Immigration Phenomenon in the Emerald City

Abstract

No matter how high the United States government builds fences, immigration will continue. Early immigrants to the United States came from Western Europe. They came as cultural groups, changing the atmosphere of the place they made their home. During the period of industrialization at the turn of the 20th century, immigration patterns changed. Newer immigrants came from Eastern and Southern Europe trying to escape economic oppression and hoping to work in the U.S. with the long range objective of returning to their respective countries. The majority of those immigrants, however, stayed and made new lives in the United States. During World War II, the United States responded to a shortage of farm workers by creating the Bracero Program. It called for Mexican farm workers to labor in the fields of mainly western coastal states with the understanding that they would return to Mexico after the program was discontinued. Just as earlier European immigrants stayed, so did former Braceros in the middle of the 20th century. Later, primarily in the 1970s, more Mexicans crossed the border, generally for economic reasons. Other immigrants from Central America countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala also made their way to the U.S . because of wars in their own countries. The various historical phases of U.S. immigration raise questions about continuing changes in immigration patterns and whether the United States is now witnessing a new phase of immigration.