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Immigration n Americanisation The experience of Native Americans demonstrates the extreme workings of assimilation theory, or the 'melting pot’, and how in many cases it meant ‘renouncing – often in clearly public ways – one's subjectivity, who one litera
Negotiation (SSC101)
Trường Đại học FPT
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During the 1930s, immigration to America declined, because of harsh and restrictive laws set in by the Americans, because of factors like the Great Depression and the war looming in Europe. Immigrants from Central, Northern and Western Europe were practically welcomed into America whereas immigrants from places such as Asia were kicked out and hated. Over the course of the Depression, more people left the United States than entered it.
Immigration is the act of someone coming to live in a different country, and it is one of the fundamental building blocks that help make America the unique nation that it is. For over 2 centuries, the U has welcome millions of ppl from every corner of the globe, and today the U lawfully admit over 1 million ppl per year. That is way more than any other country in the world.
By 1890 many of America's largest cities were dominated by immigrants. These newcomers came from a range of countries but they all face the same challenge of adapting to a new American Way of life. Eventually this period from the 1880s to the 1920s will be called new immigration it's larger but it's also shifting from what the previous period which was more northern in Western Europe now to Southern and Eastern Europe and the two biggest groups are Italians and Jews coming from Russia and from other parts of Eastern Europe and they come with different cultures different languages different religious traditions. These immigrants often settled in already booming urban areas. By the late 19th century was an 80% of residents in cities like New York Chicago Milwaukee and Detroit were either foreign-born or had foreign parents. Most newcomers settled wherever they had family or ethnic ties or employment. Q1 (Ask) The nice thing about the cities was there was work there was ready work available now there were terrible working conditions terrible living conditions overcrowding but there was work. This pointed out that most immigrants to America were coming for the most obvious reason: opportunity. Industrialization, both in manufacturing and agriculture, meant that there were jobs in America. There was so much work, in fact, that companies used labor recruiters who went to Europe to advertise opportunities. Plus, the passage was relatively cheap, provided you were only going to make it once in your life, and it was fast, taking only 8 to 12 days on the new steam powered ships. And once one member of the community had settled they would write to their friends and family and say come on over. The immigrants arrived in droves often establishing ethnic enclaves within large cities such as New York's Little Italy.
Back to the time when immigration could be seen as a strikingly hot TV show, native Americans were seen as beyond assimilation because their ethnicity was too dissimilar to the traditions of Northern European American culture. It was, therefore, to immigrants that attention turned as efforts were made to integrate them into the American cultural mainstream. This experience of Native Americans demonstrates the extreme workings of a theory, called the 'melting pot’, and in the textbook meant ‘renouncing – often in clearly public ways – one's subjectivity, who one literally was: in name, in culture, and, as far as possible, in color'. It also shows how ethnic identity can be preserved as an active coexistent element even within the larger ‘nation'.
The melting pot is at the heart of the American immigration system. This term comes from the idea that all of the cultural differences in the United States meld together, as if they were metals being melted down to become a stronger alloy.
Rather than embracing multiculturalism, as is the policy in some countries, the United States encourages different cultures to assimilate into its own. In fact, this philosophy demonstrates how American culture got its start.
As immigrants came from all over the world to the United States, they brought pieces of their own culture with them. Their music, food, fashion, religion, and much more slowly became part of America’s culture.
For example, pizza came from Italy, but it’s hard to think of anything more American than a slice of New York pizza. Rock & Roll, Blues, and Jazz all came from the African American musical tradition, but they are thought of as American today.
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the United States of America became known worldwide as the great melting pot. Immigrants came to this country with the idea in their hearts and minds that they could become Americans no matter their origins. Symbols like the Statue of Liberty represent this idea, but nothing quite sums up what it means to be an American like the concept of a “melting pot” of cultures, mixing, merging, and becoming stronger than each individual one. It’s a celebrated part of the American national identity and a reason why the United States is one of the most attractive countries for immigrants and refugees around the world.
So how did the phrase fall into common usage?
The phrase “melting pot” has been used since the 1780s, but entered into common usage because of a celebrated Broadway play. “The Melting Pot,” written by Israel Zangwill in 1904, was about a Russian Jewish refugee immigrating to the U. to escape ethnic cleansing in his homeland. Here he finds love, acceptance, and belonging, as the differences between ethnicity “melted away” due to cultural exchange becoming the norm. Or you can say it celebrates the possibility of different backgrounds and religions being united in the 'American crucible'. It was a massive hit, and even received the praise of then-President Theodore Roosevelt. The idea of the “melting pot” was embraced and soon became a central part of the United States of America’s cultural identity.
What Does the Melting Pot Mean Today?
Today, immigration to the United States is considerably more complicated than it was over a hundred years ago, but the philosophy is still the same.
This country welcomes people from all over the world and encourages them to integrate themselves into American society. The only problem is that American society is more complicated than ever!
When an immigrant moves here, they will need to learn about all of America’s societal, economic, and cultural norms. For example, if their understanding of English is limited, they’re encouraged to take an English as a Second Language class to better communicate with other Americans.
The content of the Dillingham Commission Report established a false, artificial and totally biased view of "old immigrants" and "new immigrants". Because of the use of simplistic categories for various immigrant groups that led to an unfair comparison of "old" and "new” immigrants". No account was taken of the rapid, unplanned Urbanization of America and the squalid living conditions forced on new immigrants. No account was taken of the short time spent in America compared to "old" immigrants, which clearly impacted their education, finances, environment, occupations, and rate of assimilation.
The effects of the Dillingham Commission Report published in 1911 were highly significant and impacted US immigration policy for many years. The Dillingham Commission Report was published exerted a massive impact on US Immigration.
● In 1913 the Bureaus of Immigration and Naturalization were created
● In 1914 The Eugenics Movement emerged influencing US Immigration Policy
● In 1917 another Immigration Act was passed denying entry to Immigrants from Eastern Asia and the Pacific Islands
● In 1921 the First Quota Act was passed into US law limiting the number of immigrants from specific countries
● In 1924 the Border Patrol was established to combat illegal immigration.
● In 1924 the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act reduced immigration quotas
The problem of the Americanization of the immigrant is very huge in proportion, and is becoming increasingly complex. The number of immigrants, together with the population of foreign parentage, might seem threatening to Americanism. This large bulk is annually increasing, and a greater and greater proportion of the increase each year consists of nationalities who are inherently more difficult to Americanize than were the immigrants of the past.
As they clung to many of their old ways immigrants were simultaneously pushed to become Americanized. Americans say well if we're going to accept immigrants they need to assembly almost completely as much as possible. Unlike earlier waves of immigrants young foreigners arriving at the turn of the century had a new place to pick up the English language and adopt American values public school. As a patriotic duty, the task of "Americanizing the immigrant" engaged a network of libraries, schools, churches, and other organizations. The Americanization movement, which began in response to both European immigration and World War I, reached its height around 1921, when more than thirty states and hundreds of cities adopted Americanization measures. Some of this legislation provided for positive support measures like night classes in
English and civics at schools and libraries. Other legislation was more punitive, including prohibiting immigrants who had not been naturalized from holding particular jobs or the banning of foreign languages in public settings.
Public libraries were key partners in the Americanization movement. The Immigration Act of 1917, a response to increasing native-born anxiety about immigration, banned illiterate immigrants over the age of sixteen as well as most Asian immigrant entry into the US and would not be formally altered until 1952. Because of this legislation, public library Americanization activities included adult education trainings to prepare immigrants for citizenship and related literacy tests.
The American Library Association’s Committee on Work with the Foreign Born encouraged public libraries to incorporate programming that supported immigrant assimilation into American culture. In addition to helping immigrants with speaking, reading, and writing skills in English, programs helped them understand America’s history, participate in patriotic activities, and learn middle- and upper-class American cultural norms like rules for hosting guests and table manners. Some libraries that gave etiquette training to immigrant women also lent them place settings so that they might host dinner guests in the proper way even when they could not afford the equipment. By the 1880s 1890's public schooling is pretty much mandatory and so there's this apparatus by which young immigrants will be converted into Americans who taught English they'll be taught civics to learn about George Washington they'll learn about the Constitution they'll also learn about intangible cultural things like order and discipline. While many older immigrants clung to their homelands through newspapers and theatre productions in their native languages many children quickly traded former traditions for a new American Way of life.
But, however rapidly the difficulties of Americanization may be increasing, the efficiency and activity of the forces of Americanization are increasing even more rapidly. The most promising field for Americanization is with the second generation, and it is here that the public school stands pre-eminent. The chief hope of Americanizing the adult immigrant lies with trade unionism. Physical environment, the church, politics, the employer, and also numerous miscellaneous forces exert an Americanizing influence to a greater or less degree.
Traditional imaginings of America were of the promised land where ethnicity follows the changing and often conflicting ideas about the fundamental nature of American society. It displays a complex interface of personal, social, psychological, moral and political factors in the search for identity. The ethnic mix of America is complex, consisting of indigenous peoples as well as voluntary and involuntary immigrants around whom revolve questions of religion, allegiance and national pride.
These are recurrent and potent themes in immigrant and ethnic literature, raising thoughts of home, belonging, memory and forgetting, old and new traditions.
The point is that instead of linear progression, immigrants faced a continual dynamic between economy and society, between class and culture. It was in the swirl of this interaction and competition that ordinary individuals had to sort out options, listen to all the prophets, and arrive at decisions of their own... Inevitably the results were mixed.
Immigration n Americanisation The experience of Native Americans demonstrates the extreme workings of assimilation theory, or the 'melting pot’, and how in many cases it meant ‘renouncing – often in clearly public ways – one's subjectivity, who one litera
Course: Negotiation (SSC101)
University: Trường Đại học FPT
