by Group Bravo

People say America is a nation of immigrants. When ships sailed into New York harbor, the statue of liberty was the first thing people saw when they traveled across the ocean. As she held the torch high, she seemed to be shouting, "give me the homeless, vagrant people, and I lift the lamp of freedom at the golden gate!

American history is indeed a history of immigration. When the United States was still a British colony, the immigrants to the North American had already started their adventures, they did great contribution to American independence and development.

However, with the changing of American presidents’ policy, the pressure of employment and the chaotic society, the current situation of American is becoming more and more complex. In order to have a shallow impression of current situation of America, I refer to books and internet, the results are as follows:

1、Immigration to the United States

Lawful Immigration has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the U.S. history. Because the United States is a settler colonial society, all Americans, with the exception of the small percent of Native Americans, can trace their ancestry to immigrants from other nations around the world.

In absolute numbers, the United States has a larger immigrant population than any other country, with 47 million immigrants as of 2015. This represents 19.1% of the 244 million international migrants worldwide, and 14.4% of the U.S. population. Some other countries have larger proportions of immigrants, such as Switzerland with 24.9% and Canada with 21.9%.

According to the 2016 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, the United States admitted 1.18 million legal immigrants in 2016 Of these, 20% were family-sponsored, 47% were the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, 12% were employment-based preferences, 4% were part of the diversity Immigrant visa program, and 13% were refugees or asylum seekers. The remainder included small numbers from several other categories, including those who were granted the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV); persons admitted under the Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act; children born subsequent to the issuance of a parent's visa; and certain parolees from the former Soviet Union, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam who were denied refugee status.

The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding such issues as maintaining ethnic homogeneity, workers for employers versus jobs for non-immigrants, settlement patterns, impact on upward social mobility, crime, and voting behavior.

Prior to 1965, policies such as the national origins formula limited immigration and naturalization opportunities for people from areas outside Western Europe. Exclusion laws enacted as early as the 1880s generally prohibited or severely restricted immigration from Asia, and quota laws enacted in the 1920s curtailed Eastern European immigration.

Recently, despite the outcry, President Donald Trump’s published an executive order on immigration, banning travel from seven Muslim majority countries, declaring to ensure security and safety of American people. However, none of those terrorists who threaten American security recent years belongs to that seven Muslim majority countries. A high level official of Iran comment that Trump’s plan is “a great gift to terrorists”, as it serves to divide the US and the Muslim world. Not only In Iran, Trump’s several plans are criticized by people and politician at home and abroad. The way he governs a country was forcefully controversial as soon as he came into stage.

The Unites States has a rich history of discrimination against specific countries and ethnicities: Several decades ago, the Chinese Exclusion Act (排华法案)placed a ban on people who were ethnically Chinese, halting nearly all immigration from China for decades. A broader and more restrictive law was the immigration Act of 1924 absolutely banned Asian ethnicities from immigration. In Japan this was met with a National Humiliation Day in protest to the unjust law. Nearly two decades after this law stopped Asian immigration, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, drawing the US into World War two. One Japanese military commander even reportedly stated that this attack was retribution for the behavior of the United States, in part the restrictions on immigration.

It is obvious that America pays a lot for its restrictions on immigration. The history of immigration bans in the US shows that they are short-sighted and potentially dangerous.

The civil rights movement led to the replacement of these ethnic quotas with per-country limits. Since then, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has quadrupled.

Research suggests that immigration to the United States is beneficial to the US several aspects, especially in economy. With few exceptions, the evidence suggests that on average, immigration has positive economic effects on the native population, but it is mixed as to whether low-skilled immigration adversely affects low-skilled natives. Studies also show that immigrants have lower crime rates than natives in the United States. Research also shows that the United States excels at assimilating first- and second-generation immigrants relative to many other Western countries.

2、Contemporary immigration

Until the 1930s most legal immigrants were male. By the 1990s women accounted for just over half of all legal immigrants. Contemporary immigrants tend to be younger than the native population of the United States, with people between the ages of 15 and 34 substantially overrepresented. Immigrants are also more likely to be married and less likely to be divorced than native-born Americans of the same age.

Immigrants are likely to move to and live in areas populated by people with similar backgrounds. This phenomenon has held true throughout the history of immigration to the United States. One of the representatives is Chinatown, which is the special place that Chinese get together. Chinese people living there know that “The fire burns high when everybody adds wood to it”, so they help each other to make a living at the same place, Native American and foreigners also could have a very standard impression by eating, playing and feeling at Chinatown.

Seven out of ten immigrants surveyed by Public Agenda in 2009 said they intended to make the U.S. their permanent home, and 71% said if they could do it over again they would still come to the US. In the same study, 76% of immigrants say the government has become stricter on enforcing immigration laws since the September 11, 2001 attacks ("9/11"), and 24% report that they personally have experienced some or a great deal of discrimination.

Public attitudes about immigration in the U.S. were heavily influenced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. After the attacks, 52% of Americans believed that immigration was a good thing overall for the U.S., down from 62% the year before, according to a 2009 Gallup poll（盖洛浦民意测验）. A 2008 Public Agenda survey found that half of Americans said tighter controls on immigration would do "a great deal" to enhance U.S. national security. Harvard political scientist and historian Samuel P. Huntington argued in his 2004 book Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity that a potential future consequence of continuing massive immigration from Latin America, especially Mexico, could lead to the polarization of the United States.

The estimated population of illegal Mexican immigrants in the US fell from approximately 7 million in 2007 to 6.1 million in 2011 commentators link the reversal of the immigration trend to the economic downturn that started in 2008 and which meant fewer available jobs, and to the introduction of tough immigration laws in many states. According to the Pew Hispanic Center the net immigration of Mexican born persons had stagnated in 2010, and tended toward going into negative figures.

3、Public opinion

The contradictory feeling of Americans toward immigrants is shown by a positive attitude toward groups that have been visible for a century or more, and much more negative attitude toward recent arrivals. For example, a 1982 national poll by the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut showed respondents a card listing a number of groups and asked, "Thinking both of what they have contributed to this country and have gotten from this country, for each one tell me whether you think, on balance, they've been a good or a bad thing for this country," which produced the results shown in the table. "By high margins, Americans are telling pollsters it was a very good thing that Poles, Italians, and Jews immigrated to America. Once again, it's the newcomers who are viewed with suspicion. This time, it's the Mexicans, the Filipinos, and the people from the Caribbean who make Americans nervous."

In a 2002 study, which took place soon after the September 11 attacks, 55% of Americans favored decreasing legal immigration, 27% favored keeping it at the same level, and 15% favored increasing it.

In 2006, the immigration-reduction advocacy think tank the Center for Immigration Studies released a poll that found that 68% of Americans think U.S. immigration levels are too high, and just 2% said they are too low. They also found that 70% said they are less likely to vote for candidates that favor increasing legal immigration. In 2004, 55% of Americans believed legal immigration should remain at the current level or increased and 41% said it should be decreased. The less contact a native-born American has with immigrants, the more likely one would have a negative view of immigrants.

Quantities of immigrants are high-skilled workers, therefore, many unaccomplished native-American have to face unemployment. One of the most important and critical factors regarding public opinion about immigration is the level of unemployment; anti-immigrant sentiment is where unemployment is highest, and vice versa.

Surveys indicate that the U.S. public consistently makes a sharp distinction between legal and illegal immigrants, and generally views those perceived as "playing by the rules" with more sympathy than immigrants that have entered the country illegally. Nowadays, the parent and children segregation policy performed by Trump’s government is a representative symbol of "playing by the rules".

According to a Gallup poll in July 2015, immigration is the fourth most important problem facing the United States and seven percent of Americans said it was the most important problem facing America today. In March 2015, another Gallup poll provided insight into American public opinion on immigration; the poll revealed that 39% of people worried about immigration "a great deal." A January poll showed that only 33% of Americans were satisfied with the current state of immigration in America. As an issue that is very important to Americans, polling reveals change in sentiment over time and diverse opinions regarding how to handle immigration.

Immigration not only promoted the formation and development of the American nation, but also played a decisive role in the rise and prosperity of the United States. First of all, in the process of immigration lasting for more than 200 years, although various ethnic groups more or less retain some historical features, over time, they have formed the commonness of subject status, and the formation and connotation of American nation is determined by this series of commonalities. This is a modern nation based on the industrialization of capitalism, without the inherent historical burden of the ancient nation, so its development is particularly rapid. Secondly, the entry of large Numbers of immigrants has brought impetus and vitality to the development of the United States since modern times. Capital, manpower, and technology are important factors in the development of industrialization. Many countries suffer from the difficulties in their development. Einstein, for example, moved to the United States because of the persecution of Nazi Germany, and his arrival soon led the world in the field of nuclear physics. Thirdly, the United States needs immigrants and immigrants yearn for the United States. This virtuous circle promotes the high openness of American society. Since the 19th century, in the process of global integration development, the degree of openness of a country or a nation is closely related to its development level and development speed and has great influence. In this regard, the United States came first. All in all, if you look at the history of American immigration, it's not hard to see why America is growing so quickly. Facing such a complex and complicated situation, Trump and American government still has a long way to go.

source:

This passage follows immigration of USA of Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_immigration_to_the_United_States