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Immigration In The United States: Past, Present, And Future

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Immigration in the United States: Past, Present and Future

Immigration and the United States of America go hand in hand ever since it was first discovered by Christopher Columbus. It is a great nation built on and built by immigrants. There were many waves of immigration we can speak of in America, and all of them required a different approach from the government to handle. In the following research paper.
In this research paper, I will attempt to demonstrate how immigration in the United States of America came to be what it is today, by taking a look at its overall, concise, immigration history from the colonial times until today, as well as the various state and federal legislations that were implemented with regards to immigration, whether …show more content…
In the beginning, it was relatively easy to settle down in the New World, without any regulations from higher and governing forces. However, as it started to grow with more and more people arriving there to make a new life, government inference was inevitable. By the 1500s, the Spanish, Dutch and French were the first Europeans to start establishing settlements in what would later become the United States of America. It is interesting to see that the lands these individual groups have “conquered” hundreds of years ago, not only did they influenced and shaped the given areas’ history and culture, they are still to this day are known for their original nationalities all around the world. If it were not for the French, Louisiana and more specifically New Orleans would not be what it is and what it is known for today. Same can be said of the Italians in New York and New Jersey, the Spanish in much of the west and southwest, or the Germans and Dutch in New York, Pennsylvania and the Midwest. As for the English, it was not until 1607 when their first permanent settlement in present-day America was established, on the eastern seaboard, called Jamestown in Virginia Colony (O'Callaghan 12). Based on these, so early in its history, yet the New World had already begun to be inhabited by immigrants coming from all over the world, and this fact would remain the case for …show more content…
However, it was not until after the Independence War, when a new nation was formed, that a first laws were created that were meant to regulate which individuals were accepted as citizens. As a result, in 1790 the first naturalization law for the United States was passed, it was called the First Alien Naturalization Act of 1790. The law enabled those who had been continuously in the country for two years and had kept their current state of residence for a year, to apply for citizenship. However, it “restricted naturalization to free white persons with good moral character” ("Immigration Timeline - The Statue Of Liberty & Ellis Island"), which basically meant that it excluded Native Americans, slaves as well as free African Americans, among others. The Act of 1790 was repealed by the Naturalization Act of 1795, which extended the residence requirement to five years, and eventually by the Naturalization Act of 1798, which again extended the requirements, now it was 14 years, making it gradually harder for aliens to gain legal citizenship in the United States. In conclusion to this, ever since the first naturalization act was implemented, for the first time ever, we can also talk about government recognized illegal immigration in United States, it affected those who wanted to “trick” the above mentioned system and gain entrance to

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