America is it a melting pot or a salad bowl for immigrants comming from other countries? Some people might say yes to the melting pot because in todays world it seems that America has become the hot spot so to say. Im not trying to offend anyone but their are enourmous amounts of immigrants that are becoming citizens now days. In fact if immigration remains unchanged by 2050 the U.S. population will have grown by another 130 million people. Even if we stop immigration now the momentum would still cause our population to grow for another 55 years. I am not saying get rid of immirgration but slow it down and we would all benifit by addapting slowly and not all of a sudden. Let me define salad bowl that is all the diffrent cultures comeing in to America but still wanting their own identy in their same cultures but simply tacking the American logo on the end. In a way they are useing us for the name. This is only in circumstances not all are accounted for here. Some examples are AFRICAN-AMERICAN, HISPANIC-AMERICAN ect.I feel that in life we have come accross wrong, yes we are the land of the free, but one thing they have not done was fight the wars to earn that freedom like families did here. Yes now their are many diffrent cultures in the armed forces and I salute them for they are the brave souls that fight the harsh truth of reality in this world. Now I might come across wrong maybe sound a bit prejudice, I am no where near prejudice I have many friends that are from diffrent cultures and I will tell you they are some of the hardest workers. I guess my paper is on the diffrent cultures as well as americans now that abuse the systems and just take, take, and take, along with no give. The words of John F. Kennedy summed it up "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." I believe that the majority of immirgranst are true and genuine and understand that they have been given a freedom far greatter than they ever expected. I am not here to criticse people ,but to make them aware that this is the land of plenty and we can all have a happy life if we learn not to segregate and to form as a whole and not as diffrent people. The national anthem puts it best "For the land of the free and the home of the brave." When you hear that song, and you appericate that song to the fullest is when you have truely become apart of America the whole and not just some aspects.

They say the key to population stability is arriving at a "replacement rate." That is a balance between the number of people being born and the number of people passing away. Now their was a brief time in the early 1970's when this was first achieved. But the bad thing is that our population keeps on growing, and will keep on growing for the next 50 years. Why? Because of immigration. John F. Kennedy stated in his book "Nation of Immigrants" that " their is of course, a legitimate argument for some limitation. We no longer need settlers for virgin lands, and our economy is expanding more slowly that in the nineteenth and early twentieth century." But yet we still keep on growing. It has actually tripled than in Kennedy's day. This I feel is a fault of our own we can slow down or we can stop immigration. We do own our land and do make the rules as well. From 1969 to 1995 a study shows that the U.S. population has grown by over 60 million people. This along with the economy factors suggest that we are in a time of self doubt and what we can accomplish on our own. If we just try to slow immigration down just a bit maybe it will help in all the aspects in life. So although population stability will not happen any time soon. We can shape our future by changing our immigration policy and those who are committed to preserving the environment should incorporate "immigration reduction" as apart of their agenda.

One might think that the economy is just fine and dandy, well it's not. It was proven in a study that most people thought immigration would help the U.S. economy, but in fact it is a drag on our economy. This is due to three out of five immigrants being poor and coming into the labor force only to be making 20,000 a year. Immigrants are a drain on nation, state, and local budgets. The net cost of immigration has been estimated at between 67 and 87 million a year, over the next ten years. Compare that to the fiscal drain, on American tax payers you can find that 166 and 226 million a year is benefiting the government. That is nearly double the immigrants dream drain. It is almost like we are importing poverty. This is a huge part of our economy and we are hurting ourselves in a manner that if we keep doing this we will be in greater debt than we already are. It is also said that immigrants cost 175 billion dollars a year in lost productivity. That is a big lose to our economy. Those kind of numbers will tip the unbalanced scale of our U.S. economy in a direction of greater debt. I feel that the U.S. economy is the biggest help to our society today and helps make our lives a little easier. In retrospect, America should stop importing poverty and foreign workers who upset the delicant balance in our ever so important labor market.



The first question has to deal with the types of Immigrants that came over years ago. Along with what their job duties where while over here. Who Is Comming? The immigrants that came over where workers with similiar skill levels along with similar societies. But in contrast, since the immigration law changed in 1965, they now come as relatives or from underdeveloped nations. Now the results are the immigrants being poor, low-skilled, and ill suited for our society. The second question tackles the important question. How can we say no to immigrants? Well the American need for immigrants ended about a century ago and now, the heavey immigration flow hurts both our country, as well as the countries they are comming from. Here's a fun fact according to polls, at least 400 million people in the world in the world would move to the U.S. tomorrow if we would let them. It would be better if these people would help improve their own countries, and not to move here. Due to American polls at least two-thirds of Americans think that the level of immigration to this country should be reduced. Now the problem is is that Congress is to busy pleasing special intrestest  of the immigration policies, instead of serving our country. I feel that Congress should worring about the immigrants needs and start worring about their own people that they were elected to serve.

When I think about Immigrants in school, I think how much money that schools spend on immigrants. I f you look at the stress and time alone it's not worth some of that hassle. Now i'm not trying to offend anyone but, they do get scholarships and we get nothing. I guess now that they moved here we feel that we have to give them more time, more money, and more support. We are the true citizens where's our benfits oh yeah they get them all. Schools spend a lot of money on "limited english proficient" students up to 108 million dollars worth. Now thay talk about freedom and how they are like us. Well pay for things just like the rest of us. Now another thing I feel that hurts the immigrants is the schools removeing difficult english vocabulary from school work and exams. It hurts them latter when it comes to college they turn out to be unprepaired for life in the real world. After all they do make up a large part of the undergraduates. This also creates barriers among students of different ethinic origins. American students say "Immigrants get a lot more benifits in school." This creates even more tension among students. Most of the students described it to be a "free ride." In conclusion immigrants cost schools millions and are more likely to get better schooling due to their immigration status.

People need reasons to come to America, so let's talk about them. They are reasons to be known as "push factors". One reason that immigrants see the need to come to America is that rapid world population growth is pushing them out of their own countries. They feel the need to move to better living conditions. The second factor is probably the most consecutive answer among immigrants. That is unemployment in the third world. When there is so many people to employ, employment becomes scarce. People feel that in America with a good education, you will always have a place in the labor industry, and for the most part that is true. Jobs can be unendless if you have the knowledge and the desire to work. Now from the employers stand point, it's all about the money. Think what they can get for low labor cost. They look for the smartest and brightest for the lowest wages possible. By far this is not representing the majority job market. It's sad to think that places of employment take advantage of immigrants this way. The final reason I believe to be true is that of relaxed immigration laws. Immigrants can find far too many ways to get into America today. I guess you can say, where there is a will, there is a way. This can cause many problems when factoring in that there are thousands of illegal immigrants among our society today. When people look at America, it creates a desire and a longing to be accepted as an American.

I feel that immigration can be regulated a bit better. There is to many problems going on right now in the immigration offices. Congress has to try and do a better job regulating immigration. One reason is that they are letting intirely to many immigrants into this country. We are still trying to develop as a nation, we do not need any more immigrants coming into the mix and causing problems for the future. I personally feel that not all immigrants are  bad, but I do say 50/50. I have no hard feelings towards the immigrants, but I do have hard feelings towards the government. They have pushed us as a nation aside of what's important. That is cohesion as a nation. now immigrants are just trying to make a better living for themselves and their family. After all that is what we are all trying to do. Happiness is a great benefit along with freedom for the immigrants. I can see why they are so willing to give up everything for a fresh new start in America. Freedom I guess is really what it all boils down to. I do sound a little predjuce, but really I am not. All I am doing is just trying to live in my country and show thanks for the great country our ancestors worked so hard to get.

Immigration will always be apart of my life, and it is up to me if I want to deal with it or not. I am a fairly level headed guy that tries to see both sides of the story. I do feel more strongly towards the changing of the immigration laws. I think immigration causes to many problems today. We as a nation have to look at where we were then and where we are now. Their you will find the answer to Immigration good or bad? They did help develop our land when it was young and fresh and for this I thank them. Now there is less land a more cities so we really should start cutting back on the immigrants coming into our country. Due to overflow in there countries it is spilling over into our country legal or illegally. It will not do us any good to get all mad at the immigrants after all  they are getting a chance of a lifetime. What we have to do is show our views and where we stand to the government and make them decide what's important. Just maybe we can ask them a question. Is America really a melting pot or a salad bowl?