America: Still a Melting Pot?

A. Comprehension questions
(deal with these questions in class where you are able to talk together about them and help each other)

1. What famous phrase was first coined by the author I. Zangwell?

2. When was that?

3. What field of life does this expression come from?

4. According to the text, are immigrants heavily involved in crime?

5. According to the opinion of most Americans, is the USA still a melting pot?

6. For how long has the recent controversy about illegal immigration been going on?

7. Is President Clinton for or against strengthening border controls?

8. Who said in the 1920s that most Italians are murderers?

9. Where did most immigrants come from before 1960, where now?

10. What, according to most people, is "good", what "bad" immigration?

11. What do the letters IRCA mean?

12. What was the aim of this 1986 decision?

13. Approximately how many illegal aliens lived in the USA at that time?

14. What was supposed to happen to them according to the IRCA?

15. How are employers involved in the struggle against illegals?

16. Who knows the exact numbers of illegal immigrants each year?

17. What is the estimated annual number of illegal immigrants?

18. What is the connection between illegal immigrants and crime?

19. Will increased prosperity in other countries reduce the number of immigrants?

20. How does the text characterize the typical immigrant?

21. What reasons are accepted to grant an immigration visa?

22. What system was used before (since 1924)?

23. Immigrants from where were favoured by that system?

24. What consequences did this have for refugees from Nazi Germany?

25. Where do about 90 percent of today's immigrants come from?

26. Which industrialized country accepts most immigrants?

27. How does the author refute the thesis that US policy is racist?

28. Seen as percent of the population, how high is US immigration?

29. What does the expression "adjusting status" mean?

30. What other possibility of immigration is often used fraudulently?

31. The author calls US immigration policy a mixture of altruism and self‑interest. Why?

32. J. Simon and P. Buchanan stand for two opposing views concerning immigration. Which?

33. How do environmentalists come into the debate?

34. The text distinguishes three stages of assimilation problems, what are they?

35. According to US tradition, which is first, individual or group rights?

36. In what way does "affirmative action" change this?

B: Written homework:

1. Why ‑ according to this text ‑ are many Americans worried about immigration (about the numbers of immigrants as well as the kind of people who are coming)?

2. What are the positive aspects of immigration described here?

3. This article is not basically a report, but an argumentative text: Show this by suitable examples (e.g. use of evaluating language, quotations, etc.). Explain what view of the issue the author himself favours.