IMMIGRATION AND DIVERSITY

IMMIGRATION AND DIVERSITY IN THE
UNITED STATES
Discussion questions
•
What is a melting pot?
•
What is a salad bowl?
•
Why is the United States compared to a melting pot?
And a salad bowl?
•
Who first migrated to America? When? Why?
•
What is the dominant culture in the U.S.? How did the
dominant American culture establish itself?
•
What were problems non-Protestant and Non-western
European immigrants encountered in America?
•
In what ways were African-Americans different from
other immigrant groups in the U.S.?
A STORY OF IMMIGRATION
- The story of the U.S: a story of immigration and diversity

Has welcomed more than 50 million immigrants in all

Still admits 500,000 – 1million / a year
- Nowadays, great value on diversity→ ethnic groups have renewed and celebrated their
heritage.
- Immigrants’ children grow up being bilingual.
A STORY OF IMMIGRATION

•
Native Americans: first American
immigrants, more than 20,000 years
ago, as hunters.
•
Christopher Columbus discovered the
New World in 1492.
•
Next 200 years, people from European
countries explored America→ trading
posts &colonies.
•
Native Americans suffered greatly from
the influx of Europeans (Britain, Spain,
Portugal, France, Holland, Germany,
Sweden): land transfer, wars,
diseases, poverty, jobless.
•
The English as the dominant ethnic
groups. In 1780, ¾ Americans were of
English or Irish descent.
•
During the American Civil War, more
German immigrants→ today, 22%of
American have German ancestry.
•
Jews came from1880 ←pogroms in
Eastern Europe. Today > 6 million
Jewish-Americans
•

The Statues of Liberty near Ellis
Ireland as a gift from France in 1886
•
Unwilling immigrants: 500,000 Africans
as slaves bv 1619-1808.
•
The process of ending slavery began
in April 1861 (American Civil War)
•
Slavery abolished in 1865. Still
segregation.
•
Late 1950s-early 1960s:Dr. Martin
Luther King- nonviolent protest to
demand equality and an end to racial
discrimination.
•
Today, 12.3 %: African Americans.
•
An increasing acceptance of blacks by
whites in all walks of life.
•
35 million Hispanics from Mexico and
Latin America.
•
Asian immigrants → limits on
newcomers /quotas←cultural and
economic fear+racial prejudice
•
Today, 10 million people of Asian

descent. Among the most successful of
all immigrant groups, higher income,
studying at the best universities.
THE LEGACY OF IMMIGRATION
•
The steady stream of immigrants →a profound effects on the American character.
•
Courage and flexibility
•
Willingness to take risks and try new things
•
Independence and optimism
•
Emma Lazarus: “Give me your tired, your poor, /Your
huddle masses yearning to breathe free, /The
wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these,
the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, / I lift my lamp
beside the golden door!”
•
Martin L.King: “I have a dream that one day on the red
hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons
of former slaveholders will be able to sit down together
at the table of brotherhood I have a dream that my
four little children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by
the content of their character.
•
John F.Kennedy: “A society of immigrants, each of
whom had begun life anew, on an equal footing. This is
the secret of America: a nation of people with the fresh

memory of old traditions who dare to explore new
frontiers ”