Diversity in the United States
Diversity in the United States is a product of immigration. The white majority in the United States are descendants of migrants from Europe.
On the other hand, minority ethnic groups are descendants of migrants from other parts of the world such as Africa, Asia, South America, and North America. It is therefore essential to explore the controversies involved in American immigration to understand relationship between the diverse ethnicities in the country. This paper will therefore explore the history of immigration in the United States.
Immigration Phases
The United States is mainly composed of immigrants. In fact, natives are nowadays considered minority ethnic groups. The country is full of people from different parts of the world. Its flourishing economy had a great role in influencing migrants. In fact, most migrants came to the United States for economic reasons. However, it is important to note that others (especially the British) also came for religious freedom.
Incidentally, U.S. policy on immigration has repeatedly failed to monitor the type of immigrants and to govern the number of immigrants. Immigration to the United States occurred in various stages. The main stages of immigration occurred from the late eighties to the late nineties. The first immigrants were mainly composed of British settlers (60%). They came between 1607 and 1776. During this period, there was no immigration policy. As mentioned earlier, most of these settlers came for economic and religious reasons.
First Phase
The first period saw the coming of Germans who settled in Pennsylvania. Africans also came to America during this period (through slave trade). Statistics show that approximately 500,000 African slaves immigrated to the United Stated despite slave trade of between 11 and 12 million to America. In addition, about 10% of Africans who lived in the North were free although they encountered extreme discrimination.
However, those in the South faced dreadful circumstances in slavery. In fact, revolts and rebellion were predominant in the South. The first large-scale immigration was observed between 1820 and 1880. Over 10 Million immigrants entered the United States. There was no immigration policy until in 1875 when the first control act was established. The first wave of immigration saw large immigration from Europe (especially the Irish and the Germans). They came mainly for economic reasons.
Second and Third Phases
The second phase happened between 1880 and 1930. It composed of over 27.5 million migrants. Most of these were from Southern and Eastern Europe (especially Italians, Poles, and Russians). They were poor and unskilled. They also had their own customs, religion, and language.
About 1 million Jews also migrated during this period. As opposed to their Eastern and Southern Europe counterparts, the Jews were skilled and were economically stable. However, like other minority groups they both faced discrimination/exclusion from mainstream Americans.
In 1917, another act was put in place to test literacy levels of potential immigrants restricted. The total immigration was also capped at 165000 annually in 1924. In addition, quota system was introduced to restrict immigration to 2% of immigrants from countries of origin. This greatly affected Asian and Eastern/Southern Europeans. Moreover, in 1882, Chinese’ presence in the United States was further reduced through the China exclusion act.
Immigrants from Japan were also reduced. However, they are the most decorated in history of United States. The third phase was later seen after 1965. This was mainly composed of Mexicans. However, history suggests earlier settlement of Mexicans as evidenced in the Mexican war of 1846. Since 1965, United States’ Immigration policy has undergone several changes aimed at restricting as well as monitoring immigrants.