Oppression or opportunity? Immigrants faced many things while inside America. Low paying jobs, Illnesses, and small living spaces. Immigrants came to America expecting greatness, the “ Golden Country’ as some would call it. When the Immigrants came here, what they hoped was nothing like it seemed. This is why I believe that America was not a land of opportunity for immigrants, it was filled with oppression. To begin, nineteenth century America was not a great time to immigrate into because it was filled with poverty. The immigrants yearned for to come to America. they had many high hopes and dreams to come to what they called the “Golden Country”, and the statue of liberty drove them to want freedom even more. Sorrowfully, when the
Immigrants faced discrimination from American citizens and had to make a living for themselves, while still trying to fit in. As it is said in the article, ? The Philosophy of Immigration,? ?? the power of absorption possessed by the people of the United States is astonishing?? (The Philosophy of Immigration).
Immigrants face a great deal of hardship on coming to America. Many of these immigrants were on uneducated and fell into the trap of Robber Barons. During the Great Migration (1880-1921) about 56% of the immigrants migrated to the United States not knowing what to expect. Therefore, when coming to America many of the defenseless immigrants had to pay a price. “The shipping industry guarantee good profit, but they had to send their children which caused their family to be separated, this was because these immigrants did not have enough money to have them and their children going together” ( Morgan Prezi).
Immigrants from all over the world migrate to American in the search of a true and honest life in search of liberty and the pursuit of
Slavery was the driving force for most of the political controversies during the 19th century. Not only has slavery created political controversies in the United States, but throughout the world. The Fugitive Slave Acts, revolts, and a political argument indicating if slavery should be legalized are the main aspects that caused these disputes. The Fugitive Slave Acts produced political tensions because it ordered states to deliver up fugitives from labor [runaway slaves] when they are requested by slaveholders.
America claims to have free opportunity, but to immigrants, there tends to be none. Illegal immigrants aren’t treated well by people in the government and are forced into detention centers or jails. Jose Antonio Vargas is a Filipino writer and immigrant activist who suffered the same experience as any other illegal immigrant just to find a better opportunity in America. He states in the article “What America Looks Like From A Jail In South Texas”, “This is a country that prides itself as one founded and built by immigrants, but also one whose laws and policies have historically been anti-immigrant.” This statement itself brings out how much immigrants helped out America, and yet America still doesn’t accept the fact that immigrants were the ones who shaped our society.
The U.S changed during the 1880’s because of many immigrants coming from North Western Europe. Many of them weren 't poor. Stuff that made them want to leave their homes in Europe were, religions, natural disasters, famine, tyrants, and discrimination. People wanted to come to the U.S because of religious freedom, democracy, free land, jobs, family, and affordable transportation. The Chinese were encouraged to come to U.S to build railroads in 1860’s, in 1882 The Chinese Exclusion Act was made and so was the Immigration act, which was tax on immigration, they denied people who looked like lunatics and looked like they needed government.
In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, a lot of immigrants left their home base to come to the United States for countless of reasons. One arrangement of settlers was the English foreigners, who were inspired by the stories of the United States and the ideals of “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” (English Immigration to America, n.d.). The English wanted to be brought from poverty into a place of abundance. Another group of settlers was the Chinese immigrants. They arrived in the United States because of opportunities on the California Gold Rush, the construction of the transcontinental, and abundant agriculture jobs (Wandrei, n.d.).
Most immigrants who came to the U.S had high expectations that they would find wealth but once they arrived they realized their expectations weren’t what they expected. Although, they were disappointed in not finding wealth the conditions in which the U.S was in by the late 1800s were still a lot better than the places they all had left behind to come. The majority of the immigration population anticipation was to find profitable jobs and opportunities. When the large numbers of immigration were migrating to the U.S, it was during the “Gilded Age”, which was the prime time for the country’s expansion of industrialization. This rapid expansion of new industries led to the need of workers which motivated people from other countries to come to
From 1880 to 1925, an era deemed New immigration, vast numbers of foreigners sought better lives as Americans. However, rather than a welcoming embrace, the expanding populations of immigrants were confronted with growing disdain of immigration. Many Americans assumed immigrants came to America as the poorest and most vagrant people of their country. Thus, many worried that immigrants would pollute America’s genetic stock and become financial burdens to the country. In response to growing anti-immigrant sentiment, Nativists demanded that America belong to “natives” and advocated restrictions on immigration to keep jobs for real Americans.
Immigrants made it possible for themselves to reach America, to get what the deserved. While not having many opportunities with religion, jobs, and freedom of speech, in the “Promised Land”, it was everywhere they turned. Many families left their homes from religious persecution to gain religious freedom without being violated. Religion was one of the main reasons immigrants fled into America.
In the early 19th century, millions of immigrants from Europe had traveled to the United States to escape difficulties faced in their native lands such as poverty and religious persecution. Italian, German, Irish, and many other eastern European immigrants sought the prosperous and wealthy lifestyle advertised in the land of opportunity, the United States. However, after settling down they often faced the difficulties they had fled from as well as sentiments of prejudice and mistrust from the American people. Most immigrants were discriminated against due to their religious beliefs as well as their language barriers which fostered the beliefs that they were intellectually inferior to Americans.
How would you feel if you and your family were denied the opportunity to a better life or had to wait years for one? The immigrants goal is to strive for a better future for themselves and their family. Coming here will help them achieve that goal. You may be thinking why cant they have a good future where they live? In some cases, the country they live in could be poor, not have many schools, is not safe, etc.
Immigration and The American Dream Immigrants from the mid 19th century and early 20th century consisted of mainly Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. Immigrants motivations, experiences, and impacts shaped what an immigrant had to go through being a different person from another country. Although Americans dislike foreigners who came to the United States, immigrants had a role in political, economic, cultural, and social aspects of immigrants because of their motivations, experiences, and impacts in America. New Immigrants did not have it easy and went through obstacles natives, political figures, bosses and others had thrown at them.
Immigrants can be said to be a person who comes to live in foreign country permanently. Every year, hundreds of thousands of immigrants, legal and illegal, from around the world, have come to the United States seeking a better life for themselves and their family. These immigrants have many different motivations; some enter the U.S hoping to get a chance of a better life; others are refugees, escaping civil wars or persecution in their country. Many of these immigrants believe the United States is the best place to go. There are more freedom, opportunities, protection and benefits which are important issues for immigrants.
Being an American today means everyone is equal the same opportunities are available for every citizen of this great nation. Throughout history, people from around the world have looked to immigrate to America in search of a higher quality life and better opportunities. In the early 1600’s pilgrims found today's America as they were searching for religious freedom, from 1880 to 1920 many immigrants fled to this nation in search of greater economic opportunity (History.com). Currently, there are some varying opinions regarding immigrants in America, some citizens believe immigrants are harmful to the country. Others believe that immigrants are beneficial to America as immigration increases economic growth; with more people working tasks can