Immigration in the US - Essay Example

Many Americans are of the view that the growing crime rates in America is caused by the growing immigrant community in America. At the same time, American authorities are not ready to accept the allegations against America’s changing immigration policies. In their opinion, majority of America’s immigration policies remain the same even though the security measures were strengthened because of growing terrorism related problems. In this paper, I argue that racial profiling exists in current immigration policies of America.

Immigration to America was intensified in the nineteenth century because of industgrial revolutions in America. “Majorities of immigrants came during the 1820s - 1890s were mostly from Ireland and Germany. Famine and poverty in Ireland, and political upheaval in Germany brought about five million immigrants” (Immigration and Industrialization in the Nineteenth century). Mexicans were another prominent community which started to migrate to America in the nineteenth century because of poor domestic administration, low wages, poverty, increasing population etc in their home country.

The proximity of America with Mexico helped Mexicans to cross the border legally and illegally. Moreover, racism was prevailing in America in the nineteenth century which forced them to accept immigrants only from Christian countries and block people from all other countries. “Racism against the Asians were much worse than anything seen on the east coast and in 1882 the United States even passed a law prohibiting Chinese laborers from entering the United States at all (The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882)”(Anderson).

However, the scenario has changed a lot in the twentieth century after the abolitions of slavery and racism in America. Many Hindus and Muslims from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Middle East etc like countries started to migrate to America because of various reasons. These diverse communities never bothered to integrate into American culture. They spoke their own languages and celebrated their own celebrations. Thus, American culture started to disintegrate as a result of diverse population. Rouse et al. (2010) have pointed out that “one of the primary concerns raised by many Americans is that the influx of immigrants has a potentially negative effect on American culture, particularly if these immigrants are not willing to conform to the American way of life” (Rouse et al., p.860).

American culture is entirely different from the cultures of other parts of the world. Irrespective of the differences in religious beliefs, people of different religions stayed in harmony in America until recent times. However, the scenario has changed a lot after 9/11 incident. Even innocent and well known Muslim people are undergoing severe harassments in America at present. For example, India’s former president and world famous nuclear scientist APJ Abdul Kalam and Bollywood celebrity Shah Ruk Khan forced to undergo body scanning in American airports recently.

“It is worth mentioning that when former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam boarded and Air India flight on September 29, 2011 at New York’s JFK Airport, he was frisked twice” (US airport security measures and double frisking of Kalam). At the same time Christian dignitaries from other countries are not facing such harassments in American airports. The above facts clearly suggest that racial profiling is currently going on in America in the name of terrorism. Arizona has