Immigration In The 19th Century

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Since the attack on September 11th, many began to view the Mexican border as a gateway for terrorists, depicting Mexican immigrants as a threat to national security. This fear of the foreigner has repeated itself throughout history, ensuing an irregular distribution of wealth and power, preventing certain racial groups from reaching upward mobility. The dominant upper white class upholds this fear of inviting the enemy into their home. Today we face great concerns regarding the discrimination and injustice toward immigrants. Although many believe that immigrants are to meant to meet the threshold to “becoming American”, assimilation patterns for contemporary immigrants have proven otherwise since the 19th century. Due to the hourglass economy, …show more content…
doubled allowing family members and skilled workers to migrate to the United States. This first wave of immigrants consisted of WWII refugees from Europe, Mexico, Central America, China, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and the Caribbean Islands (McLemore, Lecture Week 4). In the late 20th century, people from Southern and Eastern European countries like Italy, Poland, Russia, and Hungary came in (McLemore, Lecture Week 4). World War II refugees from Europe, and immigrants from Central America, China, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Caribbean Islands were a part of the third immigration stream during 1946 to present day (McLemore, Lecture Week 4).Although more immigrants from Europe and Asia found jobs at this time, they fled their countries due to unpleasant circumstances. Many whites partook in “color-blindness”; the assertion that race and ethnicity did not apply to the economic and socio-political structures. Instead, they ignored race and simply erased the history of their dominance. Hence, beliefs about race reinforced privilege and inequality toward …show more content…
According to this traditional perspective, ”assimilation” is defined as “the social process in which formerly distinct and separate groups come to share a common culture and merge socially” (Lecture).Gordon devised this traditional assimilation model based on the concept of Anglo-conformity, and the Melting Pot metaphor. He breaks down the process of assimilation into seven sub-processes in which he overarches with stages of acculturation, integration, and intermarriage. In these stages, he makes it clear that one can successfully assimilate by abandoning one’s own culture and adopting these behavioral, structural, and marital assimilation component. His theory is exemplified within the first and second generation immigrants who first settled into their ethnic neighborhoods with hopes of living the American Dream. Not only did white people exploit African Americans, but the Italians, Irish, and Chinese were also considered undesirable immigrants during this time. Contrary to the melting pot image, the classical assimilation theory in U.S. has generally been a coercive and largely one sided process better described by the terms of Americanization or Anglo-Conformity. However, the classical assimilation theory has its flaws in the fact that it does not account for the race and ethnic backgrounds, and the socioeconomic status of
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