Posted on 05/12/2006 5:37:44 PM PDT by Jedi Master Pikachu
American society has often been described as a melting pot but in recent years, it has also attracted other definitions such as "tomato soup" and "tossed salad".
For centuries, the US has attracted people in search of a share of "the American dream" from all corners of the world.
In fact, US history is one of immigration.
In 1620, about 100 English colonists, so-called "Mayflower Pilgrims" left for America seeking religious freedom.
They landed near Plymouth, Massachusetts, marking the start of the first successful European migration to North America, which had been inhabited by Amerindian people for more than 16,000 years.
The immigration flow to the US first accelerated after the French Revolution, and during the 19th century, population pressure, fragmentation of land in rural Europe and famines drove millions of Europeans to the New World.
Throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries, American ports teemed with German, Chinese, Irish, Italian, and Polish immigrants.
Until 1882, the US government practised an open door immigration policy, but at the end of the century, it began trying to control immigration by excluding prostitutes, criminals, alcoholics, and Chinese, among others, from coming to the country.
Fortress America?
During the 20th Century, the US government kept fine-tuning its immigration policies.
A group of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in New York Some 16m people passed through Ellis Island from 1892 to 1924
Under the national origins quota system, established in 1921, admission to the US largely depended upon an immigrant's country of birth.
Seventy percent of all immigrant slots were allotted to citizens of just three countries: UK, Ireland and Germany.
But these went mostly unused, while there were long waiting lists for the small number of visas available to those born in eastern and southern Europe.
In 1965, the nationality quotas were abolished, which is seen to have inaugurated a new era of mass immigration, particularly from Mexico and Latin America.
In an effort to curb illegal immigration, in 1996 Congress passed legislation which marked a turn towards tougher policies for both legal and illegal immigrants.
It increased the categories of criminal activity for which immigrants, including green card holders, could be deported, and imposed mandatory detention.
As a result, more than one million individuals have been deported since 1996.
While critics of illegal immigration are pushing for even tougher laws, mass demonstrations across the US have shown that such a strategy will not be accepted by a large section of the population.
The immigrants' campaign groups argue that a country built by immigrants will fail to function without them.
Melting pot
Americans take pride in their "melting pot" society (a term coined by an immigrant, Israel Zangwill) that encourages newcomers to assimilate into the American culture.
But the melting pot imagery has been contested by the idea of multiculturalism, the "salad bowl theory", or as it is known in Canada, the "cultural mosaic", whereby the immigrants retain their own national characteristics while integrating into a new society.
Some go further. Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington says that large-scale Latino immigration poses a threat to American identity.
Mexican Americans feel increasingly comfortable with their own culture and often contemptuous of American culture Samuel Huntington According to Professor Huntington the reality of American history is best described as tomato soup: the blending of new ingredients adds spice without compromising the essential character of tomato.
"Contributions from immigrant cultures modified and enriched Anglo-Protestant culture of founding settlers.
"The essentials of that founding culture remained the bedrock of the US identity, however, at least until the last decades of the 20th Century," Mr Huntington writes in his controversial 2004 book Who Are We. The Challenges to America's National Identity.
He sees the gravest threat to American identity in Mexican immigration which, according to him, is splitting America in two.
"As their numbers increase, Mexican Americans feel increasingly comfortable with their own culture and often contemptuous of American culture", he says.
Sense of history
But are the Mexican-dominant areas of the US really consolidating themselves into a culturally and linguistically distinct and economically self-reliant bloc within the US, as Professor Huntington states?
Immigrants come and change America and are changed by America Douglas Rivelin Douglas Rivelin from the National Immigration Forum contests Mr Huntington's view of Latinos as different from other immigrant groups.
"I was astounded that someone so smart could write such a book," he says.
"He is totally missing what is going on in the US. The same thing could have been written in 1924 about Irish or other immigrants, and it would have been equally wrong."
"Bagels and pizzas and spaghetti were new things at one time... immigrants come and change America and are changed by America."
You just signed up you come on and post this thread and you call me a liar. INTERESTING!
TROLL
I just keep wondering if we should not apply ourselves to making Mexico and Haiti fit to live in, somehow. Forget the rest of the world and pay atention to our neighborhood.
"... you don't really become an American till your willing to shoot a few old country blood sousin's..."
My maternal grandfather signed up in the Army the day after America declared war on Germany in 1917. His parents, German immigrants,were horrified by what he had done, and never spoke to him again, because he had been disloyal to the Kaiser. He rose to the rank of Battalion Sargeant-Major in the 340th infantry. The flag from his coffin is one of my proudest possessions.
This is true in theory, but in practice, the 3 scientifically classified "races" have become blended and diluted (one can even point to the black-haired Irish as an example of this) so that finding people who actually fit the 3 gentically classified "races" is a rarity, especially in America.
My dad's best childhood friend was a blue-eyed, blond kid whose name began with "Sch". This was during WWII, and this poor kid got called "kraut" and was picked on and beat up incessantly in the school yard. My dad felt sorry for him, stood up for him, and they became friends.
The pot of Americans:
pure water, bacon grease and cooking oil. It settles out in layers based on density.
It only melts together when things are hot and the pot is stirred.
Communications technology, cheap travel, and efficient distribution of products have created links back to "home countries" for immigrants. These links didn't exist 100 or even 60 years ago.
Conversely, the spread of a global popular culture didn't exist even 20 years ago.
And that was exactly my point and think many American understand ..that from the original English settles that started in 1776 on... there comes a time that new American's .."lose there Hyphen"
....Just FYI one of my favorite WW2 story's (not sure if it's true or BS) is when the first American Fighter groups went to England in 42 ...They decided to have a joint "Get to know each other" meeting with the local RAF group ... they started off the meeting by introducing each RAF office ...they then started introducing each American office, but the American's had played a little prank....They had put all the American's with German names at the head of the line...then the Italian names... then any other Axis Nation name etc., etc..... supposedly they introduced maybe ten or so German name American's before one of the Brits spoke up (in good nature) about the "Blood Luftwaffe had landed"
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