From 1820-1920 approximately 34 million persons immigrated to America and about three-fourthsof them stayed. They came for many different reasons, to escape violence, to find new hope, or to chase the “America Dream.” This caused many things to develop and change throughout America. This mass immigration was possible because of the “endless” western territory but now in 2011 the “endless” territory has run out. Government should work to limit immigration to an extent. Although immigrants strengthen American society by creating different cultures and increasing the work force but it must be limited because America cannot afford to be a nation of mostly immigrants. If left unchecked there would be overcrowding, an insufficient amount of jobs, and many racial conflicts but if stopped completely there would be a loss in culture, there would be an increase in illegal immigration, and it wouldn’t be moral. There needs to be a balance in between the two with some guidelines.
If we left immigration unchecked we would be overcrowding because there would be so many people trying to get jobs in the cities. It would be just like in the late 19th century. There were horrible conditions throughout the cities because people were forced to live in tenants. They also had to live in close quarters with each other, which spread disease a lot. If there was overcrowding in the cities now days it wouldn’t be nearly as bad because there are laws prohibiting bad conditions. This can be attributed to the First Tenant Law, which was created in the late 19th century and the early 20th century when there was a lot of overcrowding from immigration. Another reason that immigration cannot be left unchecked is because there would not be enough jobs to support everyone. There would be huge unemployment rates just like back then because there is always someone who will work for less pay. In addition to overcrowding and job loss there would be many racial conflicts. The older people living in the immigrant communities were afraid that there culture would be lost if newcomers came in. This sparked a call for literary test for immigrants to take. If even more people came in many people would angry and others would create major conflicts.
We must continue to allow immigrants in because without immigrants our culture would be gone. America is the “Melting Pot” all cultures are melted here together. Immigration is our heritage and if we stopped immigration we would lose it for sure. Also if we allow people to come in legally then they will not be forced to come in illegally. This is like when alcohol was banned throughout America. There was a lot of smuggling and it created a very bad market and it was obviously going to go on if it was legal or not. Then it was made legal again. Legal immigrants would pay taxes and do everything normal citizens do and on the other hand illegal immigrants would not pay taxes, which would hurt the economy. The immigrants would be forced to immigrate illegally if it was not allowed because they would need to escape the bad situations of their home countries. It is moral because America gets tied up in other countries’ wars to supposedly help them and then not to allow them to come here would not be moral. Back in the late 19th Century “The Great Hunger” was going on in Ireland. Many Irish citizens immigrated into America to escape the horrible situations there. That is just like what we have going now in Mexico. People want to escape the horrible violence of the drug cartels in Mexico. It would be immoral to not let them come to America and just die.
America cannot afford to be made up of entirely immigrants because there would not be enough jobs, there would be overcrowding, and there would be racial conflicts. That is why the government should work to limit immigration. But they cannot stop it completely because there would be a loss of culture, more illegal immigrants, and it is not moral.
