American Immigration Research Paper

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Pages: 3

The United States of America is a country founded by immigrants. Today immigrants make up at least 12.5% of the population and it is estimated that 11.5 million American residents are illegal immigrants (Kleniewski and Thomas). American cities have attracted immigrants for centuries due to opportunities. However, political history proves that as times change immigrants do not always receive welcoming reactions but they most often adapt and make significant contributions to society.
A substantial amount of immigrants have settled in American cities since the 1800s. Along with the times they have come in three significantly different waves. From 1860-1890 there was an influx of northern Europeans. Then from 1900-1924 southern and central Europeans began immigrating to America. Lastly, beginning in 1965 Asians and Latin Americans immigrated to America in search for work (Kleniewski and Thomas).
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They may immigrate to join family members or avoid political persecution. Often people emigrate from their home countries to escape wars and civil upheavals. Refuges also immigrate as an escape from issues in their home country and receive assistance from the country they immigrated to. Nonetheless, on a macro and micro level, work is the single most important factor of American immigration. Immigrants are often recruited for work when there is a labor shortage and the economy is expanding. For example, the Chinese were recruited to work on sugar plantations in Hawaii in the 1830s and in the 1860s Chinese made up 90% of the workforce building the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860s (Kleniewski and Thomas). Mexicans were also recruited to help rebuild areas affected by Hurricane Katrina of 2005 (Rushing, Awad and Walker).However, once the heavy lifting is done and jobs are no longer in surplus, government policies often get involved to discourage continual