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Immigrants and immigration have always played an important role in American history. It starts back to the first Native American person that landed on North America through today with current immigrants and immigration policy. This country has a deep background of people from cultures from various countries. This is what makes America unique. Immigration will continue to grow, as it is also the future of America.
Definition of Immigrant and Immigration
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines immigrant as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence.”1 Immigration is defined as “an act of instance of immigrating.”2 These definitions are important for children to understand and know the difference, in order to understand this unit. They will be exposed to these words throughout various forms of media. They should be able to use those words while understanding what they mean.
History of Immigration
Traditional theories of citizenship often link membership and rights, with one defining the other.3 When “becoming a citizen entitles the new member of society to certain sets of rights---civic, political, and social, that are generally unavailable to noncitizens.”4 However, in America that hasn’t always been the case for many citizens. This can be seen with how the United States handled freeing African Americans who were enslaved and the creation of Jim Crow Laws. “For African-Americans, obtaining the rights enjoyed by white Americans is the "marker of citizen- ship." Citizenship rights are not bestowed by the simple act of birth but must be fought for and achieved. Citizenship is an active process of claiming rights rather than the passive acquisition of an arbitrary and limited set of right.”5
New citizens often yearn to be with other people from their cultural background. They will often create neighborhoods based on their culture due to chain immigration, discrimination, and housing together to cut down on costs. For example of these neighborhoods are Little Italy and Chinatown. These neighborhoods go back when immigration was booming in the 1880’s. William V. Flores stated, ““city dwellers" need, more than ever, to reconstruct a social universe, a local turf, a space of freedom, a community.” Flores felt this was “especially true for Latinos, who often organize on a neighborhood or citywide basis to secure space for cultural identity constructions, group survival, and community organization.”6
America has always been a nation of immigrants. This started with the original inhabitants, who crossed the land bridge that connected Asia and North America tens of thousands of years ago.7 The French and Spanish Europeans had started creating settlements in the 1500’s in areas that would become known as the United States of America. Then in 1607 the English at Jamestown in the Virginia Colony founded the first permanent settlement. The pilgrims of 1620 came to Massachusetts in America to practice religious freedom. They were able to escape from religious persecution by coming to America.
In the first part of the 19th century and from the 1880’s-1920, the United States had experienced major influxes of immigration. Many of these immigrants came to America seeking a better life. Some of these reasons include religious freedom, better job opportunities, food security, and safety. Between the 17th to 19th centuries, it is estimated over several hundreds of thousands of African slaves came to America against their will.8
A larger group of immigrants came to America seeking better economic opportunities for themselves and their families. “However, because the price of passage was steep, an estimated one-half or more of the white Europeans who made the voyage did so by becoming indentured servants.”9 This was not always a positive way to gain passage. Even though some people voluntarily indentured themselves; many were often kidnapped from European cities and then forced into servitude in America. English convicts were also shipped to the United States as indentured servants.10 Eventually, the practice of indentured slaves faded, as Black slaves became more popular.
Black slaves from West Africa were brought over against their will to America during the colonial era. The editors of History.com has noted on the timeline of American Immigration that some of the earliest records of slavery in America include a group of approximately 20 Africans who were forced into indentured servitude in Jamestown, Virginia, during the year 1619.11 Then on the timeline of 1680, that there were estimates of 7,000 African slaves in the American colonies. That number then increased to 700,000 by 1790, which showed a huge jump in the estimates.12 Even though Congress had outlawed the importation of slaves to the United States in 1808, the practice of owning slaves still continued.13 “The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) resulted in the emancipation of approximately 4 million slaves.”14
The next major round of immigration happened around 1815 to 1865. Most of these immigrants came from Northern and Western parts of Europe. About one-third of immigrants came from Ireland because of the famine they experience in the mid-19th century. The Editors at History.com as stated that typically impoverished, these Irish immigrants settled near their point of arrival in cities along the East Coast.15 Between 1820 and 1930, there were about 4.5 million Irish who migrated to the United States. The United States in the 19th Century had about 5 million German immigrants. They settled in the Midwest. Many were farmers or created German Communities.16 During the mid-1800s, a significant number of Asian immigrants settled in the United States. They were lured by news of the California gold rush. There were about 25,000 Chinese had migrated to California by the early 1850s.
With the massive ways of immigrants coming to the United States of America, many of America’s native-born white Americans were not happy to have immigrants here. They felt that immigrants created competition for jobs. On the timeline on History.com is showed that in the 1850s, the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic American Party (also called the Know-Nothings) tried to severely curb immigration, and even ran a candidate, former U.S. president Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), in the presidential election of 1856.17
For the most part, immigration policy was left to the states instead of the federal government. However, that was changed in the 1880’s. The United States created their first immigration law in 1882. This “first significant federal legislation restricting immigration was the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.”18 Prior to the opening of Ellis Island in1890 as the country’s first federal immigration station, the states regulated immigration. Between 1892 and 1954, Ellis Island had more than 12 million immigrants come through the station, however more than 20 million immigrants came to America between 1880 and 1920. In 1907 the United States and Japan sign the Gentlemen’s agreement to only send certain groups of business professional men, to help cut down on Japanese immigrants. According to the timeline, President Theodore Roosevelt urged San Francisco to end the segregation of Japanese students from white students in San Francisco schools.19 In 1917, “the Immigration Act of 1917 establishes a literacy requirement for immigrants entering the country and halts immigration from most Asian countries.”20 Xenophobia starts to become a problem right before the start of World War I.
In May of 1924, The Immigration Act of 1924 was signed. This law had put limits on the number of immigrants allowed into the United States yearly based on nationality quotas. Under this new quota system, the United States only issued immigration visas to 2 percent of the total number of people of each nationality into the United States according to the 1890 census. This new law favored immigration from Northern and Western European countries. “Just three countries, Great Britain, Ireland and Germany account for 70 percent of all available visas. Immigration from Southern, Central and Eastern Europe was limited. The Act completely excludes immigrants from Asia, aside from the Philippines, then an American colony.”21
Illegal immigration increased in 1924 due to a new immigration law. This caused the U.S. Border Patrol to be created in order to stop illegal immigrants from entering the country illegally from Canada and Mexico. Many of these illegal immigrants were Asian immigrants who would use Canada and Mexico to enter the country. In 1942, there were labor shortages during World War II in the United States. This prompted the United States and Mexico to form the Bracero Program. This allowed Mexican agricultural workers to enter the United States temporarily, the program lasted until 1964.22 Then in 1948, the United States passed the nation’s first refugee and resettlement law. This was created to help deal with the arrival of Europeans who were seeking permanent residence after World War II in the United States.
Then in 1952, the McCarran-Walter Act was passed. It officially ended the exclusion of immigrants from Asia to enter the United States. Between 1960-1962 an anti-Communism secret program called Operation Peter Pan moved about 14,000 children, from Cuba to the United States. There had been rumors that the Dictator, Fidel Castro was going to eliminate parental rights, and move to centers to become brainwashed into communism training from an early age.
The new laws in 1965 were signed to end the quota system that favored European immigrants. Which has impacted the majority of the country’s immigrants today, who hail from Asia and Latin America.23 This new law was called Immigration and Nationality Act and it allowed for relatives of Americans to be sponsored. The old quota system was exchanged with a seven-category preference system. This new system emphasized the family reunification process and skilled immigrants. “Upon signing the new bill, President Lyndon B. Johnson, called the old immigration system “un-American,” and said the new bill would correct a “cruel and enduring wrong in the conduct of the American Nation.””24
Amnesty for illegal immigrants became a popular topic in the mid 1980’s. In 1986, the then President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Simpson-Mazzoli Act. This new act granted amnesty to about 3 million illegal immigrants. During 2001, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) proposed the first Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. This act would provide a pathway to legal status for Dreamers (children who were brought here illegally), however it did not pass. Then in 2012, President Barack Obama signed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). This law temporarily helps keep some Dreamers from deportation. Sadly, it did not provide a way for them to gain citizenship.
Current Immigration
The United States has a long history of immigration. “The United States has the largest number in the world, with about 45 million of all U.S residents are foreign born,”25 according to the 2015 Pew Research Center information listed. There has been an uptick of children being born from parents of immigrants since 1970 with 6%, and by 2000 it had jumped to 20%, with the projection of 33% of children by 2050.26 The United States has immigrants coming from many cultures around the world. The majority are from Asian countries then Latin American countries.
Immigration brings people from all around the world to America. “Over 80% originate in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Oceania, or the Caribbean--the rest originate in Europe or North America. This migratory flow is a significant factor in the U.S., becoming the first high-income country in the world with a majority-minority child population.”27 This can be seen in classrooms across America.
State and Federal Education Policies
It is important to understand the state and federal policies and how they impact the education of your students who are either immigrants or are from families who immigrated here. “Immigrant-origin youth are over-represented in highly segregated and impoverished urban settings.”28 Often these children have little contact with middle-class Americans due to school feeder patterns and are effectively isolated by ethnicity, poverty, and language.”29 This trifecta is called "triple segregation." Triple segregation has long--term negative impacts for these students. It “is associated with a variety of negative educational experiences and outcomes, including overcrowding, low expectations, low academic standards, low achievement, school violence, and high dropout rates.”30 These children are served in Title 1 schools, and receive special federal and state funding, as well fall under certain policies that need to be followed. It is important remember this when planning curriculum or teaching. Many of these students will not leave their neighborhood, let alone go out of state to visit a zoo, or have experiences middle class children will have.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has specific sections to help English Language Learners (ELLs). No Child Left Behind law requires an annual exam for English Language Learners to check each student’s English Language proficiency. English Language Learners had accommodations of having their content assessments in their native language. “An impossible benchmark was set that would penalize schools with high numbers of ELLs, placing them at risk of losing standing and funding under No Child Left Behind.”31
These state and federal laws impact students who are either immigrants or come from families that are immigrants, in more than one way. This often sets them up for failure. However, showing students, how immigrants overcame diversity, and became successful in America, will help set them up for success.
Immigrants Who Have Impacted America
The following immigrants were carefully picked due to their background, and the impact that their immigration story has had on America and its history. Many of these immigrants grew up with major diversity that has impacted their story and success. The information provided can be used in the detective boxes activity. This will help students use clues to learn about the person in a fun, inquiry based way. I provided this information to give fellow teachers an opportunity to pick and choose what they want to use for that activity and many readings. Of course, teachers can choose to pick their own people or supplement with different immigrants based off their students.
Julia Alvarez
Julia Alvarez is a Dominican-American writer and poet who was born March 27, 1950 in New York, New York.32 Shortly after she was born her family moved back to the Dominican Republic. Around the age of ten, Alvarez’s family returned to America, after it was discovered that her father was in on a plot to overthrow the dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina. Once coming back to America, she felt that she didn’t fit in.
Julia Alvarez earned her undergraduate degree in 1971 at Middlebury College in Vermont. Then in 1975 she earned her masters degree in creative writing from Syracuse University. She went on to become an English professor after receiving her master’s degree in 1984. Alvarez then started working on her collections of poetry while teaching at Middlebury College. She gained attention after she published How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents in 1991. In several interviews Alvarez mentioned how it is based off of her and her sisters. She has continued to write many stories and poems.
In 1994, her second book In the Times of Butterflies was published. Then in 1995 The Other Side/El Otro Lado, Yo!, in 1997, Something to Declare in 1998. Then in 2000 she published In the Name of Salome. In 1997, Alvarez quit her teaching position to focus on her writing.
Edwidge Danticat
Edwidge Danticat is a known author, educator, and lecturer. She was born on January 19, 1969 in Port-au-Prince in Haiti. At the age of nine, she began to write. “Her motivations were simple—“I loved stories and loved to read,” she says—and writing came easily for her at this early.33 Danticat immigrated to the United States in 1981 when she was 12 years old. Her family made sure to keep their Haitian roots. Danticat was encouraged to become a nurse because “for Haitian writers, these insecurities often involve threats to their lives, and because they had heard of many Haitian writers who had been killed or exiled.34 This was a common belief and experience within the Haitian community.
Danticat received her bachelor’s degree at Barnard College in 1990, and her masters at Brown University in 1993. She was also a part of production and research assistant from 1993-1994 at Clinica Estetico. Danticat began teaching at New York University from 1996-1997. Then she was a visiting professor teaching creative writing in the spring of 2000 at the University of Miami.
Danticat overcame the bias and concerns about becoming a writer. She followed her heart and passion for writing. Danticat has proved that coming from another you can be successful. Danticat has earned the following awards: “Named one of 20 Best of American Novelists by Granta, 1996; Pushcart Prize for short fiction; American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation, for The Farming of Bones; fiction awards from periodicals, including Caribbean Writer, Seventeen, and Essence; Lannan Foundation Fellowship, 2004; Story Prize for outstanding collection of short fiction, for The Dew Breaker, 2005.”35 These awards show that no matter where you come from, you can be successful when you immigrate.
Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah is a comedian, author, political commentator and television host. He is currently the host of The Daily Show. He was born in South Africa on February 20th, 1989. His mother is a black Xhosa and his father a white Swiss-German, which was illegal due to the apartheid system there. South Africa supported racial oppression and apartheid. His parents tried to keep their relationship secret, however his mother was often arrested for short periods of time. Noah had to be hidden often from the authorities.
He grew up in deep poverty.
Noah started his career in entertainment in his late teens in a soap opera. In his 20’s, Noah’s friends dared him to do stand up comedy. Noah created his own show, The Daywalker, in 2009, as well hosting The South African Music Awards. In 2010, he had his own talk show called Tonight With Trevor Noah.36 TNoah immigrated to the United States in 2011. In 2012, he stared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He was the first South African on the show. In 2015 he became the Daily Show host, where he often talks about current events in America and make jokes about South Africa’s apartheid history. Noah is a great example of growing up with racism and poverty against him, but coming out on top and having a successful career, while advocating against many injustices.
Yiochiro Nambu won The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008. He was born January 18th, 1921 in Tokyo Japan. In 1970, Nambu became a United States Citizen. He studied physics at the Imperial University of Tokyo from 1940 to 1942, from which he received his Masters in Science. Nambu was drafted during World War II as an army radar laboratory. He did not let the war stop him from continuing his education. In 1946 he returned to the University of Tokyo as a research assistant. He became a professor at a new university called Osaka City University in 1950. Nambu then received his doctorate in 1952.
Nambu worked very hard to gain experience in his field. He was a member of the Institutes for Advanced Study in Princeton from 1952 to 1954, a research associated from 1954 to 1956 at the University of Chicago then professor in 1958. He was a chairman of the department of physics from 1973-1976. Nambu became the Henry Judson Distinguished Professor in 1976, and then he retired in 1991. He has received many honorary degrees in the United States and Japan. Nambu has earned my awards from many countries around the world for his work. Some of these awards are Order of Culture (Government of Japan, 1978), Max Planck Medal (German Physical Society, 1985), Wolf Prize (Government of Israel 1995), and Pomeranchuck Prize, Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Moscow 2007).37 These awards show the great work Yiochiro has accomplished, and the impact his research has had in many countries around the world. All of these awards he earned while he worked in the United States, which shows that immigrating to a new country does not always have to hold you back. You can be successful, and not only make a difference in your new country, but around the world. Nambu’s research plays an important part in physics. He developed the theory of spontaneous symmetry breaking in particle physics. Nambu’s work created the foundation for particle physics. This is extremely important for the future study of spontaneous symmetry breaking in particle physics.
Mario Jose Molina-Pasquel Henriquea was born in Mexico City, Mexcio on Marchh 19th, 1943. He is an Environmental chemist. Molino-Pasquel Henriquea obtained a BSc degree Chemical Engineering program, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. He then came to America after 1965 to earn his PhD, at the University of California, Berkeley in 1972. Molino-Pasquel Henriquea and Sherwood Rowland developed the “CFC-ozone depletion theory” in Irvine California.38 This theory discusses how Chlorofluorocarbons affect the ozone layer and depletes it. He continued his work there from 1973 to 1989 as a postdoctoral fellowship (1973-1975), and as an Assistant Professor (1975-1982). His work has helped create more studies about the ozone layer and continues to play an important part current research.
Molino-Pasquel Henriquea was a faculty member at the Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He worked in the Molecular Physics and Chemistry for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Then from 1989 to 2004 he became a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the middle of his time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Molino-Pasquel Henriquea was “Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sherwood Rowland and Paul Crutzen, for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone.”39 Molino-Pasquel Henriquea is currently a faculty member at the University of California in San Diego. In 2013, he was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. Molino-Pasquel Henriquea is another great example of how an immigrant from another country, can have success in America, and play huge impact on American history and world history.
Maame Biney is the first African-American woman to qualify for the U.S. Olympic speed skating team, which she did at the age of 18. She immigrated to America from Ghana at the age of 5 with her father. Biney had tried figure skating, but she was told she was too fast and should try speed skating. Biney exudes confidence and is the perfect example of a positive role model for younger children, especially children who have immigrated to America. She often calls herself “fierce and strong.”40 She acknowledges and appreciates her huge achievement. Maame was quoted on the topic of being a role model by saying: "that means I get to inspire other kids in the United States, maybe all over the world," she says, "to just go out there and do what you love, because you never know! You just might accomplish your goal."41
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