In 1924 US congress passed the Johnson-Reed act. This act reduced the amount of immigrants coming to the US from any other country to a mere 2%. Many thought this act was unjust and consequently, “un-american”. One man, Robert H. Clancy, a Republican congressman from Detroit, stood up for those being oppressed by this act. Mr. Clancy states his points in the 1924 speech “An “Un-American Bill” through the use of diction, a myriad of anecdotes, and a motley of pathos.
America Founded on Immigration When reading “Our Brave New World of Immigration” by Victor Davis Hanson, he argues that we ask too little of our immigrants in today’s society, and that we have entered a new world of immigration that allows immigrants to not be responsible human beings in society today. After viewing the title of the essay, I expected to hear an empowering essay on how far immigration has come. However, after reading the essay I perceived the authors’ persona to be belittling towards immigration. Also, he seems to have tunnel vision towards undocumented immigrants, by not considering that the undocumented immigrants, he speaks of may not even be undocumented immigrants.
David Brook's essay focuses in the main part about the discussions and conversations on race, which is aimed to lead the readers to contemplate the assumptions we take for granted such as the critical question of is diversity a cared for subject in the United States?” Intro :- The occasion that gives rise to David Brook's essay “People Like Us”, is diversity in America. In his essay , David plainly and purposely confronts his audience – which are most likely Americans- with the reality of diversity in The United States .
Upton Sinclair portrays the economic tension in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through his novel “The Jungle”. He used the story of a Lithuanian immigrant, Jurgis Rudkus, to show the harsh situation that immigrants had to face in the United States, the unsanitary and unsafe working conditions in the meatpacking plants, as well as the tension between the capitalism and socialism in the United States during the early 1900s. In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, there were massive immigrants move into the United States, and most of them were from Europe. The protagonist, Jurgis Rudkus, like many other immigrants, have the “America Dream” which they believe America is heaven to them, where they can
Response to “Our Fear of Immigrants” In “Our Fear of Immigrants” Jeremy Adam Smith takes a neutral stance on the immigration and anti-immigration argument. Smith begins by telling the story of a 4th grade class at Jefferson Elementary School in Berkeley, California who try to fight back against immigration laws after a classmate of theirs was deported back to his home country. Smith then goes on to compare the 4th graders to the adults of their town who fight for stronger immigration laws asking his readers what qualities the children possess that the rest of the citizens do not to make them react so differently.
Paine’s book first discusses race and he writes: “If there is a country in the world, where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up, as it is, of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages...” (Paine) Since the beginning of America, immigrants have been coming here to start a new life in a new country. This has resulted in a unique culture because all walks of life have influenced American customs.
Over the years, immigrants have influenced many aspects of American society and has had a vital role in shaping the United States to what it is today. According to the US Census Bureau, an agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for producing data about the American people and economy, “non-Hispanic white population in the U.S. declined from 85 percent in 1965 to 62.2 percent in 2014, and the forecast is for the percentage of non-Hispanic whites to fall to 43.6 percent in 2060” (qtd. in Walsh). Despite the rise of immigrants and the profound impact they have had on society, many immigrants face perpetual discrimination; this idea has appeared many times throughout Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Bean Trees. Taking place during the 1970s, the main character, Taylor, moves from Kentucky to Arizona; along the way, she meets Esperanza and Estevan, illegal immigrants from Guatemala. As she gets to know them better, she notices they are forced to live a monotonous, arduous life which implies that immigrants face prejudice from Americans who claim to be accepting.
America claims to have free opportunity, but to immigrants, there tends to be none. Illegal immigrants aren’t treated well by people in the government and are forced into detention centers or jails. Jose Antonio Vargas is a Filipino writer and immigrant activist who suffered the same experience as any other illegal immigrant just to find a better opportunity in America. He states in the article “What America Looks Like From A Jail In South Texas”, “This is a country that prides itself as one founded and built by immigrants, but also one whose laws and policies have historically been anti-immigrant.” This statement itself brings out how much immigrants helped out America, and yet America still doesn’t accept the fact that immigrants were the ones who shaped our society.
First, Gravlee explains the cultural perception of race in the United States and how
So as you have read, immigrants have had an impact on America for a long time. Some have proved that you don’t have to be from America to be an American. “They proved that being an American is not just for some people. They expanded what it means to be an American, including Japanese-Americans who were feared and suspected and hated.
The United States of America, is known to be one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world. It has often been referred to by many as a global melting pot or as locals may say callaloo, due to the amassing of diverse ethnicities, cultures and nationalities. Within its borders, resides immigrants or descendants of immigrants from almost every region in the world, and each has in some way added to the American culture and way of life. America is known for its stance on freedom, it is a nation that values equality and justice, this can be noted in the last few words of their national anthem ‘indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’ However, for many, high levels of economic and social inequalities are daily struggles, a battle that has been fought for decades to claim the most basic rights, in the pursuit of achieving the American Dream.
Equality: The Rebirth of America In Patrick Buchanan’s essay “Deconstructing America” he mentions in regards of the creation of America, “But that republic and that empire did not rise because the settlers and those who followed believed in diversity, equality, and democracy, but because they rejected diversity, equality, and democracy. (Buchanan 597) Mr. Patrick Buchanan clarifies what the founding fathers of this nation were based, shaped, and modeled by rejecting any close contact with today’s melting pot model, which it led to an era of chaos when this sense of thoughts were implemented. Even though the melting pot model shows how cultural pluralism might create cultural separatism due to America losing its fundamental traditions and
“Go Set a Watchman” is a novel by the late Harper Lee that takes place in the 1950’s. The time period that the book is set in is also around the time that the infamous case of Brown v. Board of Education had been brought to the supreme court. This book is a sequel to the popular novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” where a white man, Atticus Finch, is fighting for a black man who has been accused of rape by a white woman. In “Go Set a Watchman”, there is a slew of conflicts, from Jean Louise being embarrassed and losing her sense of self-confidence due to her “falsies” being thrown onto a billboard to her discovering that her once seemingly nice father is not all what he has been cut out to be.
She points out how “children learn in social-studies class and in the news of lynching of blacks, denial of women rights, the murder of gay men.” How can unity and “crown thy good with brotherhood” be erudite and proficient when all that is being imparted in them is detestation and failures are being rewarded as success? In spite America’s differences, Quindlen reflects on the Arab and Jewish cabbies chauffeuring each other. Despite the fact that in their own country as well as in other countries, the two groups despise one another and are constantly at war, Quindlen exemplifies how they maintain their beliefs yet put aside their differences to obtain a better life in America. Furthermore, she explains that there are no variances between the older immigrants than the ones of today.
In Economic and Social Impact of Immigrants Stephen Moore is arguing that immigrants and refugees contribute positively to the American Economy. He conveys this through the use of surveys, data, and facts from multiple sources. In the second paragraph he took a 1986 survey that concluded that a lot of foreigners achieved success in this country in difficult positions such as engineering and entrepreneurship. Two separate studies’ discussed in the sixth and seventh paragraphs dispel common beliefs that immigrants take jobs away from natural born citizens. The studies concluded that the exact opposite of popular opinion, immigrants in fact benefitted the economy for employers, employees, and the US economic position.
