What defines American culture? The fact that it’s a “melting pot” or a “salad bowl”, depending on which way you look at it. The fact that it’s unique because it’s not just one culture. It’s the build up of culture after culture that was brought here, to the New World. There’s only one reason America became what it is today. And that reason is immigration.
Immigration has been an extremely controversial topic over the past two centuries. Believing immigrants to be a detriment to the country politically, economically, and socially, many presidents have attempted (and succeeded) to pass laws to restrict foreigners from entering the country. America has an anti-immigrant history where law after law was passed to halt what Americans have called an “invasion” of illegal aliens (Kwong). In addition, the Chinese, Mexican, and Eastern European immigrants, to name a few, have suffered from relentless persecution and abuse from xenophobic Americans. America has a dirty history involving sweatshops, deportation, and exploitation of immigrants.
Immigrants have built up America, not just its society and culture, but its infrastructure and economy (Kwong, 304). Contrary to popular beliefs, immigrants have had a positive impact on the US economy. Many people believed and continue to believe that immigrants only succeed in taking away jobs from natives and lowering people’s incomes. However, the statistics are astounding, with studies showing that immigrants have raised wages of US-born workers by about 0.4% (Shierholz, 2). In fact, the only people who have been impacted negatively by new immigrant workers are previous immigrants.
Over the years, US presidents have attempted to “solve” the immigration problem, for example, Bush’s Guest Worker program. As I read these readings about the immigration debate, I realized how unpleasant our country has been about the immigration. “When all is said and done, immigration laws are legal tools for controlling the numbers and types of immigrants allowed into a country. (Kwong)” Although illegal immigration is an issue, the way that it has been dealt with is inappropriate. Because when push comes to shove, American culture, economy, and society would not exist without immigrants.
