Immigration

Dear Diasuke, After a long ship ride from Japan, I have finally arrived in America. After hearing all the rumors of the great opportunities here in the United States, I had to come here for myself. Let me tell you, I haven’t regretted coming here at all, this country is great. I’m living in a city here in the west coast of America called San Francisco. This city is amazing! The city is large, and there are other immigrants from all over the world living here. Immigrants of the same country have even formed small communities here, like China Town and Little Italy. It is great to get a chance to visit these places and to try their foods and have a chance to see their cultures. The city is also filled with so much amazing transportation. There are trains going everywhere and automobiles on every street. After arriving here the first thing I needed to do was get a job. I got a job here as a fisherman, just like back at home. This job is great, it makes me feel like I’m back at home, getting to be out on the sea. I spend most my day out on a boat with a few other guys, who are all also immigrants who came here to America. Not only is the work great here, but I have much more opportunities also. Not only is there more jobs here, but the pay is better than what I was making back in Japan. I know I didn’t have much reason for leaving Japan, I’m still not really sure what the reason was. I guess after hearing of all the great opportunities here in America, curiosity got the best of me and I had to come. I knew if I wanted to live a better life I had to do something drastic, and moving here to America was the only thing I knew to do. I’m glad I made that decision, it was the best choice I ever made. My friend you have to consider moving out here to America. I have been saving much of the money from my work, and I can send it to you for a ticket over here. As great as it is here in this country, it is very lonely without my best friend. Can’t wait to hear back from you! Your Friend, Hayate

Terms to Define- Click on Links to research what these terms mean. Please create a summary for each one and place it in your wikispace. I suggest that you do this first in order to learn more for your letter. [|The Huddled Masses], A poem written in 1883 by Emma Lazarus in order to help raise money for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. The poem was titled “The New Colossus” because she was reminded of the Colossus of Rhodes, a huge bronze statue of the sun god Helios. The poem was sold for $1,500. The poem was forgotten until it was rediscovered and placed on the pedestal in 1903. [|The New Immigrants], In 1886, 334,203 immigrants arrived to the United States. In 1900, 14 percent of the American population was foreign born, while there was 8 percent a century later. After the Civil War immigration to the United States greatly increased. [|The Chinese Exclusion Act], A law banning Chinese immigrants from entering the United States. This was the nation’s fire law to ban immigration by race or nationality. Now Chinese residents, lo matter how long they had lived and worked in the United States, were banned from becoming naturalized citizens. [|Contract Agreement], In 19th century there was a high demand for manual labor. During this time workers would sign a contract, requiring them to work for a period of time. Many Chinese workers were working under the contract because of force or deception. [|Immigration Restriction], During the late 19th and early 20th century the United States imposed additional restrictions on immigrants. In 1885 the United States banned contract laborers from immigrating to their country. Later in 1917 they banned illiterates and all Asian immigrants. Other acts banned many more from immigrating to the United States. [|United States's Changing Face], Immigration in the United States is at its highest level since the early 20th century. During the 1980s when they softened immigration laws the Hispanic population nearly tripled and the Asian almost eight-fold. As a result of the massive immigration, the United States is becoming the first multi-racial advanced industrial society.