IMMIGRATION AND DIVERSITY

How did the dominant American culture establish itself?. • What were problems non-Protestant and Non-western European immigrants encountered in America?. A STORY OF IMMIGRATION- The stor

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 ”