Background

Immigration is known as the voluntary movement of people. Most people come to a new country to find greater opportunities. Some reason people leave their country of origin are because war, political and religious persecution, and because economic reasons.

Some people believe that the first immigrants to America were Christopher Columbus and the people aboard his ships. In reality the first immigrants were people from northeastern Asia that came to the continent of North America by a land bridge thousands of years earlier. The people that would be known as the first Americans came in the 1600’s came to make quick fortunes or escape religious persecution. Many of those people were ordinary people and many of them were too poor to pay for their voyage so they came as servants. Like many immigrants today they came to a new country for better economic opportunities. Like today many immigrants in the 1800’s faced animosity from white people and were seen as antagonist because immigrants got paid lower wages and took most of the jobs.

Why many people are tempted to enter the country illegally is because of the Quota Act. The Quota Act was designed to limit the number of immigrants entering the United States from any country by using a base year and allowing a certain percentage of people to enter the country based on how many people from that country were living in the United States in that base year. When congress first passed the Quota Act in 1921, they first set the quota at three percent and the base year at 1910. Then in 1924 congress lowered the quota to two percent and set the base year at 1890.

Sources: Reimers, David M. "Immigration." The New Book Of Knowledge. 2002.

"Illegal Immigration." CQ Researcher 15 (2006): 393-420.