Naturalization Laws in the US and the Immigration Laws of 21st Century - Research Paper Example

Naturalization laws in the US and the immigration laws of 21st century Immigration to the United s of America is anintricate demographic trend that has been the main source of population increase and cultural transformation throughout the entire history of the United States of America. The social, political, and economic elements of immigration have resulted in controversy concerning economic benefits, ethnicity, crime, voting behaviors, settlements pattern and jobs for the immigrants. The first naturalization policy in the US was the naturalization act of 1790, which confined naturalization to free, and liberal white people of sound and good behaviors or moral who had stayed in the US for two years and had kept their current state of stay for not less than a year. However, it was increased to five years stay in 1795 and three years of notice of the desire by a person to apply for US citizenship (United States Bureau of Immigration 41-44). In 1868, fourteenth amendment in the US constitution was passed to guard children born in the US. The amendment asserted that all individuals born or naturalized in the U, and question to the jurisdiction are citizens of the US and the States where they live. The policy was further expanded to include Africa Americans as naturalized US citizens. Asian immigrants were not regarded as naturalized citizens of the US. In some state like California, there were some restrictions applied to Asian Americans in that not permitted to own land. In 1882, the Congress passed the Chinese exclusion Act that restricted immigration of Chinese people to US. The Chinese migration to the US was triggered by poor conditions in China and the infamous gold rush that was happening in California. The Act restricted Chinese workers from immigrating to the US for a period of ten years. Workers in the US with visas got a certificate of residency and were not restricted to travel in the US. In the 20th century, the Japanese government negotiated with the US government to establish the “Gentlemen’s Act” in 1907. This was an agreement where Japan accepted to cease giving passports to citizens who intended to emigrate to the US. This made the Japanese immigration to the US rapidly increase. However, the congress limited and banned individuals because of lack of education and poor health (United States Bureau of Immigration 78-81). In 1921, the “Emergency Quota Act” was passed which created national immigration quotas. The quotas relied on foreign-born citizens who were staying in the US during the 1910 census. In 1932, the US government banned or shut down immigration of people to the US during the great depression. The Congress repealed the Chinese exclusion policy that ended segregation against the Filipinos and the Indian Americans who were given the right to naturalization and permitted a quota of 100 immigrants annually. In the 1960s, the “Hart-Cellar Act” eliminated the national-origin quota system. This was the restriction on western hemisphere immigration to 100, 000 immigrants annually with the Eastern hemisphere restricted to 170,000 immigrants annually. Due to family inclinations, the immigration policies were now chain bound in the sense that recent immigrants who had already settled in the US supported and sponsored their relatives (Browne 33). “The Hart-Celler Act” or the immigration and naturalization Act aimed to eliminate the quota system that governed US immigrants based on national origin and created a new law based on uniting immigrant families and attracting talented and skilled immigrants to the US. In the subsequent years, the laws enacted in 1960s transformed the demographic makeup of the US population in the sense that new immigrants were streaming in US from Africa, Asia as opposed to Europe under the new law. During the 1960s, the civil rights movement in the US called for reforms to the immigration policies in the US since during that period immigration relied on national origin quota scheme that required that each nationality was given a specific quota based on its significance and representation in the previous US censuses (Browne 70). The quota system discriminated against some races and nationality in the US. Therefore, the new laws aimed to abolish these discriminations and establish equal treatment of all immigrants in the US. The immigration and naturalization laws enacted was a positive step in the US immigration policies as it led to a dramatic break from the dark past and would have a lasting impact. The act required offered preferences to made concerning categories like relatives or permanent residents. Despite the fact that it eliminated the quota system, the new policy placed some restrictions on each country and total immigration as well as limitations on each category. The policy aimed to ensure that there was family reunification and that the new immigration law would permit the whole family to uproot themselves from other nations and establish their residence in the US. According to the research done by the national conference of state legislatures, one out of five workers in the United States are immigrants who make lower wage rate compared to natural born citizens of united states citizen. One may ask, what is the reason that makes immigrants paid substantially less than everyone in the United States? The motive behind is that because of increased immigration, both legal and illegal, helps in keeping the inflation low, boosts rents and housing values and has an advantage to an average U.S taxpayer.. If the illegal immigrants were to be restricted in the United States, many people from the middle and upper class will be affected in that, they will be burdened by their loss both legal and illegal. Inflation would drastically go high throughout the U.S economy and as a result many American families will be hurt in the sense that housing rents will go hike, affording a car will be hard and access to luxury and cheap foods and materials goods will be expensive. The 20th century started with the US in the center of broad wave of immigration. The century ended in the center of another wave of immigration broader in numerical terms but smaller in its impact than the immigration in the past 100 years. The issues discussed in the 21st century parallel issues of earlier immigration wave in the US. The central question is whether the US is in a position to withstand and accommodate the new immigrants. Further, US naturalized have been wandering who is the beneficiary of the new immigrants and whether or not the immigrants can be integrated and absorbed. Immigration trends in the US In the 1990s, the number of people who immigrated to the US increased rapidly than any other decade in the history of the US. The increase in number of immigrants has been triggered in part by policies or legislative increases in legal entrance of immigrants in 1975 and 1990. In addition, the permission of political refugees from other Nations in the World has led to the rising inflow of immigrants in the US. A direct impact of growth in the number of immigrants in the US is that the share of US population, which is foreign-born, has increased. The legal status of US immigrants The 21st century immigration policy focused on major deficiencies of the US’s immigration patterns. This policy restricts access to various benefits for different categories of non-citizens some of whom have been getting these benefits. For instance, legal permanent residents who have been out of work for the last 40 years and refugees who have stayed in the US for more than five years are not entitled to these benefits while naturalized citizens remain entitled. Further, since entitlement policies governing aliens (or undocumented or legal immigrants) have been the exclusive region of the US Federal government (Williams 84). The welfare reform Act aimed to issue out roles for many of these entitlements rules such as those covering unrecorded aliens. There are different legal statuses pertaining immigrants in the US. These statuses include: Naturalized citizens legal permanent residents unrecorded or undocumented aliens refugees, parolees and asylees legal nonimmigrant residents legal permanent residents The largest immigrant group in the US is the foreign-based population of legal aliens or aliens permitted for permanent residency. The naturalized citizen is an increasing part of the US immigrant population. Further, the naturalized group makes thirty percent of the foreign-born population. Humanitarian immigrants who moved to the US make seven percent of the foreign population. This group includes asylees, parolees, refugees, and Cuban-Haitian entrants. Illegal Immigrants in the US Illegal immigration is the migration to a country in violation of that country’s immigration policies. In the US, there are non-citizens migrate there in contrary to the US immigration laws or some tend to stay in the US beyond the expiry date of a visa which is against the U immigration law. Illegal immigrants continue to increase than the number of legal immigrants, a trend that has been rampant since the 1990s. While most of illegal immigrants in the US continue to increase in regions where there is large Hispanic race, increasingly, the number of illegal immigrants is settling in the entire country. For instance, it is estimated that almost fourteen million people stay in families in which their caregivers or parents stays in the US illegally. Majority of illegal immigrants who have migrated to the US in recent years tend to be more educated than those immigrants who have stayed in the US for a long time. Almost a quarter of illegal immigrants who migrate to the US at least have college education but the notable trend is that majority of illegal immigrant groups are less educated than other section of the US population. Illegal immigrants in the US work in all sectors of the economy such as service industry and agriculture. These immigrants are the ones responsible for the growth of United States economy in many ways. For instance, lowering the costs of items and providing employers with extraordinary employee with cheap labor, pay, and great work ethic. These illegal immigrants also contribute to the Americas social melting pot of cultures by introducing, adding, Changing, and growing the demography of America each day. Illegal immigration contrary to popular beliefs and concerns is what United States of America needs. If the illegal immigrants were to be restricted in the United States, many people from the middle and upper class will be affected in that, they will be burdened by their loss both legal and illegal. Inflation would drastically go high throughout the U.S economy and as a result many American families will be hurt in the sense housing rents will go hike, affording a car will be hard and access to luxury and cheap foods and materials goods will be expensive. Illegal immigration has been a heated political topic as immigrants continue to stream in the US through Mexico and Canada. The immigration reform Act enacted in 1986 aimed to address the issue of illegal immigration to the US by offering goof enforcement of immigration laws and establishing more possibilities to look for legal immigration. The Act incorporated amnesty plans for illegal aliens and collectively gave amnesty to three million unauthorized aliens. In 1990, the immigration Act was enacted which offered for the entrance or admission of immigrants from countries that were regarded as unprecedented in order to increase the diversity of the immigration flow in the US. The 1990s economic recession was accompanied by renaissance of anti-immigrant feeling, incorporating low income Americans competing for jobs with the incoming immigrants who were ready to work for low wages. In 1996, the US congress enacted illegal immigration and immigration responsibility Act that averted border enforcements and the utilization of social programs by incoming immigrants. Immigration in the 21st century in US took a new dimension after the September 11 2001 attack (Williams 82). The US government established the department of Homeland that took over the issues of immigration. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 held that noncitizens currently living in the US legally either by getting interim admission as nonimmigrant or permanent admission as an immigrant. A person in the latter category is categorized as a lawful permanent resident. He or she gets a green card that permits him to work in the US and can apply for US citizenship. In addition, the law provided that every immigrant living in the US be held accountable for his or her behaviors. Immigrant are supposed to abide by the federal law by going through national security and criminal checks, pay taxes, register and learn English because they could get in line with law before they could get entitlement for citizenship. Legal immigration visas in the US should not be taken as gate pass to permanent residency. Work permits for seasonal workers or students in the US do not allow conversion to immigration status. Even those people permitted to work in the US must apply for permanent stay or residence and gain no merit because of their temporary employment authorization. There is large number of immigrants living in the US and that this number is likely to increase or grow. The previous group of immigrants has been assimilated into the American society while the current immigrants are slowly assimilating. From this perception, many people argue that the immigrants from Mexico and other countries should properly become legal to avoid illegal immigration. This is easy if at all, the US government is committed towards controlling immigration threshold. It is approximated that 55,000 immigrants receive a green card into the US each year out of the thousands of immigrants who want migrate to the there. Of all these 55,000 immigrants, they are chosen randomly by a specialized computer that is designed to pick green card applicants. Those immigrants who become lucky to be picked do not enjoy because they have to endure at least five years of holding the green card and express full knowledge and ability of writing, speaking, and understanding English before they are fully adopted as United States citizens. Works Cited Browne, Kevin. Immigration Law. Chicago: College of Law Publishing, 2012. Print Williams, Mary. Immigration. San Diego: GreenHaven Press, 2004. Print. . United States Bureau of Immigration. Immigration Laws. New York: Nabu Press, 2012. Print. . Read More