Multiculturalism

11 Pages 2755 Words

pluralism. MAKING OF MULTICULTURAL AMERICA The present United states includes not only the original thirteen colonies, but lands that were subsequently purchased or conquered. Through this territorial expansion, other peoples were brought within the boundaries of the republ!
ic; these included, in addition to many Native American tribes, French, Hawaiian, Intuit, Mexican, and Puerto Rican, among others. Since 1790, population growth, other than by natural increase, has come primarily through three massive waves of immigration. During the first wave (1841-1890), almost 15 million immigrants arrived; over four million Germans, three million each of Irish and British (English, Scottish, and Welsh), and one million Scandinavians. A second wave (1891- 1920) brought an additional 18 million immigrants: almost four million from Italy, 3.6 million from Austria-Hungry, and three million from Russia. Canadians, Anglo and French, immigrated prior to 1920. The intervening decades, from 1920 to 1945, marked a hiatus in immigration due to restrictive policies, economic depression, and war. A modest post-world war II influx of refugees was followed by a new Surge subsequent to changes in immigration policy in 1965. Totalling approximately 16 million - and still In progress, this third wave encompassed some four million from Mexico, another four million form Central & South America and the Caribbean, and rougly six million from Asia. While almost 90 percent of the first two waves originated in Europe, only 12 percent of the third did. Immigration has introduced an enormous diversity of cultures into American Society. Immigration also contributed to the transformation of the religious character of the United States. Its original Protestantism (itself divided among many denominations and sects) was both reinforced by the arrival of Lutherans, methodists, persbyterians, etc and diluted by the heavy influx of Roman catholics-first the Irish and Germans, ...