Mexican Americans
The immigrant group of Mexican Americans entered the United States in search for a job because the American farms, railroads, and mines were in a significant lack of cheap labor between the 1880’s and the 1920’s. Furthermore, the government held a number of working programs aimed specifically at Mexican immigrants due to the labor shortage after the WWI (Portnoy, Portnoy and Riggs 195).
Nowadays there is evidence of a significant lack of education in Mexican Americans across a number of generations; in addition, this evidence is supported by perpetuated stereotyping of Mexican immigrants as being an uneducated and cheap manual labor. Thus, the main issue this immigrant group faces in the modern American society is the stigmatization of their low levels of education that resulted from low expectations of Mexicans entering the country on the part of the American government (Ortiz and Telles 2).
However, the contribution of Mexican Americans into the growth of the American economy is incomparable with any other group. The majority of the cities’ infrastructure was built by Mexican immigrants; the transcontinental railroad would have never existed if it was not for the hard work of Mexican Americans. Lastly, the development of the agricultural sector in the late 1890’s it also attributed to Mexican Americans (Portnoy, Portnoy and Riggs 197).
West Indian Blacks
A view that the group of West Indian Blacks has achieved more success than the African Americans emerged in the middle of 1920’s, a short period of time after they began entering the States (Model 535).
The main issues West Indian Blacks face is still, unfortunately, linked to their racial status. Because West Indian Blacks show better results than the African-American Black population, this immigrant group is forced to deal with disrespect from both white and non-white populations; this disrespect relates to blatant stereotyping, housing discrimination, and job discrimination. The systematic failure in providing jobs to West Indian Blacks continues to perpetuate the ideas of racial inequality within the American Society.
The largest contribution the West Indian Blacks offered to the American society is their children. As children grow up, they show a significant improvement in their overall life achievements compared to their parents, as well as the African American minorities. While a small group of West Indian Blacks occupies highly paid jobs, the majority of them are representatives of the white-collar labor force with occupations in financial services or the sphere of retail (Portnoy, Portnoy and Riggs 189).
Muslim Americans
Despite the fact that the history of American Muslims can be traced back in history to more than four hundred years, the modern issues that this group faces in the American Society are incomparable with any other group of immigrants. Like others, Muslims came to the United States in search for a better life and now are present in all layers of the American society. However, in the Aftermath of 9/11 as well as other events linked to radical Muslim organizations, the perception of Muslim Americans has significantly changed. Nowadays the community of peaceful and hard-working Muslims has to deal with accusations of terrorism despite the fact that they have no connections to them (Moghul par. 1).
Despite the accusations, American Muslims remain an integral part of the society, offering their knowledge in the fields of science, law, medicine as well as contributing to the spiritual education of the society by building Mosques.
Works Cited
Model, Suzanne. “West Indian Prosperity: Fact or Fiction?” Social Problems 42.4 (2009): 535-553. Print.
Moghul, Haroon. America’s Obsessive Fear of Islam is Distracting Us from the Real Problem of Gun Control. 2015. Web.
Ortiz, Vilma, and Edward Telles. “Racial Identity and Racial Treatment of Mexican Americans.” Race Soc Probl 4.1 (2012): 1-28. Print.
Portnoy, Diane, Barry Portnoy, and Charlie Riggs. Immigrant Struggles, Immigrant Gifts, Fairfax, VA: George Mason University, 2013. Print.