As a country of immigrants, why did the United States become anti immigrant?

Mondo International Updated on 2024-03-02

At the end of the day, the reason is economic. When domestic resources are plentiful, many Americans don't choose to work in low-end jobs, such as picking cotton or building railroads. However, xenophobia began to rise when resources were insufficient to meet demand.

The United States is a country founded by immigrants. Since the Mayflower arrived in North America with Protestants, people from all over the world, both voluntarily and involuntarily, have come to this land to build the United States.

The United States was originally known as The United States of America, which was translated as "Mirian State" or "Amiri United States" in the late Qing Dynasty. Later, a group of scholars who returned from studying in the United States, out of love for the United States, revised the translation to form the current "United States of America", referred to as the United States.

Initially, scattered Europeans set foot on the continent inhabited by the Indians, and in order to compete with the Indians for land, North America needed a large population. As a result, the North American colonies attracted a large number of immigrants from Europe to engage in planting, breeding, and hunting, making North America the first place for raw materials in Europe.

After entering the era of industrialization, especially during the Anglo-French War, France sold 2.3 million square kilometers of land to the United States in order to contain Britain and obtain war funds. This vast land requires a large population to develop. Subsequently, the United States seized California and Texas from Mexico, leaving the domestic population far short of what needed it was. From 1820 to 1920, the United States absorbed more than 10 million immigrants from around the world.

After World War II, the United States, as the only country to enjoy the dividends of the war, was the richest country in the world. At that time, an American worker earned enough to feed a family of four or five and buy a large house.

However, high wages come with high costs. In order to maximize profits, U.S. financial capital has gradually shifted manufacturing to other countries, keeping only R&D and design domestic. As a result, most people in the U.S. can only work in the service sector, with limited employment opportunities in high-end service industries. Most people are concentrated in low-end service industries such as catering, express delivery, supermarkets, and cleaning.

With the influx of low-end immigrants, they are willing to accept lower wages to compete for these positions. This has intensified the competition between the low-end population and immigrants in the United States, making the wave of exclusion of immigrants more and more serious. It was by exploiting this psychology of the people at the bottom of the United States that Trump won the first election. Although the U.S. economy has not improved significantly since Biden took office, the people at the bottom of the city have begun to support Trump's anti-immigrant policies. As the U.S. progresses, the anti-immigrant wave is likely to continue to run high.

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