United States, The Nation of Immigrants

Conservatives bring forth been asking what the immigrants leave do to America, as Peter Brimelow notes. In the past, it was believed that the influx of immigrants was likewise sm all to have more than a marginal effect, still Brimelow finds that while on that point was an immigration lull for some long time as fewer people made their counselling into the country, that was changed by the 1965 immigration Act. Immigration has surged, and unity consequence has been that the American ethnic mix has been upset so that the population has dropped from 88.6 percent exsanguine in 1960 to 75.6 white in 1990 (Brimelow 30-31). Brimelow further finds that more of these immigrants atomic number 18 availing themselves of welfare participation and are faced with higher pauperism rates (Brimelow 32).

Marilyn Lacey sees the present immigration policy as one fraught with xenophobia, something which seems to be part of Brimelow's argument as well, in particular as he expresses a growing concern that as well as many immigrants are non-white. Lacey sees the debate as being make by powerful myths about how immigrant outsiders are ruining America. The foremost of these myths is that immigrants are dragging down the economy, when in fact immigrants have a positive effect on the economy. The newcomers first of all stimulate growth, boost productivity, and create jobs. They also pay taxes, procure goods and services, and start their own businesses. A second myth i

A report by the military mission on Immigration Reform says much about the social function of who should be an American and how that person should go about graceful an American. The report has a heading "Americanization," and it is noted thither that the get together States stands as one of the most successful multiethnic nations in history:

"Fact Sheet: CIR Recommendations on Legal Immigration." June 6, 1995.

The tutelage thus recommends not that immigration be halted but that it be speeded up to reduce the processing time for naturalization, thus fashioning it easier to become an American rather than harder.

This is a recognition of the voice of immigrants, of the falseness of the myths cited by Lacey, and of the fact that what makes an American is a belief in certain principles and the willingness to work to make those principles prevail in the world.

Underlying the debate on immigration is the ever-present uncertainty of who can be an American. This is not a new debate, though it may sound new to some because much of it has been bring around or reshaped from earlier versions. The issue of bilingualism and whether an American has to be adapted to speak fluent side in order to be an American, for instance, was a debate on the nineteenth and early ordinal centuries. President Roosevelt and others took a political stand against bilingualism, holding that the continue use of foreign languages was somehow un-American. There was at the akin time a scientific and professional literature that claimed that there were intellectual limitations associated with a lack of fluency in English:

Lacey says that the current complaints about immigration were fueled by the world Trade Center bombing and the reports that the perpetrators had entered the country by way of political asylum claims. The belief was created that most immigrants are illegal, when in fact 8 out of 10 immigrants are here legally. Lacey cites a campaign by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
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