NATIONAL LEVEL

1. History-

Immigration has always been a strong component of US History. Throughout early history from around 1600-1800, immigration from places such as Europe was encouraged in able to settle western lands. Slavery in the 1800's brought millions of African slaves to America. Other people, mostly Europeans, traveled far distances in order to gain economically through the prosperity of the new country.
Below is a photograph of a family of Norwegian immigrants on the Great Plains around 1896:(1)

In the 1850's, many Chinese migrated to California in order to find work. The increase in foreigners led to the Chinese Immigration Exclusion Act (1882), which prohibited certain nationalities and social classes of Asians.

From the late 1800's to the early 1900's, many immigrants from Europe came to America through Ellis Island. The largest portions of immigrants were from Ireland and Germany. Below is a graph depicting the amount of immigrants from Ireland and Germany:

(3)

The early 1900's saw the first great surge of immigrants from Mexico. Political instability in Mexico and the strong US economy made America a desirable place. The Great Depression of the 1930's hit Mexican Americans especially hard. High unemployment and racism led to the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants, especially farm workers. Later in the 1900's, immigrants from South America increased substantially, making Mexican Americans, especially, a driving force in our country. To deal with the large surge of immigrants, the government established the Immigration Service in 1981.Between 1830 and 2000 the US admitted more than 281 million immigrants, illustrated in the table below.(4)

Country/Year				1900	1930	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000
Austria						305	214
Bohemia
Canada				1,180	1,310	953	812	843	745	678
China										1,391
Cuba							439	608	737	952
Czechoslovakia					492
Dominican Republic										692
El Salvador										765
France
Germany				2,663	1,609	990	833	849	712
Holland
Hungary						245
India										1,007
Ireland				1,615	745	339
Italy				484	1,790	1,257	1,009	832	581
Korea								290	568	701
Mexico					641	576	760	2,199	4,298	7,841
Norway				336
Pakistan										724
Philippines								501	913	1,222
Poland					1,269	748	548	418
Russia/Soviet Union				424	1,154	691	463	406
Sweden				582	595
Switzerland
United Kingdom				1,168	1,403	833	686	669	640
Vietnam									543	863
Total Foreign Born				10,341	14,204	10,347	9,619	14,079	19,763	31,100
% Foreign Born				13.6%	11.6%	5.8%	4.7%	6.2%	7.9%	11.1%
Native Born				65,653	108,571	168,978	193,591	212,466	228,946	250,321
% Native Born				86.4%	88.4%	94.2%	95.3%	93.8%	92.1%	88.9%
Total Population				75,994	122,775	179,325	203,210	226,545	248,709	281,421
				1900	1930	1960	1970	1980	1990	2000

2. Current Situation-

The current situation of immigration in the US is a heated topic for debate. Every year, approximately 1.3 million immigrants come to America. (5) Some of them are illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexico. These illegal immigrants get jobs and contribute enormously to American labor supply. They bring in revenue by the work they do, but at the same time, they take away available jobs from legal Americans. The current debate is 1. How best to close the borders from illegal immigration, 2. What to do with the illegal immigrants currently living in America, and 3. How to stop illegal immigration without hurting out economy from a lack of labor supply. (6)

To the left and right are polls depicting American's views on immigration: (7)
The other questions are over services such as health care and insurance for illegal immigrants. It is difficult to sustain a country when the population is growing exponentially every year. Legislation such as the 1990 Immigration Act restricted the number of immigrants, but issued much more visas then prior. America has also been accepting refugees. Since 1990, more that 2 million refugees have come from countries including 290,000 from Vietnam, 145,000 from Bosnia, 20,000 from Sudan, 37,000 from Laos, 20,000 from Ethiopia, 36,000 from Cuba, and 30,000 from Iraq. (8)

3. Large Scale Change-

There are many solutions to the problem of illegal immigration. The big question arises, “are illegal immigrants a net economic gain or a net economic loss for society?” (9) Many people believe that services such as health care should be provided to illegal immigrants because they are hardworking, tax paying citizens, and that the issue to based on ethical principal, not economics. Other people believe that “illegal immigrants threaten the U.S. health care system and public health” and should be deported. (10) These people say that immigrants bring down the quality of health care in the US by taking advantage of the system, causing many California hospitals to go bankrupt.

Currently, walls to close the border are being built along the Mexico boundary. Also the Border Patrol has tightened security by charging every person caught sneaking over the border, most being sentenced to 2 weeks in prison. This system is temporarily efficient, but in general it’s a slow and challenging method. Above is a picture of US National Guardsmen working on the border(11).
Bush’s proposed Guest Worker Program would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the US for a set period of time. I believe that the best way to solve the immigration problem is through supporting the Mexican economy to create higher paying jobs and better health care so that Mexico will be a much better place to live.

The main bill affecting immigrants is the Immigration and Nationality Act, otherwise known as "INA."(8) This bill determines the status and procedure for immigrants to legally come to America. The bill is frequently amended and altered. Groups which are trying to amend the bill to allow more immigrants include the Office of Immigration Review which is a separate agency that appeals the cases for the immigrants. Another such government group is the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. They were created to assess cases of abuse to civil rights, such as racial profiling by the Department of Homeland Security personnel.

Other ways include naturalizing all illegal immigrants in the US with jobs. In this way, businesses would maintain their labor forces while decreasing the number of illegal immigrants in the US. With the upcoming election of 2008, it will be interesting to see how the various political groups plan to deal with illegal immigration. The problem relates to other issues as well, such as poverty and health care. For example, if the US decides to nationalize health care, would that coverage extend to illegal immigrants as well? Changes need to be made soon before society collapses from an unsustainable large population.

4. The Future, and What Can You Do?

Some people believe that each illegal immigrant costs US taxpayers $100,000 annually (12); and that in the future, illegal immigrants could create trillions of dollars of taxes. Predictions for the future mostly include higher taxes for schools and hospitals and decreased health care quality. As an individual there is much one can do to get involved in the immigration debate. Various protests for either side of the debate occur regularly in most states, especially California. Below is a photo of a protest in Los Angeles against anti-immigration legislation with thousands of people attending (12):

Another way is by writing letters to local and national politicians. Below are the mailing and e-mail addresses of major politicians in office:

The President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500 (13)

e-mail: Comments@whitehouse.gov

Office of the Governor of California
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814 (14)

or send messages

Office of the Governor of Texas
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428 (15)

or send messages

There are many other ways to get involved such as writing letters to newspapers like the Honolulu Advertiser and New York Times One can also join political groups to raise support for one’s cause such as:

Minuteman (anti-immigration)

The ACLU (pro-immigration)

Amnesty International (protecting refugees)

The most important aspect of the border debate is that American citizens take a stand for their opinion. It is our responsibility to get involved and make a difference.

Sources:

(1) Hulstrand, Fred. “Immigrants: North Dakota, Land of Opportunity.” Library of Congress, 1999. 15 September 2007.

(2) UC Berkeley “Anti-Chinese Movement and Chinese Exclusion.” American Memory, 2005. 15 September 2007.

(3) “Composition of Immigrants: 1840-1860.” US Bureau of the Census. 15 September 2007.

(4) “History.” Center for Immigration Studies. 15 September 2007.

(5) Wipf, Jennifer. “Historical Snapshot of Immigration.” Immigration Issues, 2007. 20 September 2007.

(6) Hoefer, Michael. “Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population in the United States: January 2006.” Homeland Security, 2007. 20 September 2007.

(7) “Illegal Immigration Divides, Poll Says.” NPR: Politics and Society, 2007. 20 September 2007.

(8) “How Refugees Come to America.” US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, 2007. 20 September, 2007.

(9) Newman, Lori. “At Issue, What Rights Should Illegal Immigrants Have?” Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. 20 September, 2007.

(10) Cosman, Melanie Pelner. “Illegal Aliens and American Medicine,” Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, vol. 10, spring 2005, pp. 6-10. 20 September, 2007.

(11) McKinley Jr., James C. “Flow of Illegal Immigrants to US Starts to Slow.” International Herald Tribunal, 2007. September 20, 2007.

(12) Bailey, Holly. “A Border War.” Newsweek, 2007. September 23, 2007.

(13) “Contacting the White House.” The White House, September 23, 2007.

(14) “Governor of the State of California.” Santa Cruz Public Libraries, September 23, 2007.

(15) “Contacting the Governor.” Office of the Governor: Rick Perry. September 23, 2007.

LOCAL LEVEL

History

The History of Immigration to Hawaii is very extensive. As you can see from the timeline below, many different races came to become plantation workers in the 17th and 18th centuries.
“Timeline of Immigration to Hawaii
700 - 900 CE - Polynesian migrations to Hawaii islands. (some estimates are much earlier)
1778 CE - Captain James Cook of England 'discovers' Hawaii.
1821 CE - American missionaries arrive from New England.
1852 CE - First Chinese contract laborers (195) arrive in Hawaii.
1852 - 1898 CE - Approximately 50,000 Chinese laborers, mostly single men, come to Hawaii. 1868 CE - First Japanese laborers (153) arrive in Hawaii.
1877 CE - Portuguese laborers recruited in the Azores.
1878 to 1884 CE - 9,471 Portuguese workers arrive in Hawaii.
1880 CE - Castle & Cook recruits 629 Norwegian to come to Hawaii.
1881 CE - German immigrants recruited to come to Hawaii.
1883 CE - Kingdom of Hawaii limits Chinese importation to 600 per three month period.
1885 CE - Hawaii and Japan resolve issues regarding treatment of contract workers. First large group of Japanese laborers arrive.
1885 to 1924 CE - 200,000 Japanese workers come to Hawaii.
1900 CE - First workers arrive from Puerto Rico, eventually 5,000 would come to Hawaii.
1900 to 1908 CE - Over eight thousand laborers arrive from Okinawa. Okinawa is part of Japan.
1902 CE - First Korean laborers arrive. 7,843 Koreans arrive between 1902 and 1905.
1905 CE - First laborers arrive from the Philippines, then a U.S. territory. By 1916, 18,144 Filipinos arrive in Hawaii.
1907 CE - 2,250 Spanish workers from Malaga arrive to work on the plantations.
1911 to 1920 CE - 3,000 Filipinos arrive in Hawaii each year. 1921 to 1930 CE - over 7,000 Filipinos arrive annually.” (1)
(14)

Factors that contributed to the emergence of immigration in Hawaii generally concerned the need for laborers. Many people wanted to come to Hawaii because they wanted a better life for themselves and their families. Parents wanted a better future for their children; one different then they themselves had experienced. They pushed their children to get an education, because most of the time, they had not received one as a child. Immigration was welcomed as a mean of building the economy because of the need for workers due to the growing market for sugar. The first group of Chinese plantation workers arrived to Hawaii in 1852. They intermarried with the Hawaiians, and as a result there are many Chinese-Hawaiian families present today. In 1860 King Kamehameha IV formed a treaty with Japan, which allowed the Japanese to come to Hawaii to work on sugar plantations. Despite problems, which stopped the immigration for ten years, King Kalakaua’s visit to Japan in 1881 reinstated the contract. In 1924, the federal exclusion act again halted the flow of Japanese immigrants, and produced hostility towards them. Soon after, Portugese, Germans, Russians, and Puerto Ricans immigrated to Hawaii. Americans, Europeans, Filipinos, Koreans, and Samoans were the second wave of immigrants to finally arrive. Everyone sought the same thing: a better life. (2) Almost all of the immigrants established themselves in Hawaii as plantation workers. The plantation life was hard, and immigrants sturggled to make lives for themselves. The pay was minimal, and the conditions were harsh. (3) Koreans were an exception, however, because many women came over as picture brides. Samoans were also one of the few exceptions. Many arrived when the Morman Temple was built in 1919, and their role as plain immigrants, and not laborers, made their migration a unique one. (4)



CURRENT SITUATION

Hawaii is known for its melting pot of people. Many of the immigrants from the 17th and 18th centuries found lives for themselves in Hawaii, and had children who had children so on and so fourth. Today immigrants come primarily from Asia, Central and South America, and the Carribean. (5) Although Hawaii doesn't have an enourmous amount of immigrants compared to some other states, the amount is steadily increasing. From 2000 to 2005 immigrants and their families have made up 31.3% of the population increase in Hawaii.
(6)
Problems with this increase in foreign population are currently education, health, and welfare. Many immigrants are living in lower class facilites and have a hard time finding affordable homes. Even while on welfare, it's hard for them to produce enough to pay for things like healthcare and school. Because many immigrants have trouble speaking english, this creates more problems for them. It's a neverending cycle. (7) On paper, Hawaii looks like it is doing well, but in reality it's not. Although the median income is high, inflation is not taken into account. Neither is the cost of living in hawaii (which is 30-60% higher than any other US state on average). And even though the census shows an overall decrese in poverty, a monthly income of $1,664 on average is not enough to provide for a whole family (food, housing, and transportation). (8) The government is doing some things to aid immigrants, but not enough. Hawaii accepted the proposal to increase the fee to become a US citezin, and to provide immigration services. Another economic factor that is being ignored for immigrants is social spending; there is very miniscual funding. This current situation affects many people. It affects the immigrants which are mainly from asia and the carribean. It also affects their children, who won't have a proper education from the begining, and who will live in poverty possibly for the rest of their lives. It affects both genders, and generally the underclass.



WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

When we look at what is actually being done it is clear that the answer is not much. The government puts in very little spending and energy into the immigration problem (and by problem I mean their poor living conditions, and disadvantages). In 2006, two programs were put into effect: "Hawaii HB 1379 - Act 070 (Signed 05/16/2007) Provides the same type of unemployment insurance (UI) coverage in state law as in federal law. Excludes certain alien agricultural workers." and
"Hawaii HB 1750 – Act 052 (Signed 05/03/2007) All persons seeking employment with the government of the State or in the service of any county must be citizens, nationals, or permanent resident aliens of the United States, or eligible under federal law for unrestricted employment in the United States." (9) Even though these are more programs then most other states, it's not enough, and sometimes not to the best interest of the immigrants. There are also some local organizations that look to help immigrants find jobs. The Immigrant Job Service is one of these. (10). The Hawaii Primary Care Association also provides assistance to immigrants for health. When you really read it though, there are many guidlines such as you must be over the age of 19, and entered the United States before 1996. It also doesn't cover enmergencies, which can sometimes be the most expensive type of medical care. (11) There are also education programs which help specific races learn english for a reduced price or for free. In hawaii a popular one is for Chinese Immigrants. On a larger scale, the government could direct more of our tax money towards aid for those living in poverty. (12) They could also put more money into programs like headstart that can help immigrant children living in poverty get a "head start" on their education. With more money and power, we could start a school where children and immigrant parents can learn english. This school could have other facilities around it like a restaurant or store where the parents could work for enough money to pay for the needs their family has. Realistically, the government should put in more funding for a proper education for the children. Then, there may be a bigger decrease in poverty when the children grow up and have well paying jobs.


WHAT CAN YOU DO?

(13) There are many local programs which aid the needs of the immigrants. The Honolulu Advertiser did an article on a program where a group of micronesian immigrants joined and discussed important questions like when they would vote, housing situations, jobs, and education. The group all helped each other out and many people improved their situations, just by getting to talk to someone. (13) The people who started this program are examples of Justice Oriented citizens. Most people in our society today are Personally Responsible citizens, who feel they just need to make sure they do the right thing as opposed to getting out there and doing something. Something you could do to start actually helping out others would be to volunteer at a Chinese Action Association, where chinese immigrants are helped with their english and educations. Another place you could volunteer could be Head Start to help the children of these families. A good resource for finding volunteer opportunities is Volunteerhawaii.org, which I will put in the links section. This website shows all the different needs, and you search based on your expertise. If these issues aren't addressed, and people don't act, the poverty levels will steadily rise due to all the children that will grow up without a proper education.


LINKS
http://www.hawaii.gov/dhs/self-sufficiency/childcare/headstart/
http://search.volunteerhawaii.org/volunteer/
http://search.volunteerhawaii.org/org/7785124.html
http://search.volunteerhawaii.org/org/9104462.html
http://search.volunteerhawaii.org/org/1608222.html
http://search.volunteerhawaii.org/org/opp/5941899.html















(1) Durham, Brian N. “Hawaii Immigration Timeline.” Hawaii School Reports. 2002. 8 September 2007.

(2) Ariyoshi, George R. “The Immigrant Waves.” The Honoulu Star Bulliten. 1999. 8 September 2007.

(3)“Immigration…” Hawaii: Life in a Plantation Society. 2004. 8 September 2007.

(4)“Hawaiian Geneology.” Hawaiian Roots. 2006. 8 September 2007.

(5) Baker, M.D. "Immigrant Women's Health: Problems and Solutions." Psychiatric Services. Kramer, Elizabeth. 2000. American Psychiatric Association. 8 September 2007.

(6) "Hawaii Foreign Grown Population." Photo. fairus.org 2002. 8 Spetember 2007.

(7) "GAO Report Highlights Immigration Problems In CNMI." Daniel Akaka. 2007. 8 September 2007.

(8) Daly, John. "Workers' Living Conditions decline across United States." Socialism and LIberation. 2006. 8 September 2007.

(9) "Immigrant Policy Project." 2007 enacted state legislation related to immigrants and immigration. 2007. 8 September 2007.

(10) "Resources for Families." Hawai'i Together. 8 September 2007.

(11) "The Hawai'i Immigrant Heath Initiative Program." Hawai'i Primary Care Association. 2007. 8 September 2007.

(12)"Hawaii Immigration News" U.S. Politics Today. 2007. 8 September 2007

(13) Viotti, Vicky. "Immigrants aim to help each other." The Honolulu Advertiser. 2006. 8 September 2007.

(14) "Immigration Map." Photo. lib.utexas.edu 2002, 8 September 2007.