American Dream: The Mexican Immigration Experience (Part 1)

Like the Irish, Italians, Jews, Poles, Russians, Germans, Chinese, Dominicans, Indians, Norwegians and others, Mexicans have come to the U.S. seeking economic opportunity and a better life for themselves and their children. And like these other immigrants, Mexicans have at times been victimized by discrimination and criticized for ostensibly failing to integrate into the mainstream quickly enough. The arguments that are used today, often without evidence, to limit Mexican immigration are some of the same ones used in the past against immigrants from other countries.

Employment signs stating "No Irish Need Apply" were commonplace in the 19th century. In the 1920s, evidence that claimed to be "scientific" was used to argue that immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe came from weaker, less intelligent stock than their blond-haired, blue-eyed counterparts in Northern and Western Europe. In perhaps the greatest humiliation to a group based on nationality, Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II because the U.S. government worried they might give aid and comfort to the enemy.

U.S. immigration law and policy, particularly in the 20th century and even now, has waived between restricting and welcoming immigrants; between making distinctions among skills, country of origin, family status, and race, and providing an open or almost open door for immigration, and even recruiting immigrants. There are, however, perceived differences between immigration from Mexico and other countries. For one, much of the southwestern part of the United States used to be a part of Mexico, throwing fear in a sometimes vocal minority concerning Mexican nationalism. For another, the 2,000-mile Mexico-U.S. border is the most frequently legally and illegally crossed international border in the world, suggesting to a handful of analysts and nationalists that America will loose its culture, commitment to the legal system, and English language heritage. Some people have used these arguments to contend that Mexicans should be treated differently than other immigrants, and that they are somehow less entitled to pursue the American Dream.

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• American Dream
• Immigration
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