The Notion of American Dream ; American Immigration | Discussion

1. The notion of American dream has significant meaning and social role for the history of the United States. Nowadays American dream is said by most experts to be fading away and losing its initial meaning. America is the country, where a lot of nations are to live as melting pot and build their own national identity. However, there is an assumption that constant flow of Hispanic immigrants is able to influence the United States, namely to make the country be split into two parts. Each of them would have its culture and language. There are already such examples in the history of the country, when Latinos and Mexicans arrived and were not able to assimilate with the American culture and finally formed their own cultural minorities. They simply were not ready to accept those Anglo- Protestant values, which were used for creating of the notion of the American dream. In order to better understand this controversy, it is necessary to remember that the first settlers of America were white people of British origin mainly and supporting Protestant religion. Thus it is logical that their cultural values and beliefs formed the basis for further development of the nation. Starting from the 18th century it is already possible to talk about formation of purely American ideology, which in its turn made those former newcomers separated from their home countries. During the 19th century other ethnic components were interwoven into the social and cultural identity of the country.

It is necessary to admit that the notion of the American dream had once existed and played vitally important role for the country and formation of its social and cultural frames. Nowadays, the situation is different. According to various research data, the American dream has lost its actuality today. The assumption that even if you are poor, you will still be able to reach the top, is not supported today by most younger and even elder people in America. There could be various reasons for this; one of them is for example the meaning of education. Certainly today education is still absolutely necessary, but the fact is that rich people have far better perspectives to get better education and correspondingly to build their lives and careers better. Another important aspect is the tax system, taxes are not used with the aim of redistribution of wealth, rather they make poor people pay more and wealthier people pay less. There could be other numerous factors, which make achievement of the American dream more difficult today, thus most of citizens have changed their understanding and perception of this notion.

2. The Statue of Liberty is often seen as the greatest symbol of the whole idea of American immigration. Sometimes New York’s John F. Kennedy airport or Ellis Island is also included. Thus general perception of immigration and immigrants in America are associated with these places. The United States is a kind of unique country in the whole world due to the situation with immigrants exactly; actually its culture and social values and beliefs were formed under the impact of several waves of immigrants, arriving from different countries. But today the situation is different. The Unites States is a formed country and has still to face great influx of people, arriving from poor countries, especially it is related to Mexico. This problem was discussed by Samuel P. Huntington, who is a chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies and cofounder of foreign policy. Huntington is the one, who states openly that modern Hispanic wave of immigrants is different from the previous waves. Most of these immigrants arrive from Mexico; Hispanic immigrants prefer to support friendly and close relations with their families and friends, who remained in their home countries.  A large portion of these immigrants arrives to the country illegally and stays in the Southwest, where such high concentration of immigrant of this ethnic origin might lead to creation of the United States Quebec. Huntington is not the first person, who speaks about this problem loudly, before it was already mentioned by Benjamin Franklin and Henry J. Gardner. Huntington never stated that there is a need to be a Protestant to become the citizen of America, still he underlined the importance of religion, as a part of cultural background of the country. According to him all people, who take the decision to leave their homelands, are to be ready to leave their social networks there and penetrate into absolutely different environment of the country, they arrive to. Certainly they might have difficulties in communication there and even access to some of public services at the beginning. Historically the situation was similar, as for example German-Americans were not able to integrate completely till World War I and this was also possible because of an organized anti-German campaign. This is clear that life in a foreign country is utterly difficult for all immigrants and they need time and effort to get used to different customs and traditions, be able to adjust themselves to the views and attitudes of people, living there, still they do not have any other choice. In addition in the modern world, taking into consideration rapid development of modern technologies and communication means, modern immigrants do not have to be completely cut off their native lands and people. Also immigrants have more possibilities to find each other in the social networks and communicate there, this was absolutely not possible in the past.

Works cited:

Huntington, S. P. The Hispanic Challenge. Simon & Schuster, Inc. N.Y., 2009

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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