Rachels, James. The Elements of Moral Philosophy. 3rd edition. McGraw-Hill, Boston, 1999.
Richmond, Anthony. Global Apartheid. Oxford University Press, Toronto, 1994.
Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK 1993.
Social Contract Press. The Social Contract Archives. http://www.thesocialcontract.com
Willey, Chris; Saunier, David; and Mendez, Garry. Reinscribing the Statue of Liberty. Horizon Magazine, Jan 1998. http://www.horizonmag.com/pictorial/liberty.htm
Living without loved ones and their precious belongings will make refugees face the point of turning “inside out”. All refugees have lost loved ones and their precious belongings. For many refugees they lose their parent’s or siblings. Some don’t have family there anymore so they lose their belongings that remind them of their home, family, and country.
According to a memorable part of the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Consequently, America invited immigrants to come. Yet, there is a manmade concern, “immigration could account for all the yearly increase in population. Should we not at least ask if that is what we want (Hardin, 1974)?” Well! The audacity in Garrett Hardin’s 1974 essay, “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor” is to ingeniously imply concern about the harm immigration causes, but in all actuality exposes the support of partiality to
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.
The life of a refugee is not just a life of trials and ordeals, but also has rewards for those who pushed through the pain.
Immigration has always and will always be an essential part of America’s demographic and cultural diversity. Our country was founded on the immigration of Europeans to the New World; without them our nation would not be as advanced as it is today. Over the past three centuries, America’s immigration policies have evolved, both positively and negatively. Although we are moving forward, several episodes in our country’s immigration policy have targeted and attacked certain ethnic or cultural groups. Throughout America there is disparity regarding attitudes toward immigrants. Policies fluctuate throughout the entire country, different states, and even major cities. As the United States moves forth, it is vital that we remember how crucial immigrants
America is known famously throughout the world with the nickname 'The melting pot.' The reason behind this is that America is extremely diverse and has many different people. Immigrants give America the chance to know the culture of many countries. They bring in their culture, religion, economic benefits, and ideology to America. I believe that the United States should allow legal immigrants from all over the world because they bring many benefits to it. Immigrants are a positive influence on United States of America.
Immigration has been part of America since before the 17th century. America has evolved into what it is today due to immigration; however immigration as negative effects as well. Immigration is the building blocks for America. Every one that lives in America today are here because their ancestors immigrated here long ago. Over the years immigration as evolved into a more sophisticated matter. There are many laws they have been put in place to monitor and stop immigration. Immigration I a big factor in America but must be done correctly to insure Americas safety.
Today, there are over 65 million refugees in the world. That means that one in every 113 people in the world is a refugee. To many, this number may seem extremely alarming. Many refugees struggle to find a place to resettle. America, along with other developed countries, has often been considered dreamland for these displaced people, making many wanting to get out of their war-torn houses and camps. Refugees immigrating to America have been displaced from their original homes, face frustrating immigration policies, and have difficulties starting a new life in a new land.
America is sometimes referred to as a "nation of immigrants" because of our largely open-door policy toward accepting foreigners pursuing their vision of the American Dream. Recently, there has been a clamor by some politicians and citizens toward creating a predominantly closed-door policy on immigration, arguing that immigrants "threaten" American life by creating unemployment by taking jobs from American workers, using much-needed social services, and encroaching on the "American way of life." While these arguments may seem valid to many, they are almost overwhelmingly false, and more than likely confused with the subject of illegal immigration. In fact, immigrants actually enhance American life by creating, not taking jobs, bolster social service funds through tax payments, and bring valuable technical knowledge and skills to our country. If we are to continue to excel as a nation, the traditionalists who fear an encroachment of foreign-born Americans must learn to accept that we achieved our greatness as a result of being "a nation of immigrants."
The issue of immigration has been around for many years. The first immigrants, who came from Ireland, arrived to the U.S through Ellis Island in January 1, 1892.Now in the modern era, there are diverse populations of immigrants emigrating from their respective homelands to find opportunities and make a better living here in the U.S. The idea of immigrants migrating here to the U.S is to be part of an enrich capitalist society that offers them a broader world of freedom, free speech, preference of religion, right to own businesses, titled to an education, ECT… “The crux of the aspirations of the average immigrant is motivated by the notion that one can achieve the American dream through hard work and perseverance and, ultimately, hard work and perseverance are rewarded by upward mobility via their children’s educational achievement” (Kao 1). Many immigrant parents often make the decision to emigrate, not for their own beneficial needs, but to give their child the opportunity to be...
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugee is a term applied to anyone who is outside his/her own country and cannot return due to the fear of being persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a group or political opinion. Many “refugees” that the media and the general public refer to today are known as internally displaced persons, which are people forced to flee their homes to avoid things such as armed conflict, generalized violations of human rights or natural and non-natural disasters. These two groups are distinctly different but fall ...
Many individuals have ambivalent feelings concerning the escalation of immigrants into the U. S every year. However, despite all those ambivalent feelings some individuals heavily believe immigrants should not be admitted as a vital part of society, and there are those who think that they should. One individual who believes that immigrants are an essential part of society is Debra Miller who
Today, immigration has been a very popular topic especially in the media. It has been a subject of intense national debate because of the new election. Every year, hundreds of thousands of immigrants, legal and illegal, from around the world, come here to the United States. Because they feel like the United States has more benefits, and freedom. These people all have different reasons; some hoping to get a better life, some hiding from persecution etc... Many of them believe America is the best place to go. I plan on finding answers to the following questions: Why should/shouldn’t immigrants be allowed to stay? Should we have any restrictions on who is allowed to immigrate to this country? If so, which ones? How does immigration affect the
As refugees continue to flee their countries, the surrounding countries struggle to cope with the influx of new people into their country. Camps for displaced people hoping to cross into and gain refugee status in neighboring countries can be seen from miles away, as white tents stretch into the distance.... ... middle of paper ... ...