Immigration and Health Policies in the 20th Century
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" (Lazarus 1998)
When you think of people struck by unbelievable hardships and misery, it might not be so hard to believe that a part of their soul dies with each passing day. But one should know that even if you experience the worst imaginable disaster and survive, there still exists a small light of hope in your mind. Without this light, it would be impossible to live on. So in a corner of every human being's mind, especially of those who came to leave their countries during the 20th-century, there existed a hope of something better - something new and permanent.
Their hope was to wake up every morning and see the sun rise over the American continent, watch it color the sky and spread its golden light throughout a nation of millions of people, offering them a bright future of new opportunities, but also to see the sunset and to know that they would be there the next morning. Their dreams would be a reality. They would no longer be unobtainable goals (Magnusson 2001).
The European immigrants' dream wasn't a new one. It was something that had grown into a concept, which till this day has enthralled people for centuries and probably will do so for many more. This dream which had sprung from the depth of their sufferings finally made millions of brave-minded people set out from their native countries, without knowing what was to come (Magnusson 2001).
These people of so many different nationalities joined together in an exodus stronger than most, with only their beliefs of the good faith of God to hold on to. They unconditionally let their lives become caught up in a dream more powerful than most, a dream that would bring them across the ocean to set their poor feet on the shores of the country of dreams. And as they did approach the harbor of New York and the view of the Statue of Liberty holding up its torch, there was nothing that could stop the tears from flowing down their cheeks (Magnusson 2001).
However, now the situation was different; the meaning of their tears had changed as their minds filled with joy - and smiles spread across their once sad faces. Even so, though their futures seemed so bright, their fates hadn't changed completely. There were still many fears to overcome and hardships to conquer. But these were probably nothing compared to the ones they had earlier experienced, as their faith once more rose from a small corner in their minds.
Parents diligently fought for a more agreeable future for their children and their grandchildren yet to come, all while struggling to keep their unifying traditions alive (Magnusson 2001). The generations to come blended the American beliefs with the ones from the distant countries on the other side of the Atlantic. Together these traditions formed the American culture of today, and the grandchildren of the immigrants truly fulfilled their ancestors' hopes, as they not only became true Americans in their hearts and souls but also in the eyes of the nation they had come to love.
Located in the upper New York Bay, a short distance from the New Jersey shore, Ellis Island was originally known to Native Americans as Kioshk, or Gull Island, named for the birds that were its only inhabitants (The Immigrant Journey 1995). Consisting of nothing more than three acres of soft mud and clay, it was so low that it barely rose above the high-tide level of the bay. The Dutch called it "Little Oyster Island," because of the delicious oysters found in its sands, and used it as a base for oystering. Because the island was not good for much other than its oysters - certainly it was not a prime building site - it changed independent ownership many times during the next century (The Immigrant Journey 1995). By means never officially determined, ownership passed into the hands of one Samuel Ellis about the time of the American Revolution. Ellis tried, unsuccessfully, to sell the island. He still owned the island when he died in 1794 (The Immigrant Journey 1995). On April 21, 1794, the city formally deeded the only part of the island that was publicly owned, a narrow strip of mud between the water and the high-tide mark, to the state. Samuel Ellis had actually drawn up a deed transferring ownership of his island to the state, but died before the deed could be completed (The Immigrant Journey 1995).
An understandably contentious issue, immigration cuts to the core of what it means to be American. Recent immigrants find themselves especially vulnerable to being caught in the crossfire of heated debates over American immigration policy. The migration of Mexican nationals to the United States is hardly a new phenomenon; in fact, the tide of immigration flow from Mexico ebbed in the 1970s. As Massey 1986) points out, it is a
Personal Response There does not appear to be a "chicken little" quality involved in the resources reviewed; indeed, the statistics cited make it abundantly clear that the healthcare profession is in big trouble today and things are going to get worse before they get better in the future. Indeed, the authors of the resources reviewed did not pull any punches in their portrayal of the impact that the current and impending
Introduction Child welfare services have a complicated history in America and still today face a continual crisis. On the one hand, foster care requires resources from the state and breaks up families; on the other hand, implementing family preservation plans carries its own risk. This policy reform paper will examine the problem presented by The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), enacted as part of Public Law (P.L.) 115–123, also known
Similarly, employers may take advantage of this lack and not inform workers of their right to knowledge of the company's policies and procedures regarding safety features. It is also possible that individuals, particularly those working on a temporary contract basis, are afraid to be replaced when they raise health and safety concerns. Therefore these individuals prefer to take the risk for the sake of the income generated. In the beach environment
Many peoples' lives, destinies, and hopes for the future, and not only American ones, depend and will depend in the future on this taking place sooner rather than later, and now more than ever before in America's history. Works Cited Illegal Immigration." Wikipedia. 4 May 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration.html>. Espenshade, Thomas J. "Unauthorized Immigration to the United States" Annual Review of Sociology. 21 (1995). 195-200. Flores, William V. "New Citizens, New Rights: Undocumented Immigrants and Latino
Research Caveat - Research surrounding undocumented workers can often be problematic and unreliable. Primarily this is due to the nature of the subject matter -- individual on both sides of the issue are unwilling to talk because of the volaltility of the subject, language barriers, legal issues, access issues, fear of anything that even remotely feels governmental, and the validity of responses. Briefly, we can view these issues and the
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