Nation of Immigrants Overview of Economic Political Status
Uploaded by surfchick on Dec 29, 2004
A Nation of Immigrants: An Overview of the Economic and Political Conditions of Selected Racial and Ethnic Groups.
The North American economic development has seen several stages of development. The first stage of economic development was a plantation-slave economy mixed with mercantilism, the second stage of development was a competitive industrial economy, and the stage third stage of economic development is multinational capitalism. Economic institution and related governmental actions have formed the tides of migration and the resulting patterns of immigrant adjustment. The original groups of inhabitants in North America were Native Americans. These Native people lost much of their land and many of their lives to the vicious European invasions. Many groups of immigrants came to America, yet each group had left their native country for various reasons and under various circumstances. Some immigrant groups entered America as slaves, others came to work at low paying labor jobs, and some came as entrepreneurs. These various groups were discriminated against at varying level, depending on the resources the group brought with them. Those immigrants who made the journey to America on their own freewill with economic resources found that it was much easier to find good jobs than those immigrants with less than such freewill and resources. Small business opportunities unfortunately were not available for most immigrants. The waves of immigrant migration to the North America are highlighted in phases. With phase one came English colonists from the 1600's to the 1800's. The English created colonies and forced land from the native people. The English also established a form of capitalism. During this same time Africans were seized from their native lands and were shipped to America involuntarily in the form of property, to be used as slave labor. Also, phase one brought an era in which Irish Catholics immigrated to America, driven from their native land from the 1830's to the 1860's, due to famine, oppression, and poor living conditions. These Irish immigrants were able to obtain low wage jobs. Phase two began with the immigration of Chinese people from the 1850's to the 1870's; these people came due to recruitment efforts by the United States and in hope of obtaining better living conditions. The Chinese became employed mostly in construction, and menial service jobs. The Italians arrived between the 1880's and the 1910's. The Italian people were recruited for construction and other related low wage labor jobs. The Japanese...