America Needs More Immigrants :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

After political security, there is nothing that the Republic ask so much as b wizard and sinew, for the development of its vast resources . . . we want flesh and blood, men, women, and children, to assist in fulfilling that intention. Editorial from the Commercial and Financial Chronicle, published in August 12, 1865as the re-United States reels back from the divisiveness of the Civil War (Abbott 156) When my ancestors came to the U.S. in the 1800s to help build the transcontinental railroad (enabling intracontinental commerce on an unprecedented scale), it was very original that immigrants contributed to the Statess economic prosperity. Does this remain true today? Today is a very different time than the aftermath of the Civil War. Or is it? Now, the U.S. is in addition reeling back from wars, albeit of very different sorts the Cold War and the latest series of riots in the cities. The U.S. is turning inwards, wanting to rebuild its infrastructure and inner cities. Pre-e minence in heterogeneous scientific aras and the education of its citizens, who are, by world standards, lagging educationally, are again prime national goalsmuch as they were following the Civil War. Skills and labor are needed. Although not as powerfully delineated as in a North-South segregation, the American population is still bitterly divided over many issuesone of which is immigration. Would immigration aggravate our problems, especially unemployment and social tension, or benefit us, as it did previous to and following the Civil War? Throughout the 1800s, conservative politicians were adamant that immigration would compromise political security and native Californian miners, laborers, and farmers feared that the Chinese would drain Americas resources and take away jobs. The tragic results of such fears were the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, windup in the execution of two innocent Italian immigrants accused of espionage, and the massacres of Chinese miners in the western states. These early detractors of immigration were proven wrong as America grew from a second-rate nation to the most powerful economy in the world. Today, as reflected in the headlines, calls for immigration restriction have renewed the national controversy Should current levels of immigration continue in the U.S.? How many can America absorb? is a constant refrain, reflected in poll after poll.