After the September 10 Presidential Debate, the common question asked by moderators involved the apparent influx of illegal immigration. Unfortunately, misconstrued information and harmful rhetoric created a false image of immigrants within the minds of American citizens. In a study conducted by the New York Times, 55% of Americans hope to curb the rate of immigration into the nation, a record-high anti-immigrant percentage of the population since 2001. With substantial media criticisms of immigrants and the crime rate, the common citizen could fall through the pipeline of fear-mongering and deluded evidence without truly understanding how immigrants help build the basis of American identity.
The North American continent was colonized swiftly after Columbus’ journey into the Americas in 1492. The initial colonists consisted of peasants searching for economic opportunities to give their children better lives and those searching for protection from religious persecution. With the arrival of immigrants from European nations, they brought with them over 12.5 million African slaves as property, with only 10 million leaving those ships to land in the U.S. Following 400 years of discrimination, slaves received freedom through the Emancipation Proclamation. With freed men and women lacking any standing in the nation, the government provided aid to ensure every citizen could work toward success with no opposition to their strides.
Boats arriving contained Spanish, Dutch, English, and French travelers with no documentation, searching for a new start in their lives. Sequentially, fierce competition for land caused conflict between migrants over prosperity in the new world. British rule soon ended after American revolts led to the establishment of the U.S. as an official nation. Former President Thomas Jefferson pushed for Westward Expansion and purchasing the Louisiana Territory from France, which doubled the nation and induced thousands of French as U.S. citizens. Following the deal titled the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. engaged in conflict with Mexico to gain Texas, officially introducing 115,000 Mexican citizens into the U.S., therefore providing Mexican inhabitants citizenship.
“Texas joined the U.S. due to slave owners wishing for a maintaining of their culture, leading to the Mexican-American war. We would not have gained California and New Mexico had it not been for the war’s spoils. Arizona followed suit from treaties made by Mexico, these states helped introduce the U.S. to housing and structures completely new to the average U.S. citizen,” U.S. History professor at the University of Georgia (UGA) Brian Allen Drake said.
Following the Civil War, immigration spread, and with a sudden shift from Northern and Western Europeans to Eastern and Southern European citizens migrating to the U.S., immigration from diverse regions of the world increased. Nativists would disagree with their arrival. Nativists hoped for a strengthening of the national identity and grew weary of immigrants. The government responded by restricting immigrants’ entrance and setting up customs to permit few into the U.S..
“We had a decent amount of immigration from China. They had arrived in hopes of gold mining, helping in the railroads, and generally searching for better lives. Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, prohibiting them from arriving in the U.S. and so the country lost a great deal of progress made in accepting immigrants,” Drake said.
Italian immigration saw a sharp increase within the late 19th to the early 20th century, as over four million Italians arrived in the nation in hopes of avoiding high taxation, and overcrowding and beginning new lives in the U.S. Through immigration, these cities developed blocks primarily consisting of citizens sharing language and culture, areas such as Chinatown, Little Tokyo and Little Italy remain prominent.
The nation’s opinion on foreign arrivals remains a polarizing aspect of politics. While initially, acceptance of immigration proved open-armed to anyone seeking the opportunity of success, political debates and figures limited the number of immigrants allowed to arrive in the nation. Prominently, the legislature setting a national quota thinned out immigrant nationalities in hopes of curbing demographic changes in the nation. This discrimination of nationalities came to an end through growing pressure by both citizens and foreign governments to abolish the system, leading up to the passage of the Hart-Celler Act, officially opening U.S. borders to immigration with little to no limits.
“Living in the U.S. really means more opportunities for everyone, the outcomes are almost endless and while other countries like Canada hold the same potential, America expands that to a bigger scale. I think that anyone should be allowed to arrive into the country if they wish to succeed and the government should uphold that right no matter what. If you do not get that opportunity to come to the U.S., there are other chances elsewhere, you just need to search,” magnet senior Jack Brillinger said.
Through Little Italy and other nations’ development in popular U.S. cities, several key features in U.S. life gain influence from immigrant nations. With aspects such as food, architecture and music dominating U.S. culture, immigration displays its impact on American citizen’s lives. This recognition of citizen lives bolsters the idea of free opportunity to prosper in the nation and strives to find one’s footing in a nation with few limits.
Food throughout U.S. history has proven to improve with flavor as those willing to leave their former homes in hopes. Tea, an internationally enjoyed beverage carries multiple different flavors, but black tea came from British colonists, of whom received it from Kenya, India and Sri Lanka. Boba tea originates from Taiwan, meant to mix dessert tapioca balls with tea to create a sweet and refreshing beverage. Pizza, a common staple within both fast food culture and restaurant culture carries dozens of varieties, with all varieties primarily originating from Neapolitan-style pizza brought over by Italian immigrants, who developed it into a popular food enjoyed by millions of Americans yearly. With thousands originating from immigrants bringing over cultural staples, all foods brought over carry their uniqueness from seasonings, these flavors all boil down to hundreds of years of the spice trade by Middle Eastern countries to the rest of the world.
With food enjoyed from places such as pizzerias and bakeries, immigrants’ influence lay within the groundwork and style of the buildings serving these foods as well. At the heart of New Orleans, the French Quarter brings in hundreds of tourists yearly to bask in the Creole architecture. With cast iron balconies, walled courtyards and a unique baroque style, the French Quarter displays to citizens years of syncretism culminating in the beauty of New Orleans. Throughout Pennsylvania, German-inspired houses culminate across the state. Brick frames and steep roofing indicate Pennsylvania inhabitants’ origins and ties with the first German immigrants to arrive.
Throughout mainstream media, immigration and foreign influence change the top-played songs yearly. Rhythm and blues (R&B), a popular genre in the U.S., began from African American jazz and blues music, eventually developing into a branch of hip-hop and remaining a majority of all music consumption in the U.S. A rising genre in the U.S., Afrobeats, came into the spotlight in the 2010s with artists such as WizKid and Tems, officially establishing itself as a famed genre with the breakout of Tyla in 2023. Afrobeats incorporate diverse African rhythms with American-style bass and beats to develop a blend enjoyed by hundreds of thousands.
While immigration proves its benefits through different factors in the nation, years of nativism and fear-mongering discredit these impacts. With Donald Trump’s election, he plans to denaturalize citizens, he intends to utilize Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to review and strip thousands of Americans of their citizenship. With this process, any immigrant who gains citizenship through residency in the U.S. for a set amount of time can lose that privilege and ICE can force them to return to their country.
“I’m Filipino but I’ve lived in the U.S. for all my life, I have made countless memories with many people who I care for. If I lost all of what I know and I’m forced to go back to a country I have no real connections with, I do not think I could even handle it. And the fact that there are people who might have to go through that in a place known as the home of the free is insane to me”, junior Marcus McAdams said.
The U.S. stands united through the American identity, which proves no matter who arrives in the nation, they hold the opportunity to succeed. If any person wishes to infringe on that right, the government’s responsibility remains to protect those freedoms. With a national culture constantly shifting to accommodate new trends, immigration proves to leave its mark on differing aspects of citizens’ lives. As the population grows yearly, the foreign elephant in the room of immigration proves its value to the nation for any citizen connected with their community.
