Journal Entry 2 part 3

 Immigration, a generational triumph and failure. 

America has long been known as the melting pot of the world. A place with a national motto of 

 "e pluribus unum" meaning 'out of many, one' 
In the early 1900s America  experienced a boom of immigration. People from across the world, but especially Europe came to America for work and to build a better life for themselves away from the shadow of the old world. 
While America is still a large acceptor of immigrants, some things have changed since the era of immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

Immigration once held an honorable view in the minds of immigrants, and American school children, including myself are taught that the immigration process is full of pomp and circumstance. We see  photos of well dressed families on large ocean liners with the Statue of Liberty in the background. While it is true immigrants of that time were sometimes subject to egregious acts of racism and exclusion, I believe the difference lies in the process of immigration that we now see today. 
Over the last several decades of American policy, crafted by both parties the ceremonial aspect of immigration seems lost. If you take away the occasional naturalization ceremony on morning shows,

 
the process has been replaced by horror stories. The news today is flooded with images and stories of crisis at the southern border of the country. Creating a powerful contrast from the hope and prestige once assimilated with immigration into the United States with one of chaos and crisis. 

While it is important to recognize that many factors separate  the European immigrants of the 19th and 20th century with the South American immigrants of the 21st,  they are still comparable because both cases still actively define what it means to be an American in todays world. As modern America wrestles its values and morals over what to do with the influx of illegal immigrants, the shadow of Ellis Island  and Lady Liberty provide a reminder of the way it once was, and a promise of what immigration in the US again could be. 

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