The readings The Political Incorporation of Immigrants, Then and Now  by Gary Gerstle and John Mollenkopf focuses on the similarities and difference between the two immigrant waves that have arrived in the United States during the last two centuries. The reading makes sure to highlight the struggles and impact of the arrival of immigrants during the years 1881 to 1930 and at the beginning of the 21st century. According to the article, between the years of 1881 to 1920 about 27.6 million immigrants arrived in America, most of them from eastern, central and southern Europe, boosting the population up by 10.4%. After the liberalization of immigrant laws in 1965, about 20 million immigrants arrived from Latin America, Carribean and Asia. The majority of these immigrants settled in “gateway cities” such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco. Because of the declining birth rates among the native born residents, this wave of new immigrants began to make up more than 30% of the population.

There are some apparent differences between the wave of immigrants that arrived in the late 1800’s and the wave if immigrants that arrived later on in the 1900’s. For example, the wave of immigrants that arrived in the 1880’s arrived at a time that the United States was experiencing economic growth because of the rapid industrialized caused by the factories railroads, automobiles, and air travel This wave of immigrants was also more poorly educated than the current wave of immigrants. Furthermore, racial division was the central divider among the immigrants of that era. By contrast, the recent wave of immigrants have arrived at a time in which the level of discrimination has greatly diminished due to the blacks struggle to gain equality. Gerstle and Mollenkopf state that, “…today’s immigrants enter a more culturally relaxed, multicultural and perhaps less prejudiced society. In which the blacks struggle for justice has ended many aspects of instituitionalized discrimination agains non whites”( Gerstle and Mollenkopf 8) .

However, there are some similarities between the two waves of immigrants. Both waves settled in certain cities, giving themselves a distinct ethnic character. The journies of both groups reflected both the opportunities and resources provided by their destination of choice. Furthermore,  they both arrived at a time of economic transformation and wealth inequality and faced religious and racial discrimination.

What shocked me the most about this reading was in the beginning where the author stated that there has not been much research concerning the similarities and differences between the two waves of immigrants. While I was in high school, I took the Advanced Placement United States History course. I recognized many of the material that i learned included in this specific reading. What I most remember from the course was the repetitiveness of patterns that occur after immigrants settle in a new area. These patterns, such as immigrants settling in a place because of economic change and then facing discrimination from the the already established residents, have repeated themselves throughout history. So when the article stated that there has not been much research into the comparison of the two waves of immigrants, and instead researches have relied on stereotypes, it interested me. Shouldn’t we focus on the negative aspects of these repeating patterns so maybe we can look ahead into the future and prevent discrimination and conflicts from occurring? Also, another thing this reading reminded me of was the Community Board meeting I attended last night. What stuck out the most about the readings was when this man stood up to speak to the committee. He briefly stated his background, explaining that he was an Ecuadorian immigrant from the Andes. He stated that he wished to join the committee to reduce the hate crime in his area between Italians and Ecuadorians. When I heard that, I was astounded. It made me feel like a lot of the material that I have learned in this class, even it concerned immigrants from decades ago, is still prevalent today. I believe that we should continue to study these repeating patterns indepthly so we can prevent and fight such kinds of discrimination that has been going on for so long.