| Summary: | Immigration to the United States has once again become a topic of fiery debate in political and social circles both within the country and outside of its borders, but it is often easy to forget what fickle and temporal topic it is. The veryconcept of immigration, after all, is inextricably linked to a very temporary notion of those who just so happen to be in a place and those who truly “belong” in that place. The first tribes that crossed the frozen Bering Strait onto the North American continent were, in a sense, “immigrants” into a territory that now bears the name of the United States. These individuals were originally from Asia, but they found themselves immigrating to a new land. Centuries later, paler skinned immigrants would arrive in ships from Spain, France, and Great Britain seeking land and fortune. These newcomers had become “immigrant” intruders into a land occupied by “natives” who had been there thousands of years before them. In relentless battles that followed, the British eventually paid a price in blood to be the dominant immigrants at the very least along the eastern shoreline. Years later, however, British who had spent their lives in the American colonies began to feel that the British who had just stepped off the boat were the new “immigrant” aggressors. More war followed, and this new group claimed to belong in the area. For years, these new “Americans” stabbed their way westward, driving out the former natives and otherwise rightful residents declaring themselves the proprietors of a new territory that stretched to the Pacific Ocean. Maestría en Administración Pública y Política Pública
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