Mitt Romney Essay

We are an immigrant country

Said 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney. We are the offspring and great-grandchildren of those driven people who dreamed of a better life and woke up at night believing that life in that land named America could be better. Define Immigration Based on Race The movement of people whose ethnicity is not indigenous to the United States is known as immigration. (Gagne 24). Native Americans, also referred to as Amerindians, are the indigenous ethnicity in the US. At the close of the 15th century, the first immigrants of other races were the Europeans. The Latin Americans and Asians later immigrated in the 20th and 21st century. More races kept moving into the United States and around the 1960s, no single race accounted for more than 15% of the total immigrant population. Italian were the top immigrants who made up nearly 13%, followed by Germans and Canadians who made up around 10% of each. In the present day, the Mexicans were the most predominate race with around 27% in 2015. Immigrant races in the US have formed about 58% of the total population (Grieco and Cassidy). Some of the leading ones are Latin Americans, Asians, Indians, African Americans and other races.

Immigration Defined on Ethnicity

Immigration into the United States based on different ethnic groups was not very prominent in the colonial period. The massive movement occurred between 1991 and 2000 where immigrants from various ethnic groups accounted for more than eleven million of the total population (Finkelman 56). The Red Indians were the native ethnic group in the United States, and around 1910 Americans who were a foreign ethnic group accounted for nearly 15% of the total population (Grieco and Cassidy). The small numbers of immigrants who were moving into the United States to look for employment and investment opportunities began to start their families there, and this led to the development of many ethnic groups in the United States. In present day, the main ethnic groups include White Americans, Black and African Americans, Hispanic, Latinos, Asians and Alaska Natives. The Americas in modern day constitute more than 50% of the total population, the Asians about 26%, the African Americans about 13%. Other significant minority groups include the Latinos and the Alaska Natives (Grieco and Cassidy).

Immigration Defined on Class

The social class of the United States has been shaped by immigration over the past four hundred years. The Westward Expansion occurred in the middle of the 19th century, which mainly emphasized on a growth in the healthcare sector. The unemployed and poor individuals who were looking for a source of income moved into the United States at this period. Most of these poor immigrants were slaves from Africa and war victims from Mexico. In the 20th century, there was the rise of cities and this motivated the movement of the wealthy social class from different countries mainly Europe to settle in the United States (Gagne 65). The wealthy people moved into the United States because the development of cities transformed the American economy. The industrial revolution in the late 20th century also led to the immigration of both the poor and wealthy and this peak continues until today. The poor moved into the US to look for employment in the industries whereas the wealthy were looking for opportunities to invest. Globalization and the manufacturing industry are some of the key reasons that individuals from different social class status keep moving into the US today.

Works Cited

Finkelman, Paul. Encyclopaedia of African America History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.

Gagne, Tammy. Immigration in the US. Hockessin: Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2014. Print.

Grieco, Elizabeth and Rachel Cassidy. “Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin.” 30 January 2008. United States Census Bureau. Web. 21 March 2017.