Immigrant Daily

History of U.S. Immigration

Harvard University has made their collection of historical immigration resources available online. The archive includes a wide variety of documents focusing primarily on immigration to the United States in the years 1789-1930. One particularly interesting resource is their handy timeline that shows the influx of immigrants over the years.

What struck me the most as I looked at the timeline is how the effects of domestic problems led to an insurgence of immigrants to the United States. It seems that things are not very different today. Most immigrants come to the United States in search of better or safer conditions to simply live out their lives. The unnerving rhetoric of those that are so opposed to “illegal” immigration seems to leave out this very important detail – that all immigrants that come to the U.S. are here for the same reasons why Europeans came here over the years. Whether it is to escape poverty and poor living conditions at home, or to escape political prosecution, the ultimate reason is the same — they all want better lives.

Those people that condemn the migrant workers for coming here illegally are conveniently ignoring the fact that what drives people to come to the United States is often a byproduct of U.S. foreign policy decisions. Perhaps as some commentators have stated before – if U.S. would improve its foreign policy to not only focus on what benefits us in the short term, but also take into consideration the long-term impact of our actions, we would not have people streaming into the country “illegally.”