Introduction
An immigrant is a person who possesses the nationality in one nation, but gets into another country, to obtain an undeviating habitation. A person qualifies as an immigrant only if they had been citizens in one nation, but chose to move to another country to live there forever.
This arises from different reasons. This makes the legal immigrants permanent members of the country of their intended permanent stay. Immigration into North America started in the sixteenth century. People moved from all over the world, including the European countries, into America.
Other places are the African nations who got taken because of slavery, the Caribbean, and the Asian nations. In the past, they moved for various reasons such as; search for better living, escape from religious persecution, land related squabbles, and population outburst. However, up until now, migration into the Northern United States still counts for the greater majority. Historically, these immigrants faced a host of quandary.
Challenges the Immigrants Faced
This study will assess the history of America majorly, as opposed to just a few flips into other nations. However, there is a disclaimer that immigrants tend to face rather similar predicaments globally. These immigrants came from different parts of the world to America. According to scholars, immigrants faced a lot of dilemmas in their quest to shift places of residence (Deutsch, 2006). Different groups of immigrants faced various challenges that were mostly pertinent to them. Following is an analysis of these challenges;
Most of them confronted with racial segregation. Majority of the American citizens did not like them, and so discriminated against them. The discrimination on immigrants was on the basis of their skin color and accent. “The ‘colored’ was the name given to them.
Moreover, most of the inhabitants perceived that the immigrants were there to take their positions at their places of work. As opposed to the facade painted by most pictures of the vulnerable, poor, sickly, and emaciated fellows, some of these immigrants were healthy, exuded confidence, strong, and well learned men and women. This was a threat to the natives.
Additionally, some of them thought that the immigrants did not express regard for the American cultures, customs, and traditions. Furthermore, others felt that these immigrants behaved in strange ways, since they would gather in their small cocoons where they practiced their ‘bizarre’ religious activities.
This was simply because of the difference in cultures and religions. This created a lot of conflicts and unrest among the people. The immigrants, therefore, came across a lot of opposition before they could be accepted into America, as part of that community (Bankston & Hidalgo, 2006).
There emerged a group called the Ku Klux Klan who placed the white African race above the blacks. This group went to the extreme as they disregarded the blacks. They prevented them from voting. In addition, the Jews faced chauvinism and paucity from the same group.
The bigotry was because of their religion and culture. Most of them were also less empowered economically, as opposed to the natives. As we all know, lack of financial viability makes individuals voiceless. They also attacked other religious groups, such as Catholics and foreign born people. They beat them up, mutilated their bodies, kidnapped, lynched, and even murdered some.
In addition to this, most of the immigrants, especially the Africans suffered identity crisis. They also degraded themselves rendering them hopeless and helpless before the Native Americans (Nyang’, 2012). The identity crisis occurred because some of them did not envisage staying in America for a lifetime, but would have to go back to their home country one day. It therefore, made acculturation difficult.
In the period between 1870- 1900, there was a surge of a new troop of immigrants into the US. This led to a new set of cultural diversity, new societal outlines, eruption of clashes, and development of national unity ideas. This aroused fresh chaos, since the existing immigrants treated the new comers with a lot of hostility. They were not friendly to the new immigrants, failing to understand that they too were immigrants. This caused frustrations and unrest.
Another significant challenge was the difficulty in communication; a major number of the immigrants spoke their mother tongue. Those days’ education was scarce, and just a few non English speakers could have somehow communicated in that language. These immigrants had a problem expressing themselves in English, since it was not their native language (Deutsch, 2006).
This made it even impossible for the other residents to communicate with them. The different cultures also became difficult to be integrated into oneness because of the language barrier. This led to the formation of ethnic enclaves. In these places, such immigrants formed a small home away from home alone, and it created unity among them, which on the contrary, caused alienation to the rest of the people who did not belong to that particular ethnic background.
Furthermore, a group of professionals known as Immigration Restriction League pressed for laws, which demanded tests on how literate anyone who wanted to get into the United States as an immigrant was. This group placed a lot of national under- development blames on the immigrants.
Obtaining accommodation was also a hiccup. It should be noted that some of the immigrants went to America as slaves. These were especially those from Africa. Slave drivers took them to go and work as laborers in the farms, and other such places.
These people were therefore, the unfortunate group who suffered all sorts of ills in the society. They were poor and could not manage decent housing (Nyang’, 2012). Moreover, with the population surge, obtaining housing was difficult. Also, the economy continued to depreciate which made resources scarce and housing extremely expensive.
Acquiring the work that could pay them well also proved to be a challenge. Some of these immigrants moved from their countries with a bid to get good jobs, and hence improve their economic standards. However, most got disappointed as their dreams came tumbling down due to discrimination. Therefore, some had to start from exceedingly humble positions, just to get food on their tables.
Counteracting productivity at the place of work also emerged. This is because people have the concept that immigrants are people from minority ethnic groups, and thus get treatment with a lot of resentment. Most of them fail to exercise their full potential as a result of such discriminatory behavior. More disgust comes when these people have qualifications for a position, but fail to get it due to ethnic discrimination.
Most of them never get managerial positions because of the association with opposition and threat. This would call for a lot of patience on the part of the immigrant, but would have at times reached its peak, and take a toll on these people. What is more, this affects not only individuals, but also organizations and companies. This can cause stagnation in a country’s economy if it persists (Bankston & Hidalgo, 2006).
In addition to the job problems, these immigrants faced a higher potential to lose their jobs at recession, and lower potential for recovering in case the season picked again (Nyang’, 2012). This was because most countries preferred their own to benefit before others. It was even worse when the immigrants were least qualified. They in turn, settled for lower jobs with meager salaries, which would not sustain them for long.
Another major tribulation for the immigrants was insecurity. This occurred both externally and internally. There was a lot of mistrust from people, since even neighbors could not stand each other. In addition to this, they could not participate politically in their country of migration.
This, therefore, meant little freedom and no voice. As a result, crucial decisions got pronounced on their behalf, and nobody cared who it favored or not. Moreover in the year 1917, President Woodrow made the congress pass a legislative that placed an outlaw on all Asian countries, except Japan and Philippines. They also created an impermanent quota barring immigrants. This was permanent and strict in the year 1924. All this was a response to pressures that got politically castigated.
The Norwegians had to go through a period of make-over from what they got used to, in order for them to fit into the American society and culture. The Dutch, on the other hand, faced rivalry amongst themselves and other immigrants. This left only those who were extremely fit to survive amidst such tough competition. They competed for resources and jobs.
How They Overcame the Challenges
To overcome these challenges, they had to adopt intercultural competence in order to survive. This is because the emerging intermarriages forced these people to find new ways to manage themselves.
They had to learn to interrelate and develop mutual relationships that would benefit them all, immigrants and natives (Lustig & Koester, 1996). As a result of cultural and religious diversity, everyone had to develop multicultural tactics somehow, in order for progress to be realized. This integration created peace and fostered prosperity.
They had to work hard to learn the language of the country; English. The proposition was that English be the national language. A few people opposed this, but even at that, it still remains the language of communication. It therefore, forced everyone to learn it to overcome the language barrier, and become productive and proactive, as well. Those days too, there was no multi or bilingualism to ease their work.
Policies and acts of parliament got created, to allow immigration into the country. One was the Immigration and Nationality Act, which President Lyndon Johnson signed in 1965. This allowed immigrants free and fair movement, into and within the country, as well as participation in national issues. For instance, it provided freedom to participate in politics, either through voting or vying.
Deutsch (2006) argues that this was a means to eliminate discrimination, and allow free participation for everyone. This fostered unity as everyone got a voice which brought about a sense of ownership. This Act abolished the national quota system on immigration but laid rules for immigrants. It was soft on the immigrants who had exceptional qualifications and talents. It also favored those who had American relatives, as well as those who would never leave America due to their tenure of stay.
The assurance of America to bring freedom to all people has helped the immigrants forge ahead. The constitution also enshrines this. The industrial revolution brought with it new employment opportunities. Some of these immigrants, therefore, had jobs. Financial empowerment meant economic growth, and thus development in the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
In conclusion, the immigrants faced a lot of hitches in their bid to find peace and shelter, and the good life they dreamt. Some of these predicaments face them until today. However, they overcame all this through culture assimilation. An adage says that on going to Rome, a person needs to do as the Romans. This is a fundamental principle that should be embraced by everyone. The immigrants should learn to coexist to make the world a better place.
This can be properly crowned by the words of President George Washington in the year 1783, when he stated that America was open to all with exception to none, irrespective of religious or cultural affiliation. The immigrants went through extremely painful and traumatizing experiences. However, the sufferings acted as a wake- up call towards the fight for their freedom. The achievement of their freedom could be achieved only through combined efforts. Therefore, several stakeholders had to join the fight to make it successful.
References
Bankston, L.C. & Hidalgo, D. (2006). Immigration in U.S. History. Magill’s choice 2 (3), 67-129.
Deutsch, M. (2006). A Framework for Thinking about Oppression and Its Change. Social Justice Research 19 (1), 7–14.
Lustig, W. M. & Koester, J. (1996). Intercultural competence: Interpersonal communication across cultures (2nd ed.). New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.
Nyang’, S.S. (2012). The African Immigrant Family in the United States of America: Challenges and Opportunities. Howard University, Washington D.C.: Unwin Publishers.