Immigration Policies in the USA - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... Policies throughout the years are at constant change, especially when they need to adapt to ever-changing matters like demographic impact on a society, ideological shift or even immigration issues. The progress of the policy change regarding immigration in the U.S. went through three phases. The first one was ‘the laissez-faire’; the second was ‘the qualitative restriction’ and the final phase ‘the quantitative restriction’ . Policy-makers went through these varies stages to accommodate foreign immigrants, while maintaining the native-born American identity. This finally poses the question; in how far has the issue of contemporary immigration in the U.S. affected the policy making and the American society?
Moreover, it will answer the question of whether rights and liberties have been infringed upon, due to the current or altering immigration policies. This paper will also shed light on the fairness of the passed legislations to deal with the issue at hand. Additionally, it will expound whether features of American politics will hinder or expedite changes to the issue at hand. Finally, the paper will conclude on how far the contemporary immigration issue in the U.S. has affected both policymaking and society.
American experience has been overspread by the culture of immigration ever since the first European settlers set foot in North America. Immigration is indeed a chain that ties many of the values that unite Americans. Not only is the vision of the U.S role in the world designed by immigration but it also trickles our view of human nature. A phenomenon that “will construct a new race, a new religion, a new state, a new literature” in the United States was seen by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The concerns about ethnic relations, the environment, social services, economy & other issues have been jostled by the sentiments evoked in the public policy arena by the idealism that surrounds the immigration. The debate over immigration has been expanded in the recent years, in order to broaden the range of foreign policy issues. The world refugee crisis, human rights, international trade, Latin America and the national security are the features of argument on U.S. It is crucial for Americans to have an understanding of the issues that concern the long term goals for immigration policy, as per Congressional representatives debate for reform for current immigration law proposes. Issues related to border control, law enforcement and undocumented workers are current the primary focus of the existing proposals. Other issues such as human rights, the economy and the environment and security are the additional concerns raises by the proposed legislative policies. The age of a large amount of non-Europeans migrating to the United States is known as contemporary immigration, it hastened in the end of 1960s to the middle of 1970s after a prolonged interruption of constrained immigration. 1.6 million formerly unauthorized aliens and 1.1 million Special Agricultural Workers1 (SAW) were granted permanent resident status with a total of 17.1 million immigrants admitted in the United States between 1971 and 1995 under the provisions of Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986( hereafter IRCA). Contemporary immigration was as high as it has been in the first quarter of the century, which has been 17.2 million between 1901 and 1925. This was the time immigration was at its peak. The annual admission trends in both the peak periods show a very different trend, despite the similarity in numbers in both the time periods. With a number of obvious ebbs and movements the figure of annual admission ...Download file to see next pagesRead More