US Immigration Laws

US Immigration Laws

Immigration

The movement of individuals who are citizens of one country to residency within some other country is known as Immigration. The array of response from host countries can vary from a chauvinistic rejection to accept immigrants (e.g., Japan and China) to being a country that makes immigrants part of its national identity (e.g., Canada, the United States). Immigration on the whole has performed a significant part in molding the culture and population of the United States ever since its foundation. The United States has gone through four substantial immigration waves starting from the first influx of Europeans.

The U.S. government has made some changes in the procedure of issuing visas after the attacks of 9/11 2001. Visa applications are considered very carefully and some applicants have to undergo from additional security checks. Compilation and processing of visa application is taking more time than ever before.

Discussion

The United States remains a haven for immigrants worldwide. The famous American dream still attracts many contenders. The U.S. administration manages more than 60 different types of visas, Green Card (green card) is commonly known. It is actually possible to make oneself the necessary administrative procedures for obtaining a visa. Indeed, the complexity of the system, time hard to estimate, and a certain bureaucratic aspects (including discharges of record) may confuse or discourage a potential immigrant (Wadsworth, 2002).

The Immigration Debate in the United States

The Four Waves of Immigration

The foremost immigration wave which began in the 17th century and continued till the next century consisted of the pioneers of the U.S. colonies. For the most part of these settlers were British, Germans, Scots and individuals from France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Servants and slaves from African countries during this period were brought forcefully to this country. The next sway initiated in the year 1820 and comprised mostly of Irish, British and German immigrants who caused the growth in the westward areas of the country. From about 1880 until 1914 the third wave started which integrated people first from Western and Northern Europe, and later on from Eastern and Southern Europe. Chinese laborers were recruited alongside these European starting from late 1840 till the middle of 1880 for the purpose building the railroads of the West and to work in California and Hawaii and. After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Filipino and Japanese people seized their position until the 1907 “Gentlemen's Agreement” between Japan and the United States put an end to relocation from Japan (Reed, 1994).

Immigrants from Mexico got into United States without any constraint and the number grew a great deal predominantly after 1880.

The country experienced a fourth wave of immigration in the 1990's. Approximately 14 million, legal and illegal, immigrants, more than in any preceding decade, entered the United States during this tenure. The most recent immigrants, unlike previous influxes, have stormed in from Asia, predominantly India, China and the Philippines. It was estimated that more than 15 million immigrants have entered the United States by ...