To Reunite a Nation
Globalization is the process where the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together. The essay I chose for summarize and critique is “To Reunite a Nation” by Patrick Buchanan. This article was a speech given at the Nixon Library in Yerba Linda, California. It is reprinted in the Faigley & Selzer text Good Reasons with Contemporary Argument, fifth edition. This article mentions the issue America will face if U.S allots mass immigrant. Buchanan argues that reducing the rate of immigrants America will still be a land of immigrants, and it will benefit large and steady stream of people from all over the world whose dream is to live like an American.
Buchanan begins with an example when China was emerging from the Cultural Revolution. President Carter was concerned for the rights of Chinese people that emigrated to United States. The Jackson-Vank Amendment prohibited favored nation trade to immigrate to United States. In meeting between President Carter and Deng, Deng said, “Just how many Chinese do you want? Ten million? Twenty million? Thirty million? ” President Carter replied, “how many would be good for America?” instead of saying which Chinese would be best for America (405).
Since the meeting between President Carter and Deng, America has taken twenty million immigrants many form China and Asia, much more from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and a few from Europe. The achievements made by new immigrants are extraordinary. Many Asian born children take advanced classes in high school, and are excellent in math and science classes. Immigrants have contributed to the economy by opening small businesses, and creating jobs. Immigrants work undesirable jobs day and night that pay them a minimum wages. America is no longer a biracial society who struggles to end the gaps between black and white; it is now a multiracial society who grapples between the ethnic diversity (405-406).
America takes more people than any other nation in the world, but if America leaves its border open, then millions of people will migrate in an eyelash. By closing its borders, it restricts one million people to migrate legally and thousands trying to enter illegally. Even with a tight border security, somehow many people enter America illegally. Some local businesses hire those illegal immigrants, and pay them cash. This has direct impact on the welfare of the middle class Americans because they have a hard time finding a job. Even if they find a new job, they have to work for low wages. Also, the annual tax of each household in California is raised by $ 1200 a year because more than quarter of immigrants receives some form of financial help from the government (406).
The United States allots majority of visas based on whether new immigrants are related to the immigrants that are already in America, and not on the basis of skill and education America needs. This system makes it is hard for the European people to get a visa while an entire village of El Salvadorians are allowed to come to America. There are many drawbacks to mass immigration. It can deepen radical and ethnical division, and it makes impossible to notice conflict generated by hyphenated Americans. For example, in a game between Mexico and America, Mexican-American immigrants showered the U.S team with water bottles, beer bottles and trash, and hurled garbage over the American fans. After that incident, American players said that they were better received in Mexico City than their own country (406-407).
Further, a small town in South Texas adopted Spanish as its official language, voting in referendums that played growing part in politics of California is breaking down in ethnic lines, and when Wen Ho Lee was prosecuted for nuclear secret case, many Chinese Americans concluded that Mr. Lee was prosecuted for racial reason are some examples of drawbacks of immigrants. Mass immigration reinforces ethnic sub cultures, reduces the new comer immigrants to learn English, and extend the linguistic ghettos. To remain as a nation, the immigration pace must slow down (407).
If Congress reduces new immigrant entry visas to three hundred thousand a year then it will have plenty of room for the immigrants to show their talents, and their skills that an American society needs. America should implement a similar system as Canada and Australia use to allocate visas based on education, knowledge of English, job skills, and age. American government should tighten the border security in order to control many illegal immigrants from entering. Buchanan concluded, without all these reforms, America will become a country of dying culture, more division in the line of race, class, income, and language. Even if it reduces the rate of immigrants, America will still be a nation of immigrants (408-409).
The argument about the immigration in “To Reunite a Nation” is stated directly. It directly states that by cutting the immigration rate to three hundred thousand a year, America will have less economic problem, and less grapple between the different ethnic groups. Buchanan wanted to show the general public of America that if we bring mass immigration to our country then in no we will become a country with no common language or history. He wanted to show us that when people are in danger and are asking for help, even if we wanted to help them we could not help because they could not speak the English language. Buchanan wanted to show us the negative consequences on American people’s lives if the way of bringing immigrants to America remains the same. His way of telling us or tone is consistent throughout the essay.
Through his essay he is might be able to convince his audience or readers. He uses examples of specific events, and details of the general people to organize his essay. The essay is more on people’s story, and is based on the personal point of view of the author. He uses simple word choice so it is easy to read, and can be easily understood by anyone who read this essay. The text is densely packed with plenty of examples. The author has succeeded in stating his main purpose for writing this essay. He wanted to show that America, being a multiracial country, is trying to reunite a nation, but how much it tries to reunite, it is always destroyed by some kind of misunderstanding.
To some extent I agree as well as disagree with the author’s conclusion. I agree because the immigrants that are receiving some kind of welfare by government are increasing the annual taxes of middle class Americans. The business that hires illegal immigrants provides cheap goods and services, but as a result middle class Americans have difficulty finding a good paying job. America should have one common language that everyone in the county should be able to understand and speak. I disagree with the author because America is a land of immigrants, and government shouldn’t lower visas instead the government should allot visas based on the knowledge of English and the education the new immigrants have. This article really provided me with new information that I can use in my future reading on this issue.
Work Cited
Buchanan, Patrick J. “To Reunite a Nation.” A speech given at Nixon Library in Yerba Linda, CA (2000). Reprinted in Lester Faigley & Jack Selzer, Good Reasons with ContemporaryArguments. Fifth Edition. New York: Pearson Longman: 2012: 405-409.
