14 JUNIOR.SCHOLASTIC.COM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

The 2016 presidential race has highlighted a debate that has lasted IMMIG RATIONTHE

LONG FIGHT OVER

LIVING HISTORY Migration • U.S. Government/Politics

Left: An Italian family arrives in New York City, about 1908. Right: A family of Syrian refugees shops at a Walmart in Troy, Michigan, last year.

The 2016 presidential race has highlighted a debate that has lasted since the founding of the United States BY BRYAN BROWN

IMMIG RATIONSEPTEMBER 19, 2016 • JUNIOR.SCHOLASTIC.COM 15

16 JUNIOR.SCHOLASTIC.COM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

A t campaign rallies for Donald Trump, the call can come at any moment. “Build the wall!

Build the wall!” the crowd begins to chant. “We will build it,” promises the Republican presidential nominee. “Who’s going to pay for the wall?” he asks. “Mexico!” the audience roars.

Trump promises to build a wall along all of the 1,954-mile border between the United States and Mex-ico. That appeals to many Americans who blame the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants from Mexico and other countries for taking jobs, raising crime rates, and costing billions of dollars a year in social ser-vices. (An undocumented immigrant is someone who enters and lives in a country illegally.)

Trump has also called for a tem-porary ban on Muslims entering the country. He says the U.S. can’t take the chance that some might be terrorists.*

Yet many people disagree with Trump’s proposals. They say immi-grants help the economy and that those here illegally often take low-paying jobs that few Americans want. Democratic presidential nominee

Hillary Clinton has promised to fight for changes that would give undocu-mented immigrants already living in the U.S. a path to citizenship. Many Democrats and Republicans believe, as Clinton has said, that a ban on Muslims “goes against everything we stand for as a country.”

Such arguments make headlines. But they are not new, says historian Roger Daniels. Americans, he says, have had “a love and hate relation-ship” with immigrants since the founding of the country.

A Historic ArgumentThe U.S. is often called a nation of immigrants. Indeed, if you are not

a full-blooded member of a Native American tribe, you are an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants. Yet the American battle over immigration dates to the Declaration of Indepen-dence, written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. One of the Declaration’s com-plaints against Britain’s King George was that the king was blocking laws that let the colonies attract immi-grants who would become citizens.

In 1783, making new arrivals citi-zens was on George Washington’s mind when he spoke to a group of Irish immigrants. The U.S. was open to “the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions, whom we shall welcome to a participation of all of our rights and privileges,” he said.

This was a matter of principle, says Daniels. It was also necessary to America’s survival: “The Found-ing Fathers had a big, vacant country. Immigration was vital to help fill it.”

But even from the beginning, some Americans have been suspicious of immigrants. “Few of their children in the country learn English,” said one famous American. In 1751, he com-plained of “a colony of aliens [who] will never adopt our language or customs.” Who wrote these words? Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. He was warning his fellow Pennsylva-nians about German immigrants.

Franklin came to like immigration. Yet his words reveal that the question of who qualifies as an American has always been up for debate. P

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IMMIGRANTS THEN AND NOWPercent of total foreign-born Americans by top countries of origin

SOURCE: Pew Research Center, U.S. Census Bureau

China6%

India5%

Philippines5%

El Salvador & Vietnam

3% each

Mexico28%

2014

Poland 8%

SovietUnion

6%

Germany 10%

Italy 13%

Canada 10%

1960

Republican Donald Trump

promises to build a wall with

Mexico at a campaign rally.

*More recently, Trump has said he would ban immigrants from any nation that has been “compromised by terrorism.”

LIVING HISTORY

COMING TO AMERICAMany of our ancestors came to the U.S. during historic waves of immigration. Here is when a few specific groups arrived.

Our Immigrant HistoryIn 1790, the U.S. held its first census. The count came to nearly 4 million peo-ple. Most were Protestant Christians of English, Welsh, or Scottish heritage. In the 1830s, newcomers began arriving in great numbers, nearly 5 million people in 30 years. About a third were Irish—poor and Catholic. Another third were mostly Catholic Germans.

This alarmed many people who thought of themselves as uniquely American. Protestant mobs some-times attacked Catholic churches or schools. Nativist pamphlets claimed that the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, under-mined American democracy. In 1856, an anti-immigrant American Party known as the “Know-Nothings” had a presidential candidate who won 20 percent of the vote.

Still, for most of the 19th century, the U.S. government encouraged immigrants to fill the nation’s vast spaces. In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act. That law opened up huge territories west of the Missis-sippi River. It promised settlers that they could keep a plot of land if they lived on it for five years. That was the amount of time it took for an immi-grant to become a naturalized citizen. Thousands of German, Scandinavian, and Irish families took advantage of the opportunity. “That’s the way the Midwest got populated,” Daniels says.

Settling the West helped Germans and Irish “become American.” But finding acceptance proved difficult for Chinese immigrants who began arriving in the mid-1800s. Their arrival inspired protests and local laws that aimed to “protect free white labor,” as one 1862 California law put it. This backlash led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the federal government’s first attempt to regulate immigration along racial lines.

By the 20th century, the tide of newcomers was only growing G

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SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 • JUNIOR.SCHOLASTIC.COM 17

ChineseGold is discovered in California, attracting many Chinese. By 1870, more than 80,000 have arrived. Many are hired to help build the Transcontinental Railroad.

ItaliansFleeing poverty and political

unrest at home, more than 4 million Italians make it to

the U.S., establishing “Little Italy” neighborhoods in

many American cities.

JewsDiscrimination, violence, and lack of economic opportunity throughout Central and Eastern Europe bring more than 2.5 million Jews to America.

IrishA potato famine

strikes Ireland in the 1840s, causing mass starvation.

About 1.5 million Irish people immigrate to the

U.S. in a decade.

MexicansThe Immigration and

Nationality Act of 1965 spurs the immigration of some 16 million Mexicans in 50 years—one of the largest

migrations in history.

VietnameseThe Vietnam War (1954-1975) brings many refugees to the West. By the end of the 1990s, about 600,000 Vietnamese live in the U.S.

stronger. More than 27 million people entered the U.S. between 1880 and 1930. Many were Poles, Jews, Greeks, and Italians from Eastern and Southern Europe. This sparked often racist con-cerns about foreigners driving down wages or breeding crime.

In 1921, the government set the first immigration quotas. These restrictions, which favored Northern and Western Europeans, were designed to keep the country’s ethnic mix the same. They sharply reduced the number of immi-grants allowed into the country.

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It wasn’t until the civil rights move-ment of the 1950s and 1960s that many Americans recognized that the quotas were discriminatory.

The Immigration and National-ity Act of 1965 officially ended the quotas. That law “reclaimed the idea that America was a nation that wel-comed immigrants,” historian Mae Ngai of Columbia University in New York City has written. Since then, about 59 million people have come to the country. Today, about 14 percent of the U.S. population is foreign-born.

Current AttitudesAccording to geographer Ellen Percy Kraly of Colgate University in Ham-ilton, New York, the worries many Americans have about immigrants haven’t changed much from a century ago. Then, as today, “concerns had to do with sovereignty, jobs, issues of security, the loss of ‘traditional Amer-ican values,’” she says.

The argument between Clinton and Trump shows how the debate continues. Americans generally agree that immigration laws need to be “reformed”—but not on how to do so.

One of the fiercest battles has been over the 11 million undocumented people in the U.S., most of whom come from Mexico and Central Amer-ica. Their number surged for two decades. But it has stayed stable since about 2009, thanks to tougher border security and an improving Mexican economy. But what should be done about the people who are already here?

Congress is divided on the issue. In 2013, a bipartisan bill setting a 13-year path to citizenship for the undocumented passed in the Senate.But it was killed in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

President Barack Obama has had mixed success in his attempts to pro-tect undocumented immigrants from deportation. In 2012, he issued an executive order that has temporar-ily protected about 700,000 young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally before age 16. A later order aimed to cover 5 million more people. But it was disallowed by the Supreme Court this past June.

Meanwhile, ISIS-inspired attacks by Muslims in the U.S., such as the 2015 shootings in San Bernardino, California, have caused some Ameri-cans to worry that legal residents from Muslim countries or their families represent a threat to national security.

One big concern has been refugees from Syria’s brutal civil war. Last

CARTOONISTS WEIGH IN Over the years, cartoon-ists have reflected the concerns of their times. Below, Irish and Chinese stereotypes “swallow” Uncle Sam in an 1860s cartoon. Bottom, a modern cartoonist uses the Statue of Liberty to comment on current fears.

18 JUNIOR.SCHOLASTIC.COM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

LIVING HISTORY

EQUATOR

INDIANOCEAN

ATLANTICOCEAN

PACIFICOCEAN

PACIFICOCEAN

U.S.

NICARAGUACOLOMBIA

VENEZUELA

PANAMA

CUBAHONDURAS

JAMAICA

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

TRINIDAD & TOBAGOGUYANA

CANADA

HAITI

BRAZIL

GHANA

ARGENTINA

ECUADOR

NIGERIA

PORTUGAL

FRANCE

POLAND

BOSNIA& HERZEGOVINA

ITALY

GREECE

TURKEY

IRANISRAELLEBANON

UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY

IRELAND

EGYPTPAKISTAN

ETHIOPIASOMALIA

KENYA

INDIALAOS

VIETNAMCAMBODIATHAILAND

MYANMAR(BURMA)

BANGLADESHPHILIPPINES

JAPAN

RUSSIA

SOUTH KOREA

CHINA

SOUTHAMERICA

NORTHAMERICA EUROPE ASIA

AFRICA

AUSTRALIA

MEXICO12.1 million

UKRAINE

ROMANIA

IRAQ

PERU

EL SALVADORGUATEMALA

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1. The greatest number of foreign-born people living in the U.S. came from which country?

2. According to the p. 16 graphic, that country accounted for what percent of all foreign-born people in 2014?

3. Which South American country labeled on this map is in the same number range as the United Kingdom?

4. What is the only country of origin labeled that’s in the 2 million to 2,999,999 range?

5. The equator crosses which labeled African countries?

6. Which Asian nations are in the 1 million to 1,999,999 range?

7. See the p. 16 graphic. What percent of foreign-born people came from the top country of origin in 1960?

8. In which direction would you travel to get from that nation to the fourth-most represented country in 1960?

9. Fewer than 100,000 people now living in the U.S. came from which labeled continent?

10. Why do you think only Mexico was given a number?

Questions

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Immigrants in the U.S.Top countries of origin of foreign-born people living in the United States, 2015

October, the Obama administration agreed to let 10,000 Syrians settle in the U.S. within a year. But 31 governors said they wouldn’t allow any of the refugees to be relocated in their state. (So far, courts have said states must accept them.)

How such issues are handled may depend on the November election. Clin ton says that she would work for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. She would also accept 65,000 Syrian refugees. Trump has long called for a “deportation force” for the undocumented. But recently he has said he would be “really fair, but firm”

with those who are not criminals.How will the country react? There

are signs that many Americans are not as opposed to immigrants as some politicians are. A recent Pew Research Center poll shows that a majority of Americans believe immigrants “strengthen the country.” They also favor letting unauthorized immigrants stay under certain circumstances.

Whatever the case, experts say, the U.S. will continue to be a nation of

immigrants. Research organizations including Pew estimate that future immigrants and their descendants will make up an increasing percent-age of the U.S. population.

Most likely, says Kraly, those immi-grants will become as fully American as past generations have. As for those age-old worries over the effect of new arrivals—like Ben Franklin had—she isn’t worried. “After all,” she says, “we’re not speaking German.” ◆

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 • JUNIOR.SCHOLASTIC.COM 19

Ask your family members when and how your ancestors came to the U.S. What obstacles did they face?

YOUR TURN

Watch a video about immigration in the U.S. at junior.scholastic.com.

SOURCE: Migration Policy Institute, United Nations

3 million or more

2 million to 2,999,999

1 million to 1,999,999

500,000 to 999,999

100,000 to 499,999

Fewer than 100,000

Number of foreign-bornpeople living in the U.S.,by country of origin

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