Immigration in America Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Immigration in America - Research Paper Example Among these, over 90,000 are nonimmigrant business people, students, workers and tourists, who get in to the nation through airports and border crossings. Approximately 3,000 of them are immigrants or expatriates, who would become permanent dwellers of the U.S. through special invitation. Moreover, over 1,000 of the immigrants are illegal aliens; typically, Mexicans, who dodge border controls, enter the United States, and inhabit. Several factors motivate these immigrants including religious, political, and economic factors. For the initial immigrants, Spaniards needed Christian converts in Florida and the southwest; the Puritans in Massachusetts wanted to institute a society limited to members of their faith while German sectarians wanted religious liberty in Pennsylvania (Martin & Midgley, 2003). Cynical perceptions of outsiders as belonging to a different race, ethnicity, economic status, religion, or political attachment have significantly interfered with America's interest for n ewcomers. Since the eighteenth century, the inborn Americans have raised various issues concerning the influx of immigrants in to the country. These issues include concerns regarding pressure on public services, job contest, and an apparent incapability of the U.S. to take in cultural foreigners easily (Ogletree, 2000). Several studies on the public opinion concerning immigrants in the 1960’s indicate that many of Americans proposed for the reduction of both authorized and unauthorized immigration. On the other hand, public opinion surveys carried out at the close of the 18th century indicate that the public were more lenient toward immigration. This is because there were low rates of unemployment and the economy was growing (Martin & Midgley, 2003). Immigration policies in America After the World War I, many Americans became more patriotic and demanded for the removal of foreign blood from their country. Consequently, this resulted in the development of various acts and poli cies aimed at regulating immigration in to America. For instance, this anti-immigrant climate prompted for the enactment of Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924. These resultant acts instituted quota methods intended to decrease considerably the number of southern and eastern Europeans and to block all Asians. During this time, there was widespread perception that these foreigners were polluting the American culture. This perception carried a lot of weight in congressional discussions, as did the argument that strangers were the carriers of fundamental ideologies (Vecoli, 1996). For the nation’s first 100 years, the United States assisted immigration, welcoming aliens who could help to inhabit a huge nation. However, from the 1880s onwards, the United States started to block particular categories of immigrants. This comprised low-skilled contract workers, Chinese and prostitutes. Consequently, this led to the development of the phase of qualitative limitations on immigration. Ac cording to the United States laws and policies, immigrants are nationals of foreign countries given visas that permit them to live and work permanently in the United States