History of Immigration to the United States - Essay Example

History of Immigration to the United s (26.10.11) In his book d Immigration and Ethnic Relations in the U.S, T. Tsuda has examined the spectacular increase in the number of immigrants that have come to America during the last several decades. He holds that this pattern has deeply restructured ethnic and race relations in the US, which is the most sought after nation in the world for people seeking immigration options. Tsuda’s book is a compilation of information and articles that he has gathered from accessible sources of scholarly works written by writers from varied fields of education.

The information relative to the history of immigration to the US is quite exhaustive because the author has included not only the historical causes of immigration but also the social, economic and political impacts that immigration created on these people. Such aspects strongly influenced the achievements and social lives of these people who migrated from different parts of the world in creating a diversified diaspora, which in turn contributed to altering the social structure of the country in different ways.

The book examines historical issues relative to the consequences of citizenship, diasporic, gender, identity and nationality for both old and new immigrant groups such as Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, African Americans and White Americans. The author’s efforts are noteworthy because there is very less literature throwing light on both ethnic and race relations in the US and the issues can be meaningfully understood only from the perspective of the history of immigration that has been commendably examined by Tsuda (Tsuda, 2010).

The author has carried out a proportional research through multi site studies that focused on immigrant and ethnic minorities during different periods and in different regions of the country from a viewpoint that focused upon the diasporic and transnational perspectives relative to their cultural practices, ethno-national identity, socio-economic mrginalization and concepts of native land and home. It becomes known in the context of history of immigration in the US as outlined in Tsuda’s book that immigration has had a major impact upon the structure, dissemination and size of the American population.

Given that fertility and mortality rates in the country have been declining, the role of immigration in the past several decades has been gradually increasing in impacting local, state and national populations. Tsuda has examined the historical experiences and practices of ethnic immigrants through several decades as they migrated from different countries and settled in different local, social, political and ethno-racial environments. Nevertheless, in having included the works of a number of scholars, Tsuda has amply clarified that these immigrants increasingly and willingly became affiliated with diasporic and transnational groups in a fast globalizing world.

The author has examined the persisting gaps relative to reality and policy objectives concerning immigrants in the US and holds that to some extent there was a broad disparity amongst the elite class and the ordinary immigrants. He views immigration as ultimately benefiting the citizens as well as the country, both socially and economically. The book outlines how the US immigration policy was changed frequently during the 1990s because other developed countries during the period were liberally admitting and welcoming foreign citizens to experience and benefit from better options of immigration.

Works CitedTsuda, T. Immigration and Ethnic Relations in the U.S., Cognella Academic Publishing, 2010.