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Early American Immigration

Early American Immigration

Discussion & Essay Questions

Available to teachers only as part of the Teaching Immigration: Era of Open BordersTeacher Pass

Teaching Immigration: Era of Open Borders Teacher Pass includes:

  • Assignments & Activities
  • Reading Quizzes
  • Current Events & Pop Culture articles
  • Discussion & Essay Questions
  • Challenges & Opportunities
  • Related Readings in Literature & History

Sample of Discussion & Essay Questions


  1. Big Picture
    • American immigration history is marked by strong patterns. Native-born citizens resist the newest arrivals. These new arrivals assimilate and then join in the nativist resistance to the next group of immigrants.
      • Will this pattern hold for the immigrants of the most recent phase (post 1965)?
      • Will current Latin American and Asian immigrants assimilate as earlier Irish, Italian, and Slavic immigrants did?
      • Are there differences between past immigrant groups and current?