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In class, one topic that was brought up was selection of immigrants. There were two kinds of

selection mentioned, positive and negative. Positive selection of immigrants refers to an immigrant who

enters the country who is relatively well educated, wealthy, or possesses other favorable ualities that can

be appro!imated using "" $socio%economic status&'. (egative selection is simply the opposite of

positive. "election of immigration is a very controversial issue in )merican society even today as

evidenced in both the political and social scene. *hile, in theory it makes sense as a country to want only

positively selected immigrants who would contribute to the growth and develop of the country, to try to

bar entire groups of immigrants that are deemed as negatively selected for is not only un%)merican but

also a huge logical fallacy that needs to be corrected.

+irst, a groups classification as being negatively selected is not always based in reality as often

times it does not matter what the numbers or facts say, if the population already has preconceived notions

and pre-udices towards the group. Prime e!amples of this were that Irish and hinese immigrants in the

1/thcentury that were considered la0y, crime%prone and even less human'. owever, these two immigrant

groups undeniably helped to build this countrys very infrastructure as they contributed much of the

grueling labor to building the transcontinental railroad'. 2ver time, the Irish eventually achieved

assimilation to the point where today, not a second thought is given to an Irish person that would

distinguish him from being white3. )lthough, the hinese have still not yet assimilated, they did shed

their negative connotations and today are considered be a very positively selected for minority3.

Therefore, e!trapolating from the e!ample of the Irish and hinese, immigrant groups first

thought of as being negatively selected and undesirable can, in reality, turn out to be highly functional and

contributing member of society. 4espite that, today similar anti%immigrant sentiments are felt about

ispanic groups, particular those from 5e!ico. )s a result, there is a movement to limit the influ! of

these groups into the 6". The most notable of these e!amples is that of Republican presidential nominee

4onald Trump, who has made inflammatory remarks about 5e!ico 7not sending their best8 and that

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those that they do send are bringing drugs and crime with them. *hile the statistical evidence on

education attainment and income may support the claim that 5e!icans are negatively selected for, it still

does -ustifying building a giant wall on the boarder or deporting 5e!ican immigrants'.

The lack of success of 5e!ican immigrants in general, may not be due to group inherently being

negatively selected, but rather could be a byproduct of social and institutional pre-udice and

discrimination. +or e!ample, the uffington post cited a study that showed that with two identical

resumes, the only difference being the name on the resume 9oseph vs 9ose, 9oseph is more likely to be

hired by employers than 9ose1. This means that 9ose, as a 5e!ican, could be eually as ualified as

9oseph, presumably white, but have lower "" because employers favor 9oseph more. )nother e!ample

of this is also present in the educational system. Teachers tend to have lower e!pectations in terms of

educational attainment for ispanic students than white or )sian students. )s a result, teachers may give

less attention to these students which could influence their eventual educational attainment:. In fact, it is

not uncommon for an e!cellent ispanic student to be discouraged from applying to reach universities by

their counselors because they believe that the student would not have a chance:. Therefore, it could be

arguable that ispanic immigrants are not necessarily negatively selected for but rather that society has

negatively selected them.

*hile negative and positive selection may be a useful tool to see how much one particular group

contributes to society, it should not be used as an indicator of what groups should be allowed into the

country. People often forget that many of the first immigrants that arrived were considered negatively

selected and over time that has changed3. owever, that could never have happened if they were not

granted entrance in the first place.

References

$1& 5atthews, . http;

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$'& Bao, C.D Eauera, .D Coyette, B.Education And ImmigrationD Polity; ambridge, 6B, '=1:.

$:& 9aschik, ". The 5issing "tudents https;