History From 1865 to the Present Day.

¶ … history from 1865 to the present day. To focus the research, select six subtopics (specific events or developments related to the topic, separated in time); three from before 1930 and three from after.

Immigrants

There are more than 50 million immigrants (legal and illegal) and their U.S.-born children (under 18) in the United States as of August 2012. As of the last decade, most immigrants come from the following countries: Honduras (85%), India (74%), Guatemala (73%), Peru (54%), El Salvador (49%), Ecuador (48%), and China (43%). Approximately, 28% of these immigrants are in the country illegally. Roughly half of Mexican and Central American and one-third of South American immigrants are here illegally.

The Center for Immigration Studies (Right Side news) finds that immigration has dramatically increased the population of low-income individuals in the United States, although many immigrants, the longer they live in the country, make significant progress. However, immigrants who live in America for at least 20 years are more likely to live in poverty, benefit from the welfare system, and lack health insurance than are native born Americans. Many of the immigrants arriving in this country also possess relatively little education (Right Side News; online). These factors explain the intensity of animosity and fear that the group stimulates amongst native-born Americans who not only accuse them of impoverishing their country but also of stealing jobs from Americans who need them. The animosity is all the greater amongst immigrants who settle in the country illegally.

Part One: 1865-1930

1. Xenophobia

Although America is erroneously known as the welcoming country to immigrants, in actual fact immigrants are often dissuaded from seeking hospitality, and these policies against immigrants are often formulated following periods of recession and national economic unrest.,

The 1860s saw Italians, Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Jews, Germans, Irish and British reaching the U.S.A. en masse and setting up home and business there. The sight of all these foreign faces and foreign mannerisms frightened homegrown Americans particularly since many of them populated urban centers and filled the U.S. industry sector dominating steel, coal, automobile, textile, and garment production. Although their contributions led to American becoming one of the world's economic giants, many Americans by 1890 devised ways to reduce and drive out these foreigners.

As recently as 1865, quotas were put on immigrants primarily due to the fact that these immigrants differed from the existent population. The 1860s too was the time when states expanded their exclusionary policies with Orientals becoming an issue particularly in California. In 1893, groups such as Immigration Restriction League and others pressed Congress to curtail immigration. The Nativist/Know Nothing movement, child of the Republicans, opposed German and Irish entry on the grounds that the Catholics were empowered by the Pope to make America into a theocracy and efforts were only heightened by the settlement of 900,000 French Canadians into parts of American between 1840 and 1930. Pressure to curtail immigration finally caused the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in 1875 that immigration was a federal responsibility (Bodnar, 1985).

The notorious Dillingham Commission passed in 1907 generalized between immigrant groups and concluded that immigration form southern and Eastern Europe was intimidating to the American future and should be severely curtailed. The Commissions' reading and writing test for entry was unjustly biased and absurd causing many hopeful immigrants to fail and be returned to their country of origin.

Dillingham's findings led to further 1920s immigration reduction acts such as the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 which favored people from northern and Western Europe and reduced immigration form other lands to an annual 3%. The Dillingham Commission too resulted in the National Origins Formula which barred immigration from Asia and only allowed entry of 150,000 immigrants annually (Pula, 1980)

In the meantime, anti-immigrant sentiments, such as those demonstrated by the Klu Klax Kahn became increasingly common coming to a height with the Second World War and civil unrest, declining in the post-depression era and particularly in the 1960s. Laws in the 1990s endeavored to deal with the problem of undocumented and illegal immigrants entering the country, especially in terms of employment, this would continue until and shortly after the Second World War with slightly more positive changes only reaching a height in 1997. Xenophobic constraints on immigration has frequently been linked to external threats such as terrorism and subversion, but opponents of immigration see immigration as an internal threat that undermines American security by introducing crime and poverty and destructing the conventional and social fabric on which America was built. That attitude lingers today, although American practical xenophobia reached its height between the 1860s and 1930s.

2. Immigrant Experience, the Horrors and the Resilience: Example the Chinese.

Chinese immigration to the U.S.A. was done in four distinct periods. By 1860, Chinese had already arrived in hordes in San Francisco seeking their fortune as merchants or prospectors and working on the transcontinental railway or in factories. During each of the immigration currents, and particularly during the early ones, Chinese immigrants tended to band together maintaining their clan- and dialect-based community bonds. The Asian had difficulty 'melting ' themselves in the pot and tended to retain their own customs which only aggravated the discrimination against them. In the late 1900s, the Chinese Six Companies, known later as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, was formed to help Chinese immigrants adjust to their new life. The organization provided immigrants with social services, protection and dispute resolution, and served as unofficial ambassadors of China.

San Francisco became the main center for newly arriving Chinese with many, during the second and third wave, becoming entrepreneurs, opening curio stores and ethnic grocery stores as well as launderers and restaurateurs. Chinese also became prominent in the railroad industry, constructing its tracks and running its operations to the extent that "at the peak of construction, Central Pacific would employ more than ten thousand Chinese men." (Chang 2003, 57). A series of anti-immigration laws in the 1870s attempted to curb Chinese immigration and Chinese success. In 1870, for instance, the Sidewalk Ordinance prohibited the Chinese fashion of carrying loads on poles on sidewalks. The California School Law of 1870 segregated public schools by race, and public officials were allowed to close down even segregated schools for Chinese students. This late part of the 19th century was a difficult time for Chinese immigrants who suffered from the resentment caused by Western depression and high unemployment. Many Chinese left in 1880; the Chinese Exclusion Act was introduced in 1881, and Chinese laborers (both skilled and unskilled) were excluded from the U.S. For a decade (Chan 1988, 99). This later extended to all persons of Chinese descent. A movement led by a party in the White House coined the term "Chinese must go!" And did whatever they could to impede Chinese efforts and trade. Many Chinese found refuge in Chinatowns on the coast where they banded together and isolated themselves form the larger population.

The Chinese people more than adequately exemplify the resilience, hardiness, and trauma that immigrant groups suffered from the White majority population during the 1860s to the 1930s.

3. The Melting Pot

America's endeavor -- and that of many of the immigrants too -- was to assimilate into American society as indiscernibly and as rapidly as they could so that they become a 'normal' American and part of that great nation. The term was used hand-in-hand with other metaphors of America being a "city upon a hill" and the ideal republic and actually dates from Zangwill's play The Melting Pot.

'The Melting Pot" has always been equated with Americanization, or cultural socialization and American educators, social workers, and the government, amongst others, went all out to ensure that immigrants and children of immigrants become 'American' as soon as possible by faultlessly adopting American dress, speech, mannerisms, rituals, and so forth. School ceremonies structured their schedule around Protestant celebrations, such as Christmas, and compelled Protestant religious services. Swearing the Oath of Allegiance was a daily obligation.

On the other hand, and paradoxically enough, assimilation and class differences were more pronounced then than they were once multiculturalism became the norm. African-American always remained separated, whilst other minority groups such as Jews were disallowed in numerous universities and rejected from clubs and Asians were forced into ghettos. The 'Melting Pot' therefore existed up to a limit.

The immigration debate of the 20th century approached the 'Melting Pot' issue from two directions. Politicians wondered whether immigrants should be poured into one mold, albeit that fashioned into the likes of Henry Ford and Woodrow Wilson, or should the huge clump of immigrants coming from countries such as Africa, Sicily, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Asia and comprised of different ethnicities rub off against one another, emerging into a new compound (Hollinger, 2003).

Nativists too wanted to cool the temperature of the melting pot and the ingredients that plopped into it, afraid that some of these ingredients (i.e. immigrants) would contaminate the 'soup' with too many undesirables. Their petitions were met with the ferocious anti-immigration laws of the 1920s.

Part 2: The Post-1930s

1. Immigrants and Modern Stereotype / Racial Profiling

Active prejudice existed in the pre-WW2 era, but stereotypes -- in the modern twist -- linger still today. Immigrants have long been detested and have long been accused of taking away jobs from native-born Americans, increasing the criminal population, and draining America's educational and healthcare -- as well as social benefit -- resources. Usually, however, it is illegal, rather than legal, immigrants who are mostly condemned.

Unfortunately, Islamic terrorist activities have given rise to the new stereotype of Islamaphobia where people of Muslim extraction nd Arabs Are mistreated and discriminated against particularly since the September 11th attacks. The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) (2002), for instance, reported incidents that consisted of verbal abuse, blaming all Muslims for terrorism, forcibly removing women's hijabs, spitting on Muslims, calling children "Usama," and random assaults. Muslims have been hospitalized and on one occasion paralyzed (Allen, & Nielsen, 2002).

Fiske and Lee (2006) show that immigrants, as a whole are seen as incompetent and untrustworthy and are generally seen as aliens. Differentiating the immigrant into the various cultural subgroups does not eliminate the stereotype but only adds the supplementary stereotype of that individual's country or categorization of that which he is associated with. For instance, Italian immigrants are seen as friendly but lazy, Asians are perceived as successful but shy, and immigrants who happened to become wealthy are seen as accomplished but grasping. It is unfortunate that not only are immigrants unjustly categorized as a group but even when seen in terms of their various countries or characteristics, they are further unjustly and, frequently, erroneously categorized according to misleading data that, in turn, causes the preceptor to deal with them as such.

Another common myth is that illegal immigrants don't pay taxes... The truth is the reverse. About 75% of undocumented immigrants are on a payroll and pay the same kind of withholdings as legal immigrants. In fact, many of these illegal immigrants go out of their way to pay these taxes precisely because they want to abide by the law and do not want trouble from the system.

(Soto, 2012).

In fact, contrary to myth, studies have discovered that hundreds of immigrants have lower dropout rates, do better academically than U.S.-born children and have better academic attendance. Opponents argue that immigrants burden the welfare system. To that end, several states have passed laws delimiting illegal immigrants from receiving opportunities of higher education as well as publicly funded health and welfare benefits although Obama is trying to change that.

Most of the stereotypes, if not all, are unwarranted. Unfortunately, they persist although racial profiling has become outlaws in most states.

Racial profiling, too, may be another aspect of implicit prejudice where law enforcement officers stop an individual of a certain race or ethnicity and investigate them based on their ethnicity. Such practices may occur in traffic routines, guns or drugs (African-Americans), illegal immigration (Hispanics or Latinos), or in matters connected with security (Muslims and Arabs) with stgeereotypes driving arrest of the target suspect. Racial profiling was authorized in 2001 with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a division of United States Department of Justice, which established the web-based Racial Profiling Data Collection Resource Center. The website was designed to train police officials in the ropes and tactics of racial profiling and also served as clearing house for relevant individuals interested in both research and practice of the subject (The Institute on Race and Justice at Northeastern University, 2011). In 2003, however, the Department of Justice issued its Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies forbidding the practice of racial profiling by federal law enforcement officials (Amnesty International USA, 2007).

2. Illegal immigration

Current policy based on the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act limits the number of entering immigrants as well as making family reunification a rationale for accepting immigrants. The 1996 act imposes penalties in employers of illegal immigrants.

Today, approximately 12.7% are admitted under employment-based preferences, as well as refugees and asylees (15.7%) and diversity immigrants (4.2%). top countries of immigration are Mexico, China, Philippines, India, and the Dominican Republic. Until the 1960s, Europe was the foremost country of immigration. Popular attitudes are less welcoming to this new demography of immigrants than they were to the Europeans. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services assess immigrants based primarily (although not exclusively) on economic contribution. As well as to how well they can provide for themselves and whether they have family in the country that can provide for them. There are many, therefore, who cannot legally enter the country and, consequently, do so illegally (Right Side News; online).

Illegal immigration reached a peak in 2007 at 11.8 million. However increased enforcement along with economic depression in the U.S.A. And improved economic situation in Mexico has led to a recent decline in illegal immigration. Stricter border controls have also controlled the problem (Right Side News; online)..

Illegal immigration is a hit spot in America since many Americans consider social ills, such s crime and poverty to stem from uncontrolled immigration as well s illegal immigrants further depleting an already tights source of jobs. The fact that the nations' tax money also goes to provision of medical and educational aid to these immigrants (amongst other securities) further aggravates many Americans. Labor unions, have consequently opposed immigrants as a means of furthering their own interest,

On the other side of the coin, people argue that immigration has negligible impact on the effects of the labor market and that rather than taking away jobs, immigrants introduce opportunities as well as having a very strong work ethic. It is only national recession that seeking a scapegoat focuses on immigrants. This is particularly so when overloaded public services have to be further extended to meet the needs of these immigrants.

More recently, Bush and Obama placed the ceiling on 80,000 immigrants entering the U.S. annually and these, according to the 1990 Immigration Act (IMMACT), must be for family reunification reasons as well as for employment. Illegal immigrants face imprisonment and fines as well as deportation. Amnesty International, too, has noted the excessive brutality often visited upon illegal immigrants. Some are even conscripted into slavery and prostitution. Whilst the first generation of illegal immigrants have it difficult enough, the second generation -- their children and those who attend school -- may have it even harder being in a no-man's land where, educated and skilled as they are, they may find it difficult to find jobs or to receive scholarship to academic institutions. It is these children who suffer unfairly under the legal, political, economic, and educational oppression