The end of our blog...

Sadly, we have reached the end of our blog. We hope that this meeting with the development of immigration in the United States has interested you as much as it has interested us. We also hope that you have learned something beyond a chronology of facts and data and you have managed to understand the country itself.

To conclude all these entries and in relation to the last post we would like to tell you about some recent recognitions that were made in the Latin Grammy, held in Las Vegas on November 17, 2017 and in the Grammys, held in New York on January 28, 2018.

The Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz received the "Persona del Año" award in the Latin Grammy for his successful career and took the opportunity to defend the "Dreamers".

"They have lived in this country for many years and yet they are still in an illegal situation, they are the 'dreamers' and those children are our children, from our community. When you are a father, you are the father of all the children of the world." assured the singer.

Later, Sanz sang his hits "Cuando Nadie Me Ve", "No es lo Mismo" and "Corazon partío", accompanied by a group of "dreamers" with black shirts in which you could read slogans like "We have a dream" and "Protect our families."

Camila Cabello introduced U2 at the Grammy Awards in New York City, where she delivered a brief, moving speech on being an immigrant to the United States.

“Tonight, in this room full of music’s dreamers, we remember that this country was made by dreamers, for dreamers, chasing the American dream. I’m here on this stage tonight because just like the Dreamers, my parents brought me to this country with nothing in their pockets but hope. They showed me what it means to work twice as hard and never give up. And honestly no part of my journey is any different from theirs. I’m a proud, Cuban-Mexican immigrant, born in eastern Havana, standing in front of you on the Grammy stage in New York City. And all I know is that just like dreams, these kids can’t be forgotten and are worth fighting for." 

After speaking, Cabello introduced the band U2 who played on a platform installed in the middle of the Hudson River, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, symbol of immigration in the United States. "Blessed are the countries of shit that gave us the American dream," Bono said in response to Trump's controversial comment about immigrants from El Salvador and Haiti.

Rapper Logic also dedicated words to "beautiful countries full of culture, diversity and thousands of years of history," as well as to the rights and equality of women. "In the name of those who fight for equality in a world that is not equal, it is not fair and it is not ready for the change that we are going to bring, I tell them to bring their tired, poor people and any immigrant who seeks refuge."

DACA and the DREAMERS

In this post we will talk more specifically about what has been mentioned in these last two entries: DACA and the Dreamers.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is a plan which was introduced by Barack Obama on June 15, 2012. It is a program that brings temporary protection to these immigrants without documentation who arrived to the United States when were children. Thanks to this plan, they could study or work.

Those undocumented immigrants are investigated about their past for accurate if they are a danger or not in american society. They have to be studying or have completed military service. If they achieve pass the investigation, they can't be exported until the next 2 years and they can renew this temporary documentation. This documentation permit them having driving license, college enrollment or simply, a work.

With the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency in January 2017, this plan, like many others, saw its worst moment. Donald Trump started to say that he was going to scrap this program, to deport more than 11 millions undocumented people and to build a wall with Mexico.

But... What is the relation between DACA and the Dreamers?

Those who were protected under the plan DACA, (more than 750,000 young people) are called Dreamers. This name comes from the "Dream Act" (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors). This act offered legal residence to those undocumented immigrants. Nevertheless, this plan failed. In order to make something similar, they created DACA. 

It had been six months since the United States' president Donald Trump decided to end this program and seems to be no closer to a solution when the day arrives, March 5, when everything was supposed to be resolved.

March 5 was originally conceived as a deadline for action. When Trump ended the DACA program in September, he created a six-month delay to give Congress time to present a legislative version of the policy. So March 23 was the next deadline for government financing.

Nowadays, only those previously inscribed in the DACA program or those who didn't put American security at risk, can renew their protection.

                 "U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services"

Finally, we leave this videos that begins with the experience of an undocumented person and explains in detail the DACA program. 

    I'm a Dreamer: here is what's happening

    

      DACA Explained

We would like you to watch this video and leave a comment writing your point of view about the situation of those young people that before have a legal life, and now are undocumented.

Information from:

Walters, J. What is Daca and who are the Dreamers? The Guardian. Online: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/04/donald-trump-what-is-daca-dreamers
Greenberg, J.  Did Obama say he didn't have the right to issue DACA? Politifact. Online: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/jan/09/donald-trump/obama-hedged-didnt-say-he-lacked-legal-right-daca/
Renew your DACA. U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services. Online: https://www.uscis.gov/archive/renew-your-daca

2017: Donald Trump and Immigration

In this post we will talk about the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency and the relationship with immigration.

Who is Donald Trump?

Before being president of the United States, Donald Trump was known because he was a politician, a businessman and a celebrity.

When Donald Trump arrived to the power the 20th of January 2017 he decided to create new immigration policies in order to increase economic nationalism. Trump created a program called “Put America First” because he wanted to protect American workers and industries.

On January 26, 2018 he realised an immigration plan which had not got much success. District Court in San Francisco decided to protect the “Dreamers”. Dreamers who were chosen by DACA could not be deported if the matter was not solved in court. The judgement did not accept Trump measures and finally DACA was not eliminated.

Nowadays DACA offers a two years postponement for those eligible immigrants. Eligible people must be under 31 years old and they have to be illegally brought to EEUU when they were children.

If we talk about the “Travel Ban” we have to say that Donald Trump imposed travel restrictions from eight different countries (Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen). All these restrictions are composed by bans of immigrant, business and tourist visas. Each country has a different restriction, all depends on countries security measures. On March 6, 2017 visas were prohibited for citizens from Syria, Iran Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Trump also imposed measures against refugees. His administration allowed the entry of them, excluding eleven countries because it was supposed that these eleven countries could danger the security of the United States of America. He reduced to halve the number of refugees, accepting only 50 000 of them per year. Finally, in 2017, the State Department decided to increase this number to 70 000.

We have been appreciating that the President has imposed a lot of measures against refugees and immigrants, but we are sure that the measure that has been most talked has been “the wall in the frontier with Mexico”. This wall has been strongly criticize and nowadays is still being criticised. 

Trump promised a wall in the frontier with Mexico and he tried to obligate Mexico to pay for it. Without a doubt, Mexico refused the paying and Trump asked the congress for money. There are many republicans against the wall. Those who are from California, New Mexico and Texas face the biggest consequences. One part thinks that the wall will not work without more security forces and the other part is worried about the impact on the environment.

H-1B Visa program was one of the others measures imposed by Trump. He tried that only the highly- paid immigrants will receive the new visa. 

To sum up, all of these immigration measures have being been very tough for refugees and immigrants. That is why Donald Trump is considered one of the most racist, narcissistic, manipulative, authoritarian and arrogant people.

What are your opinions about Donald Trump? Do you think he will be re-elected president?

Information from: 

Amadeo, K. Donald Trump on Immigration: How It Affects the Economy and You. Online: https://www.thebalance.com/donald-trump-immigration-impact-on-economy-4151107

Fourth Wave of Immigration in the USA (Part 2)

In this entry the main issue is immigration since 2000 and the consequences it had in the country.

In the first decade of the 21st century, a large number of immigrants continued to arrive to the country. A million immigrants entered the United States legally every year. In total there were 30 million legal immigrants. However, also illegal immigrants managed to enter in the country, about 8.7 million.

The majority of these immigrants -both legal and illegal- were Hispanic, Mexican, Caribbean and Central Americans. In 2000, the number of immigrants increased by 63% from 22.4 to 35.3 million immigrants residing in the United States.

The illegal entry of so many people into the country represents a great danger because their rights and freedoms are at greater risk since these illegal immigrants have no right to dignified health or education. For rural work, employers prefer the labor of illegal workers since not having a contract they can work more hours for less money, which contributes to exploitation.

The immigration of so many Hispanics to the US, mainly Mexicans, is taking place despite the restrictive immigration policy and the intensification of border controls. Mexicans contribute to a large amount of money, especially to the field of gastronomy and agriculture. However, only 2 work programs exist for 300,000 Mexican immigrants which has caused more illegal Mexican workers. To curb the massive arrival of Mexicans, the US has intensified the controls of borders, but this policy had no effect. The US government continued to report 100,000 Mexicans each year.

The US government had little interest in legalizing Mexican immigrants because what made agriculture and gastronomy thrive were the low costs of illegal workers.

President Bush announced a law to regulate ilegal immigration on January 7, 2004. All illegal immigrants living in the US would receive a work visa for a maximum of 3 years. After these 3 years they would have to apply for a residence permit. It was a big step to end illegal immigration.

In 2006, millions of people gathered in protests for a comprehensive reform against the existing immigration laws in the United States. The protests began in response to the legislative proposal known as H.R. 4437 which would increase the punishment for undocumented immigration, and would classify undocumented foreigners and any other person who helped them enter or remain in the United States as criminals. Finally, on May 25, the Senate passed the S. 2611 law which includes a path to citizenship for 8.5 million illegal immigrants.

In 2009, Barack Obama was elected president. In his first term, he met frequently with immigrant advocacy groups and called on them to persuade Congress to take action on the issue of migration. All of his proposals were denied by Congress, including the so-called DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors). Without the endorsement of the Congress, Obama established in 2012 the program of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). (These two programs will be explained and adequately detailed in future entries due to their repercussion.)

Obama left office without a comprehensive immigration reform law, but he took important steps to protect the Dreamers and to focus on the priorities. However, deportations increased to record levels. On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump was elected 45th President of the United States. 

According to everything said before, do you think the USA is as modern and advanced as they think?

Information from:

Gratius, S. El factor hispano: los efectos de la inmigración latinoamericana a EEUU y España. 2005.  Real Instituto Elcano de Estudios Internacionales y Estratégicos. Online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28104342_El_factor_hispano_los_efectos_de_la_inmigracion_latinoamericana_a_EEUU_y_Espana
Immigration waves. Immigration to the United States. Online: http://immigrationtounitedstates.org/603-immigration-waves.html
Yale-Loehr, S and Smith E. Trump and Obama immigration enforcement: A tale of the tape so far. Online: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/trump-obama-immigration-enforcement-tale-tape-article-1.3801147?cid=bitly

Forth Wave of Immigration in the USA (Part 1)

In this post we will talk about everything that happened after the third wave. We will immerse ourselves in the migratory decline that the United States suffered until 1964 and the beginning of the fourth wave until the year 2000.

From 1915 until 1964, the United States will suffer a decline in immigration. The cause of this fact was the outbreak of the First World War in Europe (1914 - 1918). During the war, Congress enacted a law in 1917 that required immigrants over the age of 16 to pass a literacy test in order to enter the country. When immigrants began to arrive again after the war, their entry was restricted by the introduction of numerical limits or "quotas". On April 25, 1921, the Quotas Act was passed. A law that used immigration statistics to determine the maximum number of immigrants who would be allowed to enter the United States from each nation or region.

On April 24, 1924, the Immigration Act was passed. This law created the quota system that restricted the entrance to 2% of the total number of people of each nationality in America from the national census of 1890. This system favored immigrants from Western Europe and prohibited the entry of immigrants from Asia

After the severe economic depression of the 1930s and the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), the population born abroad from the United States decreased from 14.2 to 10.3 million. The United States did not admit a large number of refugees until after the war, an average of 250,000 immigrants entered each year during the 1950s.

Fourth wave immigrants began arriving in the United States in 1965 when the system changed. On April 24, 1965, the Immigration Reform Act was approved, which abolished the quota system based on national origin. The new system gave priority to “people with U.S. relatives and to a small number of people with outstanding accomplishments or special skills”.

As a result of this act, the nation experienced a change in immigration patterns. The majority of American immigrants came from Asia and Latin America instead of Europe. In the 1970s, Europeans constituted less than 20% of immigrants and only about 10% in the 1980s. In the 80s and early 90s, Asians constituted approximately one third of immigrants and Hispanics made up approximately half the number of immigrants.

During the 80s and 90s, illegal immigration became a topic to be addressed. On April 25, 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act was approved. This law penalizes employers for intentionally hiring undocumented immigrants, but granting amnesty to some of them, which allows them an oath to eventually apply for citizenship. This law was successful as most foreigners became legal immigrants but legalization also proved to be an incentive for more illegal immigration.

Concerns about the continuing problem of illegal immigration led Congress to pass another immigration law. On April 25, 1996, the Immigration Reform Act of 1996 was approved. “It increased the border patrol staff and stiffened penalties for creating false citizenship papers or smuggling undocumented workers”.

Legal immigration to the US increased from 250,000 in the 1930s, to 2.5 million in the 1950s, to 4.5 million in the 1970s and to 7.3 million in the 1980s, before resting at around 10 million in the 1990s. Since 2000, legal immigrants in the United States come to approximately 1,000,000 per year.

In the next post we will begin with the 21st century and we will talk about the continuation of this wave we are experiencing. But until then…

This is the prediction made by the U.S. Census Bureau on immigration until the year 2050. 

What do you think? Do you think the percentage of Hispanics will continue to increase as it has until now? We'd be delighted to read your opinions!

Information from:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Online: https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/our-history/agency-history/post-war-years

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Online: https://www.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/our-history/agency-history/late-twentieth-century

History.com Staff, U.S. Immigration Before 1965. History.com (2009). Online: https://www.history.com/topics/u-s-immigration-before-1965
The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation (SOLEIF). Online: https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/immigration-timeline

Philip Martin and Elizabeth Midgley, “Immigration: Shaping and Reshaping America,” Population Bulletin 58, no. 2 (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2003). Online: https://www.prb.org/wp-content/uploads/2003/06/58.2ImmigrShapingAmerica.pdf
O'Callaghan, Bryn. (1993). An illustrated History of the USA. Harlow. Reino Unido: Longman Group Ltd. (Chapter 18)

Third Wave of Immigration in the USA

In this new entry of our blog we are going to talk about the Third Wave of Immigration in the USA.

The Second Wave ended in 1880. Third Wave took place between 1880 and 1914. The immigrants of this wave came from the Middle East, Southern and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Canada. 

By 1880, the United States wanted to increase their economy and the population. Railroads companies with the aim of having immigrants workers (working with a low-salaries) sent agents to foreign countries to recruit them.

By this period, transoceanic transportation became cheaper, so all foreigners had more facilities to immigrate to the United States. Due to this, it were more than 23 millions of immigrants who came from all around the world, but more precisely from Europe.

                    

By 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. Although the United Stated was populated only by a 0,002% of Chinese population, Congress passed this law in order to stop the workers' demands and to keep the white "racial purity". Chinese workers were bad-paid, and they were despised. 

In this period, Italians started to arrive to United States and by 1920, approximately 4 millions of Italians lived in the country and represented the 10% of the Immigrant's population. 

But, why this happened? The most of Italians were poor, there were a lot of diseases, and also the natural disasters, as the eruption of the Mount Vesuvius. But the main factor was that their Government couldn't help them. How we said before, the transoceanic transportation was cheaper and this attached to American recruiters, made almost impossible to Italians not to want immigrate. 

Also, Eastern European Jews started to immigrate due to overpopulation and poverty. Then, by 1924, there were 2 million jews who immigrate from Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Romania. Finally, Armenians immigrated to the United States. They settled in the United States in order to scape of American Genocide; the massacres in Turkey.

And... Do you think that born-native Americans were fine about it? 

The response is obviously negative. Again, they felt threatened about the job, racial religious and political differences. They had a anti-immigrant sentiment and in 1917 they passed the Immigration Act. This law required to immigrants knowing read and write. 

Besides, native Americans related all the socio-economic problems (as poverty, delinquency, crime, labor unrest...) with immigrants. But, besides that, immigrants continued coming to the United States to find a better life. 

Finally, in our next post, we well talk about the Fourth Wave of Immigration. But we anticipate you that by the end of 1941 with World War II, the federal government decided to make the Immigration laws less restrictive. Nevertheless, as you know, the third wave of immigration was already over.

QUESTIONS

And now, we want to ask you, if you had to leave your country because of poverty in order to achieve a better life by working, but the countries will not accept you... what would you do? Would you keep working without caring about their opinion or would you move home?

                          

Information from:

History.com Staff, Chinese Exclusion Act. History.com (2009). Online: https://www.history.com/topics/chinese-exclusion-act

Italian - The Great Arrival. Library od Congress. Online: https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/immigration/italian3.html

Zollman, J. Jewish Immigration to America: Three Waves. My Jewish Learning. Online: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-immigration-to-america-three-waves/

Second Wave of Immigration in the USA

In this entry we will write about the second immigration wave in the USA.

This wave took place between 1820 and 1860. There were over 15.3 million people who went from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and China to the USA. Irish people fled their own country because of a really serious famine that affected Ireland during the 1840s. They had neither money nor resources to go inland. Due to this critical situation, most of them stayed near the East Coast. On the other hand, Germans went inland and bought several farming sites in the Midwest. People from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark decided to stay farming in the Midwest. Finally, most of the immigrants coming from China started working on the construction of the Transcontinental Railroads, the others worked as miners, cooks or launderers.

They arrived to the USA thanks to the port of New York City. The arrivals were processed at the first immigration center called “Castle Garden”.

In 1832 there was an increase in the number of immigrants arriving in the USA going up to 50 000 immigrants per year. In 1854 immigration reached it is peak with 428 000 immigrants that year.

All these immigrants came to the USA not only because they were suffering many difficult situations, but also because USA had done improvements on transports, creating ships and railroads. The United States were known as a land of opportunities for people coming from Europe. That is what we call the “American Dream”. Europe was devastated by wars, famines, revolutions and industrialization. This critical situation, alongside the great reputation the US had, lead many Europeans to America in search of an easier and better life.

Despite the important role immigrants played in US’ economy, an anti-immigrant backlash arose in the 1850s. A great number of Americans were Protestants and they were against Catholic immigrants. Protestant people saw Catholics as religious terrorists. In addition, these new immigrants brought to America many cultures. For this reason some ethnocentric Americans, who thought their culture was the best, were against them. In the Second Wave of immigration there were a great number of socialist immigrants, but these political tendencies were taboo in the nineteenth century. We can also appreciate a rural resentment. Poor immigrants were considered as aliens and they were not accepted in the big cities. The economic resentment was an important problem, “Real Americans” saw immigrants as job stealers.

To sum up, the Second Wave of immigration had a huge impact in American society. Firstly, it brought some important ethnic groups, such as Irish or Germans. Not only that, but it also meant a improvement of American economy, as more workers were available. But most importantly, it made the US a multi-cultural nation.

Information from:

The Forth Waves of American Immigration. Mr. Cunneen's Web Site. Online: https://sites.google.com/site/paulcunneen/home/us-history-1/immigrationunitoutline/4-waves-of-immigration 

Waves of Immigration in America. Online: https://www.preceden.com/timelines/29989-waves-of-immigration-in-america