Immigration is the building blocks of American culture and society. Various people from numerous nationalities have immigrated to America with the hopes of achieving the “American Dream”. This dream to many is being able to secure a full time job and support their families. Many immigrants leave their countries due to war, poverty, or the lack of opportunities (or all the above). The United States has given these people opportunities that they may not necessarily have had in their home countries. Alfred Grande, my grandfather, was a minority immigrant whom immigrated from Italy back in the early 1900’s. Like many others, his goal was to come to America to work and make money to support his family. In the early 1900’s immigrants would have to go through Ellis Island, in New York City, to be processed and allowed into the country. At this time in history, the United States was becoming a melting pot of people and culture. The American culture largely is derived from the different minority groups whom immigrated to America. Today minorities face a problem with immigrating to America.
The problem today is that President Trump is unjustly limiting which groups of people are allowed to immigrate to America. Certain minority groups such as Muslims and Latinos, from particular countries, aren’t even allowed to enter the United States. Immigration is crucial to the continued progression of the United States. Apart from that, barring certain minority groups from even entering the country is a basic violation of human rights. President Trump’s travel ban goes against the values of this country and is a major social issue. 
In this research report I will be examining the problems that minorities face immigrating to the United States and why they need to be allowed to. My argument is that minority immigration is apart of what America was founded on, and we should continue to allow it. To support this argument I’ll talk about five problems that face minority immigrants and how they should be overcome. These problems are in relation to the misconception that immigrants take American jobs, negative perceptions by American citizens, and the inability for minorities to assimilate into American culture. I’ll be discussing the difficulty of minorities entering the United States, as well as their problems when they’re allowed to immigrate here.
A major objection to immigration is the notion that minority immigrants will take away jobs from American citizens. Many people believe that the United States economy will be negatively affected by immigrant workers entering the United States labor force. However this isn’t the case at all. Author Douglas Massey states, “Some worry about the economic effects of immigration, although quantitative analyses generally show that immigrants do not compete with native workers and do not have strong effects on US wage rates and employment levels” (Massey, 1995). Immigrants face the problem of being discriminated against over the belief that United States citizens are losing their jobs and opportunities for further employment to immigrants. Massey states that this isn’t the case because there’s scientific evidence proving that immigrants don’t compete with native workers, therefore this problem shouldn’t exist. Minority immigrants and their families are affected by this because many Americans won’t hire immigrants based on the fact that they believe that they should hire natives. Immigrants don’t hurt our economy and thus should be allowed into the United States.
Another problem that minority immigrants face is negative connotations stemming from common public misconceptions. One of these negative connotations is that minority immigrants don’t pay taxes. This couldn’t be any farther from the truth. Author Teddy Mead says, ” Of the three major mythologies associated with undocumented citizens, them not paying taxes is probably one of the most embellished and heated topics circling in the media today. It simply is not the truth, in fact, the Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Criminology found that “2002 Census Bureau data revealed that in that year roughly 3.8 million households headed by illegal immigrants produced $6.4 billion in Social Security taxes” (Mead, 2016). The real problem that exists here is that minorities are wrongly discriminated against for a false connotation. This has an affect on immigration policies within America because United States citizens push back against allowing immigrants into the country. In reality most Americans are naive to believe this, and the United States immigration policy shouldn’t support this. Massey supports this notion by saying, “This is an unarguable fact that the majority of Americans are too naive to research and learn for themselves” (Massey, 2016).
Some of these negative connotations come from these minority immigrants being forced to leave their country due to war. The problem arises from these individuals having to leave their country due to war, and then the United States citizens believing that they’ll bring those problems to America. This creates a sweeping generalization that these minority immigrants are automatically part of the problem because they come from that country. For example, some United States citizens actually believe that most of Syrian refugees are affiliated with terrorist groups. Minority families are forced to leave their home countries and then encounter the negative stigma of being dangerous people. Matthew Lester states, ” Furthermore, even if many of the factors that now drive large amounts of international migration, such as war, poverty, great inequality in opportunity, political persecution, and lack of freedom were eliminated – if, say, Rawls’s law of people were in effect – family- based immigration would still need to be taken account of since we could expect it” (Lester, 2010). Apart from it being difficult for immigrants to get into the country, this makes it hard for immigrants to support their families due to the difficulty of finding a job. If all immigrants were dangerous people, then there would be no America. America was founded on immigrants and we must continue to allow minority immigration.
A problem that also faces minority immigrants and their families entering the United States is assimilating into American culture. This difficulty is a problem for minority immigrants because it can create a social barrier. Often times minority immigrants can’t speak fluent English while entering the United States. This makes it difficult to obtain a job them, which affects their ability to support their family. Heather Mohamed supports this by stating, “Many of the factors that contribute to assimilation or acculturation are also associated with the adoption of an American identity, and the process of integration clearly influences one’s self-perception” (Mohamed, 2017). People, specifically minorities, immigrate to America to provide a better life for their families, however the inability to assimilate into American culture makes that very difficult. This social barrier also impacts public perception and can drive the reform of the United States immigration policy. We’re seeing this happen today with some of President Trump’s policies.
The final problem that faces minority groups and their families is the actual ability to be able to enter the United States. With President Trump’s preposterous plan to construct a wall on the United States-Mexico boarder, immigrants won’t have the ability to enter the country. Branda Felbab-Brown talks about Trump’s wall and the dangers of it by saying, “The United States has also engaged with Mexico to tighten its southern border with Central America and limit the flow of migrants from Central America to the United States through Mexico. If President Trump adopts very confrontational policies toward Mexico, Mexico can retaliate by ending border security cooperation with the United States on both its northern and southern border, a dangerous and counterproductive outcome for both countries” (Felbab-Brown, 2017). For the United States to take such an aggressive stance on not accepting immigrants from Mexico, this minority group no longer has the opportunity to immigrate here. This initiative to build the wall will also detract other immigrants from wanting to move to the United States. This directly goes against the ideology of American culture and is a violation of human rights. 
American beliefs are what drives the creation of policies. Citizens will elect officials based on the reflection of their own beliefs. When citizens feel strongly about a social topic, they will speak out on their beliefs. Currently in our country we have a president who is ignorant to what the people say, and follows his own agenda. President Trump, as well as many Americans, believe that minority immigrants, specifically Muslims and Latinos are a threat to our country. These negative connotations about these immigrants not paying taxes, taking away American jobs, being dangerous people, and having trouble fitting into American culture simply aren’t true. The result of this negative public perception is the ideology of creating a wall along the Mexican boarder, as well as implementing a travel ban. These false perceptions are what takes away the opportunity for immigrants to move here. Often times they’re coming from war torn or poor countries and need an opportunity to support their families and have a better life.
Discussion Questions:
1) Do you believe that we should allow more immigrants into the United States?
2) What do you think the best way is to screen immigrants trying to enter the United States?
Work Cited
Massey, Douglas S. “The New Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States.” Population and Development Review, vol. 21, no. 3, 1995, pp. 631–652., http://www.jstor.org/stable/2137753.
Mead, Teddy J. “Stereotypes and Popular Misconceptions of Latino Immigration.” (2016).
LISTER, MATTHEW. “IMMIGRATION, ASSOCIATION, AND THE FAMILY.” Law and Philosophy, vol. 29, no. 6, 2010, pp. 717– 745., http://www.jstor.org/stable/40926338.
Mohamed, Heather Silber. “American Identities: Self-Perception among Latinos in the United States.” The New Americans?: Immigration, Protest, and the Politics of Latino Identity, University Press of Kansas, 2017, pp. 114–136, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1mtz77k..
FELBAB-BROWN, VANDA. “U.S.-Mexican Relations: After the Election’s Vitriol, Ways to Strengthen a Multifaceted Partnership.” Brookings Big Ideas for America, edited by MICHAEL E. O’HANLON, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 2017, pp. 294–302, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7864/j.ctt1kk66tr.34.
My Family 