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The impact of immigration on American culture
The impact of immigration on American culture
The impact of immigration on American culture
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1. What issues that surround Latino immigration to America does each author address? In secondary source 1, John Richwine addresses the fact the Latinos are not like the Irish, the Italians or the Poles no matter the assumption of so many. Richwine argues that when the Latinos migrated over here they refused to assimilate or better their self’s like other immigrants have. He focused on and stated that even after second and third generations they didn’t seem to want to better their selves or become Americans. (“But even that view is overly optimistic, because of the second, larger problem with Hispanic assimilation: It appears to stall after the second generation. We see little further ladder-climbing from the grandchildren of Hispanic What comparisons does each author make to historical immigration groups? John Richwine used European Immigrants (the Irish, the Italians and the Poles) to compare the Latino immigration groups too. He compared how the Europeans came with no money and improved their selves through generations as opposed to the Latinos. (“Many of those Europeans came to America with no money and few skills, but their status steadily improved”). Leo Chaves compared his argument on the Latino Immigrants to the German language threat, the Catholic threat, the Chinese and Japanese immigration threats, and the southern and eastern European threat. Chaves states Latino immigrants are not like the European threat in that that have ancestral roots here and have a completely different agenda for being here. (Latinos have been in what is now the United States since the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, predating the English colonies. Since the Mexican-American War, immigration from Mexico and other Latin countries has waxed and waned, building in the early twentieth century, diminishing in the 1930s, and building again the post-1965 Based on what you have learned, what examples from American history can you think of that would support or refute each author 's argument? As the European immigrants were flowing into this country they were largely unskilled, poor and did not speak English. They were, however, hardworking and more than willing to become Americans in almost every way and had the desire to grow and succeed. They did at first segregate themselves into groups, Irish, Pols, Germans, Italian etc.., until the time they started to become more financially independent which allowed growth into better jobs and into more Americanized housing. This process of course took time and within a few generations they were considered Americans and had assimilated into modern society. One thing to keep in mind was the fact that when European immigrants were flowing into the US they had to undergo immigration processes that at that time allowed them to become legal in this country, some did still come in illegally, however. A large number of Mexican immigrants here in this country are technically here for a better life free of an oppressive government still, they are not bettering their lives compared to the American standards of living and are considered to be living as low-class citizens for the most part. They are hardworking and mostly unskilled labors and like the Europeans willing to do jobs no one else wants to do. But unlike the Europeans, most are not undergoing the immigration process needed to
The Latino Generation: Voices of the New America is a book written by Mario T. Garcia. This book tells the individual life stories of individual Latino Americans all attending the same class at University of California, Santa Barbra. The book discloses stories and events told by 13 students each who narrate from first person and give us a brief description of their life. The book is composed of 13 sections with an additional introduction and conclusion (Garcia, Kindle). Within this reflection I will describe the key points within this book and compare the stories within this book not only to each other, but also to additional stories of Latino Americans and how Garcia’s book rids the general public of misconception of Latinos.
The Latino Threat is a concept of an imposing threat of the Latino, whether they be from Mexico or any other Latin country, and how they affect the U.S. and its citizens. This concept is described heavily Leo R. Chavez’ book aptly titled The Latino Threat. In the book, he describes how the Latino threat as a concept has been used routinely to underline the aspect of United States citizenship in a tit for tat manner; that being dehumanizing the Latino to raise the standing of U.S. citizenship. The U.S. as a nation believes it should feel better about itself because it is the one that turns people away rather than being the place where people run from. Over the history of America this isolationist views on illegal immigrants has waned and contrast
The Latino community is a very varied community each with its own unique past and circumstances. In the book Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez the readers can learn and appreciate some of the experiences and history that the different Latino groups had. This book does this with a special emphasis on immigration trends. These points of emphasis of the book are explained thoroughly in the identification of the key points, the explanation of the intersection of race, ethnicity, and class, in addition to the overall evaluation of the book.
A diverse minority group of Latino and Spanish-speaking peoples has played an important part of what it means to be American and what it means to be a citizen in the United States today. Moving into the future, in order to analyze the trajectory that this group is in, we must first understand the group’s history in the United States and in territories that would become the United States. In addition, we must look at the origins of the most recent wave of Latino immigration in order to understand their current effect on American society and the intersection between both minority and majority groups. Finally, we get to the apex of this investigation: what lies in the future for Latino Americans in the United States? Although Latino Americans have been portrayed by the majority American culture as a lazy, thieving, and dirty people, their presence in the United States has immensely contributed to it’s development socially, economically, and politically, and their continued presence seems integral to the future of an America that is fast arriving at an age-related demographics problem that threatens our continued prosperity and the solvency of the Social Security system.
Immigration has always been an issue in the United States, which is often portrayed as harmful and as major threat to American culture. As a result, various anti immigration policies have been aimed against immigrants in order to prevent and preserve the miscegenation of American culture, such as English only policies. Among the largest minority groups in the U.S, are Latinos who currently compose of 15% of the U.S population (Delgado and Stefancic 3). Unfortunately, Latinos have been accused of taking American benefits, jobs, and have wrongfully been depicted as a result of not assimilating to American culture. Latinos are often accused of resisting assimilation, but what has failed to be acknowledged is that there are obstacles set in place that are preventing Latinos from completely assimilating. Among those greatest obstacles there is discrimination. Institutional as well as individual discrimination have prevented many Latinos from feeling a sense of belonging. As a result Latinos have been reluctant to assimilate. Another major component is proximity. Many Latinos are native to nearby countries which allows for easy communication with family members as well as their culture. Moreover, it also allows for a constant influx of immigrants that replenish and preserve Latino cultures and traditions in the U.S. Lastly, Latino movements are working diligently to promote unity among communities for the purpose of creating a sense of identity and pride amongst Latinos, such as the Chicano movement.
“I do not believe that many American citizens . . . really wanted to create such immense human suffering . . . in the name of battling illegal immigration” (Carr 70). For hundreds of years, there has been illegal immigration starting from slavery, voluntary taking others from different countries to work in different parts of the world, to one of the most popular- Mexican immigration to the United States. Mexican immigration has been said to be one of the most common immigration acts in the world. Although the high demand to keep immigrants away from crossing the border, Mexicans that have immigrated to the U.S have made an impact on the American culture because of their self sacrifices on the aspiration to cross over. Then conditions
Immigration has always been a major part of America. In fact, without immigration the creation of America would not have been possible. The majority of immigrants came to America for religious freedom and economic opportunities. However, for the most part before the 1870’s most immigrants were Protestants from northern and western Europe. These immigrants often migrated to the United States as families and usually lived on farms with family or friends who had already migrated beforehand. A lot of immigrants came to America with a plan or goal in mind. They often had saved up money for the long immigration overseas, were skilled in a certain trade, or had already been educated at a high level. Sadly, this would not last. Immigration became so prominent in America between 1870 and 1900 that the foreign-born population of the United States had almost doubled. A lot of German and Irish Catholics had immigrated in the 1840’s and 1850’s, and more decided to immigrate after the Civil War. A portion of Americans were biased against Catholics. Thankfully, the Irish spoke English and the German Catholics reputation was improved because of their Protestant countrymen’s good reputation. However, their children often lacked any skill or education, but they were able to blend in quite well with the American society. More and more immigrants would migrate to the United States without any skill or education and on top of that they were usually poor. These immigrants were called “new” immigrants and they came from all over the world including Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary, and Russia. However, you cannot blame immigrants for migrating to America. Many immigrants faced religious persecution in their home countries which pushed them away, otherwi...
“Where Latinos live greatly depends on when they came to the United States and one their economic class (Rodolfo Acuna 6).” The Latino community is rapidly becoming the most populated minority group within the United States. Latino is a diverse term for Spanish-speaking population often referring to Hispanic or Latino origin. A vast amount of Americans have Hispanic backgrounds among the United States population. The varied Latino cultures planted inside the United States society, population, and government now play a big part in the day to day life of the nation. The United States Latino community is beneficial as it provides a rich cultural diversity, contribute to the nation’s education and form profound influences within the society.
Many people have come to America for a better life and to get away from all the troubles of their homeland. These immigrants, like those throughout U.S. history, are generally hard workers and make important contributions to the economy through their productive labor and purchasing power. America is considered a melting pot of many diffrent ethinic group. Immigrants should be able to enter America with little if any resistance from any border patrol. Immigrants in america take the low paying, hard labor jobs that , unfortunately, some americans don't want.
“Demonstrating national belonging has also encouraged the display of tastes, dispositions, tactic knowledge, and accents that would be considered distinctly American by natives. They have been shown to engage in the same activities, eat the same foods, cheer the same sports teams, and embrace the same aspirations as any other American in their peer group. They are cheerleaders, they love the Lakers, they speak perfect English, and they dream of becoming middle class, just like the “normal” person” (pg 51). I feel like this quote has a HUGE impact on the reader, just because it shows how United States citizens want to change immigrants to the perfect “American” symbol. This opened up my eyes about the impact of Latino/as in the United States. I am not a racist person, so it never really hit me that someone thinks a certain race should
Mexican Americans have been in this country longer than many groups of people. Although, they have been here longer, whites took thier land from them. Along with taking their land from them, they took all the pride that the Mexicans Americans had. It seemed that way until they started fighting for their rights in the early nineteen hundreds. Treaties were made that gave land rights to them and speeches were made by political leaders deeming this countries actions unjust. However, the treaties were ignored and the speeches were ploys to gain votes. Many Mexican American leaders noticed that their people were mistreated and walked all over by the anglo government.
To say that immigrants in America have experienced discrimination would be an understatement. Ever since the country formed, they have been seen as inferior, such as African-Americans that were unwillingly brought to the 13 colonies in the 17th century with the intention to be used as slaves. However, post-1965, immigrants, mainly from Central and South America, came here by choice. Many came with their families, fleeing from their native land’s poverty; these immigrants were in search of new opportunities, and more importantly, a new life. They faced abuse and Cesar Chavez fought to help bring equality to minorities.
Through the history and trends of Latin American immigration, one can begin to understand the impact of immigration on American society. Latin American countries have not always been the leading countries of origin for immigrants to the United States; however, with the Immigration and Nationality Act, they surpassed European countries’ immigration and rose to the top (1). Subsequently, a number of Hispanics ca...
In the article Border Enforcement And Selection Of Mexican Immigrants In The United States, Lozano shows that “between 1992 and 2007, the annual budget for border enforcement operations increased from $400 million to $1.94 billion” (78). This shows how this issue is something that has been growing in the last decades, and how by using more money they are trying to solve or at least control the problem. Also we can see how the population of immigrants started growing up in the last decades “The Latino population in the United States (USA) increased by 57.9 per cent from 1990 to 2000… Much of the increase in the Latino population in the USA is due to immigration, particularly from Mexico” (Becerra 21). This quote shows why the US government started to spend more money and make new laws that involved immigrants: in order to reduce and control the number of immigrants that was growing too fast. The fact that they are trying to control and reduce the number of immigrants is one of the reasons why discrimination against Mexicans is probably the worst in the US: since they are the biggest group of immigrants in the US. In the last years most of the immigrants who come from Mexico are illegal immigrants, and this fact make people discriminate immigrants even more. As Becerra says in his article The Impact Of Anti-Immigration Policies And Perceived Discrimination In The United States On Migration Intentions Among Mexican Adolescents, “Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans have historically suffered discrimination, exploitation and segregation in various aspects of society in the USA… [But] the anti-immigrant policies, media coverage and public opinion in the USA may cause Mexicans to perceive US society
Latinos face a lot of discrimination when they come to the united stated or they try to assimilate to the American culture. Most immigrants have to deal with the police investigating them because they think they are all drug dealers or are in some type of illegal organization. They also have to deal with people calling them names because of their skin color. Americans also accuse Hispanics of stealing their jobs (Ramos, 53). They also face seeing racist graffiti on homes or wall of a building and they have to face hate crimes (Plunkett, 15). They sometimes get excluded from white communities (Plunkett, 39). Latinos are also blamed for serious problems the country faces (Ramos, 195). There are reasons for Americans to discriminate Latinos and reasons why they shouldn’t discriminate them.