The huge wave of immigrants coming into America especially from the developing countries is bound to change the future of the next generation of American citizens. It is estimated that a fifth of the general population comprises of immigrants. In her article, Jacoby expands on how immigrants assimilate in order to penetrate the economic, political and social aspects. She insists that assimilating always works but it must be talked and thought about by the government. There have been several proposals that have been brought forward in order to deal with illegal immigration including blocking immigrants from acquiring a driver’s license without legal documents and denying them access to a temporary legal position.
Jacoby provides statistical
She aims to eliminate the wrong perception of immigrant occupation in the country. She gives an example in her article where she says that as a result of the immigrants assimilating, especially the Hispanics, the next generations will come to know the English language as their sole language hence making them more American than Hispanic. This will make Americans more comfortable with other languages and cultures hence encouraging globalization.
Tamar Jacoby’s article is a deeply informed and useful academic read as it counterpoints the wrong perceptions of immigrants that are brought up in various debates. However, she wrote little on multiculturalists and nativists but instead put more focus on enlightening the readers on issues surrounding immigrants and immigration in general. Her article also posses the view that if the immigrants are assimilating by learning the English language, they would be able to assimilate faster than if they did not have challenges such as the bilingual education that they receive in terms of promoting
Daniel, Roger is a highly respected author and professor who has majored in the study of immigration in history and more specifically the progressive ear. He’s written remarkable works over the history of immigration in America, in his book Not like Us he opens a lenses about the hostile and violent conditions immigrants faced in the 1890’s through the 1924’s. Emphasizing that during the progressive area many immigrants felt as they were living in a regressing period of their life. While diversity of ethnicity and race gradually grew during this time it also sparked as a trigger for whites creating the flare up of nativism. Daniel’s underlines the different types of racial and ethnical discrimination that was given to individual immigrant
The United States was formed by the immigration of many people from all over the world. Americans take pride in knowing that we are a people of vast ethnic backgrounds and culture. However, at the present time, the flow of illegal immigration, as well as a large influx of other legal immigrants is placing a strain on our land of "huddled masses." Legal immigration to the United States can easily be handled and is welcomed by most Americans. However, the flow of illegal immigrants, especially from Mexico, must be stemmed, due to the strain it is placing on the government, (at the local, state and federal level), as well as the general population. Illegal immigrants are costing the United States over 24 billion dollars a year in taxpayers money (National Review 12.13.93). Something must be done to reduce the flow of illegal immigration into the United States. The focus of this paper will be the problems caused by and possible solutions to the problem of illegal immigration.
In America, it is a common misconception that all foreigners are similar; it is believed that they all have similar dreams and each of them end up chasing after the same jobs. However, this is not the case. Not only do immigrants from different countries hold different dreams, but those with a shared background even have varying hopes and dreams for the future. This is evidenced in Bharati Mukherjee’s essay, “Two Ways to Belong in America.” She utilizes several rhetorical strategies in order to show that immigrants have the ability to be assimilated into the American culture, but that they should not be deported if they choose not to conform to said culture.
According to “How One Small Midwest Town Has Turned Immigration into Positive Change”, Small town in Rural Iowa is one of the example that was given by Richard Mertens, Mixing of language usage in class is interesting for people in town. Bilingual program is more popular than English-only classes that there is a waiting list for the bilingual program. This dual-language program starts in kindergarten that students learn in both English and Spanish. Moreover, the program is successful because people in town want their children to learn second language while Hispanic parents want to remind their children about where they come from. Having immigrants not only benefit in an education but also for economic. Because there is an increasing in Hispanic in the town, business owners are seeking out immigrants or bilingual employees in order to stay more competitive because these kind of people can communicate with their customers in both English and Spanish. In addition, immigrants can provide an inside of customers to business owner. For example Latin employee gives an information to a grocery business that now they stock supplies that Latin families wanted such as jalapeños, cactus, several varieties of green onions, and cilantro. Immigrants help this rural town avoids a decrease in population as many rural area experience and they contribute variety of benefits to the
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2) While some argue that illegal immigrants burden the United States of America and its economy, others believe that they have become essential and are an important part of the US, economy.
The subject of this paper is Liz, a 52-year old, 1.5 generation female immigrant from Hong Kong. What this means is that she immigrated to the United States when she was a child, around 7-years old (Feliciano Lec. 1/4/2016). As a child of a family that consists of five siblings and two parents that did not speak any English prior to immigrating, the focus of this paper will be on the legal processes that the family went through to become legal immigrants and the various factors that aided in her path towards assimilation.
Bilingualism, a very controversial topic to debate in today’s United States. People generally define bilingualism as the ability of using two languages that individuals have. However, this is not the reason why that bilingualism becomes such a debatable issue. In this case, bilingualism is defined as the government’s use of languages other than English for public services in order to support the immigrants’ lives in the United States. People who support bilingualism want the government to continue having this kind policies. They think that bilingualism helps immigrants to assimilate into the American culture and moreover, it will unify everyone who are on this land. Although bilingualism provides some kind of benefits toward immigrants, they cannot solve the problems in the deep root. Bilingualism should not be continued in the U.S. Why? It reduces the immigrants’ incentive to learn English, threatens national unity, and costs so much.
In the article, “Public and Private Language”, Richard Rodriguez argues that bilingual education delays learning a “public language” and developing a public identity”. I can relate to Richard’s story because my family and me moved to America when I was young and we also had the same struggle learning a new language. I agreed with Rodriguez when he expressed that he didn’t feel like a true American until he mastered the English language because English is the first and main language in America.
Since the creation of the United States of America, immigrants from all backgrounds have sought refuge, a home and a life in this country of prosperity and opportunity. The opportunity of freedom to exercise natural rights is a large pull factor that causes many people to come to America. Others come because it is a country where one can prosper. Prosperity of people in a country, however, is a more challenging phenomenon to explain than opportunity. Immigrants seek economic, social and educational as well as cultural prosperity. The question of how to gain such prosperity is a difficult one to answer. Some immigrants come to America, cast off their past identity and attempt to find a new, less foreign one. By assimilating to American culture with this new identity, they start a long and treacherous journey to seek prosperity in a land vastly different from the one they once called home. Many will gain educational, economic and social prosperity, but never gain cultural prosperity. Assimilating to American culture so hastily, some immigrants are never able to explore and keep up with their cultural backgrounds. Their families grow up and became Americans, never cognizant of their given up ethnic identities. Those immigrants, however, who are able to gain cultural prosperity through the help of other immigrants of their respective background, become integrated into American society while keeping their ethnic identity. This is the sort of opportunity that the United States of America has provided new arrivals since its founding. Although many immigrants become overwhelmed with American culture and assimilate into it, those who contribute to a working ethnic society are able to dela...
Considering the ideas that both authors have brought to the table, I have concluded that in order to make progress in solving the problem of undocumented immigrants, we as a country must decide what’s best for our country. We either look at undocumented immigrants as an asset or a parasite. America is the ‘land of opportunity’ where millions of people want to live there and pursue the ‘American Dream’. We should not let people stop from achieving their dreams. But on the other hand, a quantity of immigrants leave their country because it does not have “stable democracies and free markets” that “ensure economic growth, rising standards of living and thus, lots of jobs”, because the countries of these immigrants “birth rates and native populations fall”.
Immigration has been a controversial topic for over the past centuries. However, along with the election of a new president. the public has also created a fight to overcome the challenges the government has thrown to those undocumented immigrants. Immigration can be described as a person relocating to a new place and settling in a form of advancement. While there are benefits to having immigration, people do not always view the positive side for both parties. Native people often view immigration as a threat to their country by arguing about the lack of jobs and some illegal immigrants take advantage of receiving help from the government. However, according to the Cato Journal, immigrants both legal and illegal contribute to the growth of the economy and the creation of jobs.Regardless of being a native born citizen, any person living in the U.S mus...
For more than 300 years, immigrants from every corner of the globe have settled in America, creating the most diverse and heterogeneous nation on Earth. Though immigrants have given much to the country, their process of changing from their homeland to the new land has never been easy. To immigrate does not only mean to come and live in a country after leaving your own country, but it also means to deal with many new and unfamiliar situations, social backgrounds, cultures, and mainly with the acquisition and master of a new language. This often causes mixed emotions, frustration, awkward feelings, and other conflicts. In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, the author describes the social, cultural and linguistic difficulties encountered in America as he attempts to assimilate to the American culture. Richard Rodriguez by committing himself to speaking English, he lost his cultural ties, family background and ethnic heritage.
Raya’s essay is an informative account of life for a multicultural American, because it is told from an actual multicultural author’s viewpoint. It gives the reader a sense that the information is accurate. It would be harder to accept the viewpoint if the author were for example, a white male writing about how a Mexican, Puerto Rican woman feels. As Connie Young Yu points out, information retold by someone who didn’t live the experiences is most often falsely perceived. Yu uses the example of white American historians writing about the lives of Chinese immigrants. Yu says that there is no accurate account for the lives of the immigrants, because they didn’t document their lives themselves. The little information that there is in history books only tells about their obvious accomplishments. There is no official understanding of their personal lives or feelings (Yu 30).
In the beginning of the essay she claims that she is “not a scholar of English… [and] cannot give much more than personal opinions on the English language and its variations in this country… [She is just] a writer.” By stating this in the beginning of the essay, she alters the audience audience’s opinion about reading the essay. Stating this in the beginning makes the reader wonder “Why is she so fascinated with daily life language?” One wouldn’t think this would be a boring scholarly text and continue to read to find the answer to that question throughout her work. Being an immigrant also gives creditability because sharing her past experience helps enforce her main idea in an innovating manner. As the essay progresses, Amy Tan points out her accomplishments in the stories of her mother to further build on to the
...ents go on addressing them in their natural language, but the children reply in English. What the children of immigrants end up with is not a compromise, not a blend. They end up pure and simple with the language and culture of their peers” (pg. 30).