Anti-Immigration

Anti-Immigration

Immigration has been in existence in the United States since the last years, and today the influx of people into the United States is high. The issue of immigration continues to cause great debate among the people who are for it and the anti-immigrants in the United States. In the 20th century, Congress enacted some laws that limited the number of those migrating into the U.S like the Act restricting Chinese migration into the U.S. The immigrants are accused of causing divisiveness, competing with the locals for jobs and resources. Moreover, they have been accused of increased crime today, and in the past, in the areas they all reside in. However, the migration of the people into the country has led to positive results both economically and socially. This paper seeks to look at the reasons against immigration both today and in the 20th century in the U.S and the role of the natives who were against immigration.
The United States experienced a great inflow of foreign nationals migrating into the country in the twentieth century. Most of these foreigners came from the Asian countries like Japan and China while others had previously come from the other white countries like Italy and Germany. Moreover, the Jews and the Hispanics also came in. Although there were positive reasons for their migration there also existed great resentment to such large influx of foreign nationals by the Native Americans. They saw this as a threat to them due to several reasons.
Firstly, due to nationalism, most the natives who were anti-immigrants feared that the national identity of the natives which they were proud of could easily be distorted by the huge influx of foreigners.

They saw the interference of the United States culture due to the immigration of the people into the country without any restrictions. Moreover, they also feared the loss and deterioration of the American indigenous rights that took root from their historical norms and ties to their territories. As such the immigration into a particular population may inhibit such rights. Also, the natives who came to be called the nativists who were against immigration feared the increase of competition both socially and economically between them and the foreigners. They were afraid to lose their jobs and the limited natural resources to the foreigners. Socially these immigrants could easily adopt their social welfare as opposed to the United States accustomed social schemes. Moreover, the natives in the 20th century argued that the increased influx of foreigners into the country will erode national unity together with its uniting factors such as religion and culture. They were worried that the immigrants would isolate themselves into their languages and not associate themselves with the American community thus undermining the American values of integration through unity. Also, they argued that the level of crime would drastically increase due to immigration. The coming of specific demographics into the country like the Somali, Chinese and Chileans in Oslo led to increased incidences of crime even from Kosovo (CAROLYN MOEHLING, 2016). The natives who were anti-immigrants also argued that few resources existed hence increase the human population will lead to the decline of these resources due to immigration. There was also the concern that the military unity will be on the decline due to the acceptance of several nationals into the military. This was argued basing on a war scenario where the possibility of sympathizers was high. Lastly, they argued that these immigrants came from areas and regions that had infectious diseases thus may pose a danger to the native population (Brackemyre, 2016).
Today there are reasons against immigration into the United States. First, those against it argue that crime syndicates leave around immigrant areas that cause violent crime around the United States. It has raised the level of divisiveness, and cultural erosion due to the diverse cultural backgrounds who hardly get along. Moreover, it has led to the destruction of farmlands and forest to accommodate the increasing foreigners, yet the country has a low birth rate. It also supply’s less educated labor in the United States thus increasing the inequality between the rich and the poor. Moreover, it has led to decrease in wages due to the high influx of cheap labor into the United States. Despite all these reasons against immigration, it’s sound to say that immigration has contributed a great deal to the shaping of the economic position of the U.S (Beck, 2016).
References
Beck, R. (2016). WashingtonPost.com: The Case against Immigration. Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 27 November 2016, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/againsti.htm
Brackemyre, T. (2016). Immigrants, Cities, and Disease – US History Scene. US History Scene. Retrieved 27 November 2016, from http://ushistoryscene.com/article/immigrants-cities-disease/
CAROLYN MOEHLING, A. (2016). Immigration, Crime, and Incarceration in Early Twentieth-Century America. PubMed Central (PMC). Retrieved 27 November 2016, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831353/