Immigration to America in the 21st Century Paper Example

a) Benefits of Immigration to America in the 21st Century

The first benefit of immigration is economic growth. Due to the increased number of immigrants in the US, there is the availability of more workers; hence firms can expand their production capacity as well as build more establishments. Nonetheless, immigration results in increased production capacity per worker; this leads to an increased number of firms that provide investment opportunities. As a result, a country experiences economic growth. For instance, the US experienced a high economic growth between 1960 and 2009 as a result of immigration (The Regents of the University of California, 2018).

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The second benefit is that immigration results in a young and productive population. For instance, most of the individuals who migrate into America is the young generation; these are individuals who are looking for employment in foreign countries. Nevertheless, the young age will always take a job as long as it pays; hence the rise of the young and productive population that can work in all industries.

The third benefit is the creation of an entrepreneurial culture. Some of the immigrants do not secure jobs. Therefore, they are forced to start businesses to raise income. However, some of the businesses grow into large companies. Statistics reveal that nearly half of Fortune 500 companies were initiated by the first or second generation of immigrants. For instance, in 2016, these companies employed more than ten million people and accounted for around five trillion dollars in global revenue (The Hustle, 2017).

The fourth benefit is the creation of an innovative economy. Numerous immigrants in the US means people with different skills and levels of expertise. As a result, there is an increased discovery of new technology. According to Molla, (2018) immigrants have helped found sixty percent of the greatest tech companies in the United States. Today, these tech companies and all of Silicon Valley depend on immigrants to compensate for the shortage of tech workers in the United States.

b) Reasons why Non-European Immigrants (Mexican, Chinese, and Japanese) Left their Countries

Mexican Immigration

The Mexican migration into the US was as a result of many factors. The first factor is the civil war; the civil war between 1910 and 1920 resulted in many people moving into America to escape the war. The second factor was the abolishment of immigration restrictions due to the labor shortage as a result of WW1. Additionally, after WW2, the Bracero program was introduced in the US-Mexico border to enable temporary Mexican laborers to work as an aid to the economy (Steinhauer, 2015).

The movement in the US resulted in Mexican immigrants concentrating on low skilled jobs such as ranch workers and mine workers. However, their presence in the new country meant some challenges such as discrimination and poor pay. Nonetheless, the immigrants faced the issue of poll tax where they had to pay some money before casting their votes; hence their voting rights were limited.

Chinese Immigration

The Chinese migration to the US was primarily as a result of civil war in the country, for instance, the Taiping rebellion. Also, the movement increased in the middle of the 19th century when Chinese male manual laborers arrived in the US to search for low-skilled jobs because of the railroad, mining and agricultural construction in the US. Further, there were significant policy changes in China and the US that created a new chapter of Chinese migration (Zong & Batalova, 2017).

Many of the Chinese immigrants labored in the mines while the rest searched for gold on their own. Later, the immigrants were able to open personal businesses like restaurants and laundries. Due to economic competition, Chinese immigrants faced dislike, racial suspicion, and hatred from the host members. Further, the feelings led to anti-Chinese riots and pressure; this led to the initiation of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1982. The Act discouraged Chinese immigration for almost a century.

Japanese Immigration

The Japanese immigrants moved to the United States in search for prosperity and peace. A majority of the immigrants were leaving Japan due to its instability. After the 1868 Meiji Restoration, there was rapid industrialization and urbanization in Japan; this resulted in the agricultural decline and social disruption. Hence, farmers were forced to flee their land and workers lost their jobs due to increased foreign competition. Individuals had to seek for the good life outside their homeland. Nonetheless, Japanese wages plummeted, and taxes went up, and as news of a growing US economy spread, the migration to the United States became difficult to resist.

Most of the Japanese immigrants worked on plantations, especially in the pineapple and sugar cane fields. However, before they would enjoy their stay in the US the Japanese immigrants had to overcome harsh working conditions, hostile neighbors and legislative attacks, for instance, it was illegal for the immigrants to buy land due to the Alien land Act of 1913. Moreover, the immigrants were ineligible for citizenship, and those that were better educated were excluded from jobs.

Additionally, in the early 1880s, there was a significant drop in legal barriers to emigration; this accelerated emigration. The Japanese government supported the emigration process where it selected emigrants from a list of applicants. Between 1886 and 1911, sent over 300,000 for the US and US controlled lands, and massive emigration began, for at least a decade beyond the period (Richardson, 2015).

c) European Immigrants: How they Differed from the Old Immigrants and the Consequences they have for the American Society

I) Differences

The first European immigration occurred in the 16th and 18th century where most settlers were attracted by religious freedom and economic opportunity. These immigrants were a mixture of indentured servants and well-to-do individuals. The Scandinavian, German and Irish immigrants who were migrating between the 1840s and 1850s were fleeing from political conflicts, religious persecution, and famine. Unlike, the non-European immigrants who migrated to avoid civil war or in search of job opportunities.II) Consequences

The first consequence is globalization. The European immigrants led to globalization in that there was an increased human interaction that led to the development of international trade between the host countries of the immigrants and the American society. On the other hand, due to increased human interaction and interdependence of people, there was an increase in technology, for instance, the discovery of TransAtlantic telegraph and steamships. The TransAtlantic ship enabled the delivery of goods within seven days, down from two months. On the other hand, the telegraph enabled communications across boundaries; hence people were able to ask for products. Therefore, trade became faster and cheaper due to the availability of capital and consumer goods.

The second consequence is accelerated industrialization. Between the nineteenth and twentieth century, the US was transformed from a rural agrarian to an urban industrial economy. Before the industrial revolution, most areas in America were isolated agricultural fields and small towns that were connected to the outside world by horse-drawn wagons (Hirschman & Mogford, 2009). However, the situation changed after the arrival of European immigrants who brought about the industrial revolution. There was a supply of low-cost manufactured goods. Nonetheless, the made products were marketed and transported by road, water and rail lines.

The third consequence is a weak labor movement. The Europen immigrants increased the supply of labor; hence reduced the impact of labor unions over the labor market. People were willing to provide cheap labor, and this lowered the wages. Therefore, it was hard for the labor movement to restrict wages because the supply of labor had exceeded its demand. More so, it was hard to organize immigrants as opposed to the native workers due to the lack of cooperation caused by ethnicity division. Nevertheless, it was a challenge to organize labor strikes.

The fourth consequence is the promotion of school reforms. The presence of European immigrants in the US called for changes in the society to accommodate individuals from other continents. This gave rise to new school reforms that were meant to assist the education of migrants' children as well as the promotion of intercultural education. The school reforms were a means of integrating immigrant students. Some of the changes introduced were mandatory school attendance laws; this ensured that no student would miss a class because of discrimination. Teachers were supposed to teach common languages like English to remove communication barriers.

The fifth consequence is the revival of the nativism. The new immigrants in the US continually became a new target for native-born Americans who resisted foreigners. For reasons ranging from the fear of losing jobs to religious intolerance, the residents advocated for nativism; this was a policy intended to protect the interest of the native Americans over the interests of immigrants. The immigrants provided inexpensive labor, and this threatened the jobs of native workers. The government responded to the sentiments by introducing the National Origins Act of 1924; the policy stayed in effect for forty years. The Act banned all immigrants from eastern and southern Europe as well as allowing only 150,000 persons per year from Europe.

d) How Immigration in the US has been Different since 1965

The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 commonly knows as the Hart-Celler Act led to the removal of the quota system that was founded on national origin (Cohn, 2015). This led to the introduction of a new immigration policy aimed at bringing together the immigrant families as well as attracting skilled labor to the US. Over the years, the new immigration policy has resulted in a demographic change in the American population. The immigrants entering the country since then increased from countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa as opposed to Europe.

Today, immigration laws are continually being shaped by terrorism, unauthorized immigration and concerns about refugees. The most recent change in immigration policy was about an exception in 2012 when President Obama initiated an administrative action that allowed young adults who were unlawfully in the country apply for deportation relief and a work permit (Cohn, 2015).

Works Cited

Cohn, D'vera. How US immigration laws and rules have changed throughout the history. 30 September 2015. <http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/30/how-u-s-immigration-laws-and-rules-have-changed-through-history/>.

Hirschman, Charles and Elizabeth Mogford. "Immigration and the American industrial revolution from 1880 to 1920." Social Science Research (2009): 897-920.

Molla, Rani. "The top US tech companies founded by immigrants are now worth nearly $4 trillion." 12 January 2018. Recode. <https://www.recode.net/2018/1/12/16883260/trump-immigration-us-america-tech-companies-immigrants>.

Richardson, Graham V. "Japanese immigrants." 2015. Immigration to the United States. <http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/663-japanese-immigrants.html>.

Steinhauer, Jason. "The history of Mexican immigration to the US in the early 20th century." 11 March 2015. Library of Congress. <https://blogs.loc.gov/kluge/2015/03/the-history-of-mexican-immigration-to-the-u-s-in-the-early-20th-century/>.

The Hustle. "43% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by 1st or 2nd generation." 6 December 2017. The Hustle. <https://thehustle.co/fortune-500-immigrant-founders/>.

The Regents of the University of California....