Debating Contemporary Immigration and the Uses of History
Paper Requirements
Essays should be 4 pages in length, not including the works cited page. Your essay should be double spaced, with one inch margins and 12-point font . Put your name, class, and the date in the upper left hand corner of the paper. As this is a formal paper, use formal language. You will turn in your essay through Turnitin in Canvas. The final paper will be due no later than 11:59 p.m. on November 15, 2022. After that, I will deduct 5 points for every day it is late. All assignments must be submitted on the Writing Assignment #2 link on Canvas. No papers will be accepted via email. Please remember to cite sources for statements of fact or any statement not attributable to you.
The study of history informs how we think about society today. Comparisons with the past are an essential part of how policy makers and citizens debate key issues. For instance, one of the most controversial topics in American society is immigration, and many arguments hinge on comparisons to past generations of immigrants and how they were perceived at the time. For Part 7, “The American Age,” the issue of Latino immigration demonstrates how history influences contemporary political debates. For this exercise, you will be taking on the role of historian, and thus you should focus on evaluating the uses of history, not current immigration policy.
For this exercise you have two tasks:
Part 1: Compare the ways that history is used in the two secondary sources on contemporary Latino immigration.
Part 2: Using primary sources, evaluate the arguments of the two secondary sources.
Part 1: Comparing Secondary Sources
Each of the following secondary sources was written by a scholar of contemporary immigration politics. In these selections, the authors draw comparisons between the issues surrounding past generations of immigrants and the issues surrounding immigrants today. The first is from Dr. Jason Richwine, a contributing writer at the National Review and former senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. The second text is from Leo Chavez, a professor of anthropology at the University of California–Irvine. While Richwine is interested in assimilation, immigration, and national culture, Chavez is concerned with how immigrant groups are represented in contemporary discourse.
Compare the views of these two scholars by answering the following questions. Be sure to find specific examples in the selections to support your answers.
What issues that surround Latino immigration to America does each author address?
What comparisons does each author make to historical immigration groups?
In what ways might these authors respond to each other’s work?
Based on what you have learned, what examples from American history can you think of that would support or refute each author’s argument?
