Those poor tired huddled masses that were so welcomed at the beginning of the twentieth century, are not feeling the welcome mat being extended to them anymore. American's have begun to fear immigration and immigrants themselves; in fact this very fear is turning towards hatred to the former huddled masses.
American's fear of immigration has existed since the early 1980's but has only become truly vocalized since the new millennium. Not a day passes without some negative aspect of immigration being mentioned by the newspapers, news stations, and the Internet. Fear mongering has become common place, and if not kept in check this fear of immigration is going to erupt into conflict.
How American's began to fear Immigrants
The reasons why American's fear immigration is varied and deep rooted. The early 1980's saw an end to the free wheeling easy times of the 1970's and American's first began to feel an economic pinch, especially due to all-of-a-sudden rising gas prices. The higher gas prices of course led to a decline in post-war booming lifestyles, and job losses became common. American's had to go and work for lower wages, and the traditional immigrant at the time who was typically paid less than the average American began to be seen as a threat to WASP economic security.
While American's recovered very quickly from the early 1980's and continued to see a boom in construction and manufacturing, leaving immigrants alone for the most part. While there continued to be talk about foreigners taking our jobs' behind closed doors immigrants for the rest of the 1980's were not seen as a great threat again, until the recession of the early 1990's.
The 1990's brought true difficulties to many American families. Job losses, whole sections of industry being lost, corporations admitting to losing entire pension funds sent the US into crises. At the same time, these poor huddled masses still saw America as a far better bet than their homelands and arrived with more regularity, especially when the iron curtain was ripped down.
Trouble was there was little enough employment for many American's and legal immigrants from war torn countries were willing to work for less. Now while American families were being ripped apart by economic crises, the immigrants began to blossom. Hatred began to set in where previously compassion existed especially for immigrants that arrived from former communist countries. That trend continues to this day.
It was during these difficult 1990's that confusion about immigrants began to develop. The term immigrant began to be used simultaneously with refugee, those that land illegally on US soil with little or no documentation and seek to integrate themselves by throwing themselves on the mercy of the US government. Coupled with that was the huge rise of illegal immigrants (again often confused with refugees) who sought to swim across large bodies of water, and integrate themselves into southern states by working for cash staying off the radar and sadly in many cases resorting to identity theft.
With all of this going on, it was and is little wonder why confusion developed which lead to fear which continues to lead to hatred of immigrants. The US isn't alone with their fear of immigrants many have not been welcomed and assimilated into Canada either; so it lends the question, what is the solution?
Solutions to American's fear of immigration
Education of course seems to be the logical approach in getting American's to understand the immigration process, but many seem unwilling to listen. Illegal immigration appears to be the greatest concern; and while solutions and opinions are routinely offered consensus to a permanent solution, is yet to be reached. In terms of the legal immigrants who arrive daily, some understanding needs to be reached.
Legal immigrants pay for the privilege of living in the USA. Visa applications cost a fortune, and most legal immigrants who arrive to work insert a great deal of money into the economy. Highly skilled workers especially in science, computer science and the business sector continue to be recruited each year by the USA, on the HB-1 (or highly skilled work visa program). And yes, these immigrants are paid high wages, typically higher than the average American. Why? They usually have a least two university degrees with at least one at the Masters level.
Other highly skilled immigrants are recruited to start businesses with the premise that they hire US citizen workers. These immigrant created businesses contribute enormously to various communities. Sadly, many American's are content to take the jobs and wages that legal immigrants create; while never fully accepting them into US communities.
Immigrant's children continue to be picked on at school, they often arrive with far advanced educational skills than the average American child, (British o-levels or GCSE's achieved at age 16 are the equivalent to an Academic Grade 12 American education.) When in desperation immigrant parents place their children in private school they are further reviled for having the economic means to do so.
We cannot continue to bad mouth or fear LEGAL American immigrant's; they are not the root of our own individual economic short comings, our lousy jobs or our inadequate housing arrangements. If we want a better life we have to get a better job which means getting a better education, and in short getting on with it! We have to let go of the notion that immigrant success revolves around the It's all a conspiracy to keep the white man down' mindset.
A final note..
For many years American's were content with immigrants who were willing to take second place remain semi visible, and in the words of best selling Irish/American author Frank McCourt, stay with their own kind'. If we remain biased in today's global economy, then it's time to close the doors to immigrants, their skills, business's and money. Problem is immigrants are needed on US soil.
One thing American's forget is that they typically have more rights than the average immigrant; immigrants who arrive on work visa's while able to start business's and buy homes, cannot vote, even when they achieve permanent resident status. Nor can a permanent resident typically own a fire arm, or run for public office, that comes when American citizenship is granted and that can take years.
As the immigrant child of immigrant parents I have lived in the US, Canada and Africa and have often obtained permanent residency status. Should I choose to live in the US again I will never be President, but I could be Governor if I became a US citizen or dual citizen. After all, immigrant and now American citizen Arnold Schwarzenegger did it, and we don't seem to fear the Terminator so much anymore.