American Immigration Research Paper

Introduction Throughout history, the United States has been the melting pot of immigration. Many people of different races, religions, and reasons came to the United States; either willingly or forced. Either way, immigration to the United States is what our country had been built on. Immigration had begun in the early 1400s and its activity has only increased, but for a multitude of reasons. In this essay, I will talk about the history of immigration to the United States and how it has positively affected the United States today.

History of Immigration As many of us may know, the first indigenous people to come to America were people who had crossed a land bridge that connected Asia to North America, although, it wasn’t until the late

The cheap land meant white immigrants, no longer tied down, would then become landowners themselves. Therefore, there was a constant need for labor which manifested itself in the form of slavery. The Transatlantic Slave Trade brought many West Africans to the colonies, and the well-established triangular trade route assured a constant flow of slaves from Africa” (“A History”, n.d. ). Not only slaves had come to the United States unwillingly, but “From 1717 to the end of the American Revolution in 1783, the British transported over 50,000 prison convicts to the American colonies as part of the Transportation Act. This accounted for about 9% of immigrants during this period” (“A History”, n.d. ). By 1790, tables had begun to turn. Soon after President George Washington was put into office, he had tried the first attempt of controlling immigration with The Naturalization Act of 1790, Congress had amended the act and the minimum residence requirement was to live in the United States for five years to become a United States citizen. Throughout the years, many more immigration acts and laws had been set into place but did not stop immigration by any means. “From 1821 to 1840, the number of immigrants was 742,564. In the following ten years, the number more than doubled to 1,713,251. In the first half of the 19th century, several factors in Europe contributed to mass immigration to the United States” (“A History”, n.d.). As the United States had grown in many ways such as economically and socially, the demand for workers had increased abundantly. The industrialization, potato famine, and the gold rush had caused many more immigrants to come to the United States either for money or a better chance at