barriomulas.com - Is Third World Immigration a Threat to America's Way of Life?

(From another class assignment)

My position on the above question would probably be received by my classmates with much criticism and confusion if it were to be a discussion board topic. Being the descendent of immigrants who arrived from a poverty striken country many years ago, one would suppose that I would back up the "No" argument on the above question. Despite my ethnic make up, my family history's upward mobility, and my solidarity with the improvised of the third world, I must side with Patrick Buchanan's "Yes" defense.

The "American Way of Life" has traditionally been that of an Anglo American culture with past immigrants assimilating into such a culture in order to incorporate themselves into the "American Way of Life". Latinos, Native Americans, and African Americans though culturally autonomous, took a backseat in the majority's mainstream culture. Such groups assimilated into Anglo American culture as much as their skin tones and poverty would allow them to.

Yes, immigration from the Third World is changing the "American Way of Life". I myself returned to my family's native country only to myself grow preoccupied with seeing my island's way of life converting into that of a foreign power. While some conservative Americans may feel uncomfortable with their new neighbors whenever they speak Spanish and open food markets, I have grown uneasy with the sight of a McDonalds on every corner and traditional coffee shops closing due to Starbucks. It took me moving to my home country to understand the preoccupations with American nationalists. Joel kotkin and Yoriko Kishimoto refer to the U.S. as a "world nation". Lawrence Auster, an American nationalist complains that "America has no essential character." The U.S. has become a miniature United Nations.

Despite my position on the subject,

I would have answered differently if the question were "Should Third World immigration be regulated or stopped?" Though my heart goes out to American nationalists who fear the separation of an American nation into many American nations, I am sorry to say that today's wave of immigration is in a sense "pay back" for the colonialism of previous generations.

The histories of the Third World are littered with intervention, invasions, and exploitation on behalf of the Western powers. While the U.S. might have sucked Latin America of its precious metals and crops during the 20th century, Latin America's poor are sucking the U.S. of its jobs, wealth, and culture. Third World immigration, in turn, is a form of counter-colonialism. Immigration from Latin Americans and other Third World poor might cause some economic and social damage to U.S. groups that once represented "The American Way", but such damage is nowhere close to the blunt and careless intervention on behalf of the U.S. and its allies in these immigrant's home countries.