America has always been the target of many immigrants from the past and until now. It is considered to be the 'land of milk and honey' and 'land of great opportunities'. The national anthem of the country still rings the phrase 'the land of the free' which in reality attracts refugees and people who want to be liberated from the aggression and slavery of their own countries. For centuries, America became to be progressive not just financially, but intellectually and in almost all aspects. The race was mixed with different nationalities and backgrounds. True, it is a 'melting pot' of races. If history is researched thoroughly, the outstanding truth will come out that America remained great despite the many challenges and tragedies it faced in the past. The 'home of the free' is also the protector of human rights around the world. Many USA soldiers are being deployed in different parts of the world to function as peacekeepers. America is heralded with its lofty ideals – protect the interest of humanity and defend the cause of the poor and the neglected ones. In reality, if people will trace the greatest number of humanitarians works around the world, all will be redound to the USA as the source. This is the reason why America remained to be prosperous in all aspects because it continuously functions as a haven for refugees.
Refugees are people who normally leave their countries for many reasons and decide to move or settle in one country. America as the “melting pot” of the world, has the highest number of refugees living in it. In the novel written by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2017), he tried to connect his novels to the plight of Vietnamese people from all walks of life with the book “The Refugees”. He acknowledged that immigration for migrants and asylum-seekers has become a particularly controversial issue in his country Vietnam for the past couple of years especially since the character chose to live in America instead rather than in his homeland (Nguyen “The Fatherland”).
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Among all the races coming from Indo-China, the Vietnamese ranks first. Numerous Vietnamese preferred to settle for good in this country. Amazingly, these Vietnamese were mostly young, educated, and living with their families when they decided to move to the country. Perhaps, they may have a higher status in Vietnam, but they decided to stay in America with low-income jobs and low-profile positions even with the high educational qualifications that they earned from their homelands (Kelly 1986:138). The refugees from Indo-Chinese countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos came to America in three batches. In 1975, the refugees in the USA were part of an American-sponsored evacuation directly from the refugee camps of their countries. Then, between 1975 and 1977, additional refugees arrived per month through boats or land transfers. Most of them came from refugee camps in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and other parts of Asia. This second group was not a result of US evacuation but because these people chose to settle in America due to their opposition to their current countries' government status (Kelly 1986:139). Between 1975 and 1980, minorities from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia came to America due to famine and war (Kelly 1986:139).
Since 1980, there have been no guidelines set for refugees’ settlement in America. For as long as they can comply with the preliminaries such as those foreign residents of America to get their dependents and stay with them in America, then there will be no problems to confront. Most of the Vietnams who came in during the second wave were Catholics (Kelly 1986:141). Meanwhile, these refugees who came to the country were helped by non-government agencies together with the federal government. The rest were even helped by sponsors. American sponsors are entities who are willing to provide temporary shelter, food provision, and even jobs for them until the time that they are self-supporting. The areas in the USA where migration of refugees has large concentrations are Texas, Los Angeles, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Further, these refugees move to other states as well. Immigration in America entailed a downhill move where most of them became reliant on government aid or American Welfare System due to unemployment and underemployment (Kelly 1986:145-146). With the stay of Vietnamese in the country, not all of them experience a good life. For some, they were subjected to various issues regarding employment or their stay in some states. While the rest have issues of trauma due to their separation from their families or even the death of family members (Kelly 1986:149).
Meanwhile, approximately 250,000 to 350,000 Ethiopian refugees migrated to the U.S. during the 1950s and 1990s. The migration past of the Ethiopians to the U.S. reflects the essence and growth of the Ethiopian-American political partnership after 1903 (Getahun 2007:1). The involvement of Ethiopians in America, which started with the sending of a handful of Ethiopians to further schooling in the 1920s, rose to thousands in the 1970s. By the late 1980s, in contrast to the political exiles, more than 25.000 Ethiopians had arrived in different parts of the U.S. Most of these Ethiopians had been educated. Getahun (2007:3) quoted what Saskia Sassen summarized on the emergence of Ethiopians in America.
“The emergence of a global economy—and the central military, political, and economic
the role played by the United States in this process—contributed to the creation abroad of pools of potential emigrants and to the formation of linkages between industrialized and developing countries that subsequently were to serve as bridges for international migration.”
It is relevant that America has always been a country of immigrants, but not all immigrants have been admitted to the country. Those who have been invited came mainly from North and Western Europe until 1960. Nowadays, the largest U.S. immigrants are coming from Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean (Getahun 2007:4). Some changes happened, the law of 1965 eliminated the bias toward South and East Europeans and non-Europeans and restricted the flow of immigrants through several complex structures of general priorities and quotas. Under this rule, the first choice was made for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and practitioners (Getahun 2007:5). Getahun mentioned that “emphasis on the community was intended to ensure that new immigrants should arrive from Germany but most immigrants came from Southeast Asians, Latinos and citizens from the Caribbean. Skilled refugees from the Third World are accepted because of their citizenship” (Getahun 2007:5). Finally, migration, which had been foreign to Ethiopians before the 1970s, has become part of the Ethiopian culture. Currently, there are Ethiopians in every part of the world, including America.
Similarly, like the Asians and Africans, thousands of Europeans migrated to America especially during the Holocaust period of Hitler’s reign. To date, there were 110,000 Holocaust survivors in the United States in 2016 and around 50,000 in New York City (Schrag 2019:212). While many of them were Americanized or integrated into American society, immigrants and their children were advocates for a modern multicultural vision in America and Europe. Even though they were naturally aware of so many other things — as Americans, as Genocide victims, as vanquished Germans, as the mainstays of Western culture that they helped bring to the New World — there is no way to isolate them (Schrag 2019:218). America has been a country accessible in emigration, and for its ongoing vitality and wealth, it relies on keeping a beacon for those seeking individual liberty, equal rights under the rule of man-made law, and the many possibilities that the Constitution affords (Corcoran 2015: 81).
Annotated Bibliography
- Corcoran, Ann. “Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America'. Openlib.Xyz, Center for Security Policy Press, 15 Mar. 2015. Retrieved from https://libgen.me/links?id=5c63f98550b4253978ab2669&collection=all
U.S. refugee resettlement policy urgently requires a thorough review and a complete updating. Ann Corcoran who was featured on the' Refugee Resettlement Watch site, soon used the stipend to excellent research on how asylum seekers are chosen and the people who are choosing the refugees who will be allowed in the country. She also checked how many are coming to the U.S. and how they are sheltered and fed. Essentially, this shows that cooperation between the UN, U.S. government, charitable organizations, and denominations often leaves rural communities on the receiving end of refugee resettlement out of that decision-making process. This is a vital and insightful look at a policy that profoundly impacts American society across the world.
- Getahun, Solomon Addis. The History of Ethiopian Immigrants and Refugees in America, 1900- 2000: Patterns of Migration, Survival, and Adjustment. LFB Scholarly Pub. LLC, 2007. Retrieved from https://b-ok.cc/book/934849/f8d483.
The Ethiopians are the third-largest African community in the U.S. since 1960. Throughout the ages, their migration patterns gradually shifted in terms of changes in Ethiopian and American diplomatic ties. Ethiopian immigrants also differ significantly among themselves based on whether they were granted asylum, refugees, or winners of the Diversity Visa (DV) lottery. Getahun is studying the context of the arrival of immigrants, their patterns of settlement, and their adaptation in the U.S. The disparities among refugees can be clarified by indigenous or geographic origin, race, religion, and politics. The ensuing populations endorse social and religious organizations, and the Ethiopians excel in setting up community groups and religious institutions and in their efforts to establish them.
- Kelly, Gail P. “Coping with America: Refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in the 1970s and 1980s.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 487, no. 1, 1986, pp. 138–49. https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716286487001009
This article touches on immigrants from previous French Indochina — who they are, where they might have come to the United States, and their acceptance into the American workplace. Much of the data published seems to be from Vietnam, which is by far the largest number of Indochina refugees in the United States. The Vietnamese coming into the country were mostly well-schooled, inexperienced, and immediately followed by their relatives. Initially, U.S. charitable organizations that took responsibility for relocation scattered around the country. Since the original relocation, there has been substantial secondary displacement within the United States, culminating in the creation of refugee populations. In the United States, Vietnam has undergone a significant decline in education and social mobility. We also joined the American population at levels equal to native Americans. But they have drawn on employment that pays a decent wage at best, and while job rates are high, they remain reliant on the American benefits system for subsistence.
- Nguyen, Viet Thanh. The Refugees. Grove Atlantic, 2017. Retrieved from https://libgen.me/links?id=5c63faa550b4253978b39133&collection=all
This book is a collection of well-formed stories written over twenty years, exploring issues of immigration, identity, love, and family. With a swearing eye that has been told, the book gives expression to life between the two continents, the chosen nation, and the country of birth. From yet another young Vietnamese refugee who has a remarkable cultural shock when he goes to live with two homosexual men in San Francisco, a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and begins to confuse her.
- Schrag, Peter. The World of Aufbau: Hitler’s Refugees in America. University of Wisconsin Press, 2019. Retrieved from https://b-ok.cc/book/5274684/bca8cf
Aufbau–a German-language weekly issued in New York and distributed countrywide–had been an important forum for the generation of Hitler refugees and displaced people and prison camp victims who came to the United States after the war. The newspaper has been used to connect hundreds of followers searching for friends and family across every region of the world. From its sections, Aufbau concentrated on issues that had a strong effect on this culture in the wake of World War II: anti-Semitism in the United States and Europe, ever-changing immigration and naturalization processes, controversies about the classification of Hitler's victims as enemy aliens, doubts about the prosecution of the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities, the search for justice and redress. The book discusses the articles and ads that chronicled the cultural and social existence of such a period and holds a detailed account of German-speaking communities in exile. Peter Schrag is the first one to portray a conclusive account of the influential publication that brought post-war refugees together and into the mainstream of the Americas.
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