chapter 2 american studies review
Chapter 2: MAKING OF THE NATION
Reading 1: A nation of immigrant
I. General info:
- A nation of immigrants
- Admitted more immigrants than any country in history (>50million)
- Still admits 500,000 – 1m/year.
- Reasons: wealth, land, and freedom.
- An image of ‘a melting pot’ (all races are melting and re-forming)
II. Major waves of immigrants
1. First immigrants
Who
Spanish explorers
French fur traders
English
Others: German farmers, Swedes, Dutch, African
Why
New World’s gold
Wealth
profit, religious freedom
Better life (wealth, land, freedom)
- slaves
When
About 1500s
About 1500s
1600s and1700s
Soon after that
Where
Florida
Great Lakes, Mississippi
Virginia, Northeastern region
Northeastern region
2. Old immigrants (1840 -1880 à mid 1800s)
- Chinese come to California to work on the railroad
- North & Western Europe: for escaping poor harvests, famines, political unrest.
+ Irish pp: escape starvation
+ German
3. New immigrants / Southern Europeans
- When: late 1800s – early 1990s
- Who: Latin, Slavic, Jewish, Chinese people from southern & eastern Europe (Italy, Hungry, Russia, Rumania, etc.)
- Where: + headed to largest cities (New York, Chicago)
+ formed ethnic neighborhoods – ‘Little Italys’, ‘Chinatown”
- Why: look for better life, escape war, for political belief and freedom.
4. Recent immigrants
- When: mid & late 1990s
- Who: + majority fr Mexico, Latin America, Asia, Vietnamese, Cambodians refugees
+ Cubans, Caribbeans
+ Illegal immigrants (fled fr poverty, war)
- Why: + better life, jobs, family reunion
+ fled the destruction & upheaval of Vietnam War.
III. Native Americans
- Columbus (1492) discovered ‘New World’ with 1.5 million, called Native Americans ‘Indians’
- During the next 200 years: Native Americans suffered from the influx of Europeans
+ War, threats, treaties
+ Seize land
+ Cut forests, built big cities
- 19th cent: disease, warfare almost wiped out N.A
- 1890: final defeat => End of N.A’s traditional way of life.
- To the Indians:
+ Europeans = unwanted trespassers.
+ Their own civilization >< White man’s civil.
- Poverty and jobless among Native Americans still exist today.
IV. Issues related to immigration
1. Immigration restriction
- Tightening immigration should be made:
+ Overpopulation is a threat
+ Nativist sentiment aroused (1920’s quota)
+ Quality may be lowered
+ American’s national identity is preserved
è Some Americans still optimistically emphasize cultural wealth and diversity of the immigrants
2. Assimilation process
- 1st generation: Obstacles from both sides:
+ Social discrimination
+ Their reluctance to give up their language and culture
- 2nd generation: Better able to identify as Americans
+ Spoke mostly English
+ Practiced fewer ethnic traditions
- 3rd generation: No longer to speak their grandparents’ language
+ Nostalgic about family heritage
+ Desired to regain ethnic identity
- 4th & 5th generation: Intermarriage between
Ethnic groups were accepted >< Re-establishing ethic identity
3. Identity crisis
- In the past, majority of Americans considered themselves WASPs
- Newcomers are expected to assimilate
- 1900s, mass migration brought a new heterogeneity (tính hỗn tạp) challenged WASPs to acknowledge Americans: Catholic or Jewish, almond-eyed or olive-skinned
- 1960s, American’s attitudes towards ethnic and religious differences altered, pressure on Americanization relaxed.
Explanation:
- Nativist sentiment: the feeling of protecting the interests of Native Americans against immigrants.
- Assimilation process: a process in which the immigrants to America try to be a part of America fr generation to generation.
- WASPs: the most privileged & influential group which formally dominated US society.
- Melting pot: pp fr various cultures come to America & contributes aspects of their culture to create a new, unique American culture. à Contributions fr many cultures become undistinguishable fr one another & melt together.
- Salad bowl: theory in which new immigrants do not lose the unique aspects of their own culture within the large American society.
- Multiculturalism: an ideology advocating that society should consist of distinct cultural & religious groups with equal status.
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