General Purpose: To convince the listeners that immigrants contribute and enrich American society through culture, business, and other aspects. As such, the following speech aims to explore distinct ways in which immigrants change the landscape of American society and to influence the audience into recognizing these effects of immigration and cultural distribution.
Specific Purpose: The speech aims to the three main aspects of American society that are influenced by immigrants. These range from business ventures, to the continued excellence in academia, and also culture through the lens of the arts. The first point focuses on the influence of immigrants on small business in America and how immigrant-owned firms are likely to create a number of positive outcomes for American citizens. The second point is concerned with a substantial number of academics, scitieists, and inventors being immigrants and how they have affected education and science in America. Third, the speech will outline that much of current American culture is the product of immigration, and how continued immigration in the modern day continues to cultivate culture and the arts.
Central Idea: The central idea of the speech reflects that the influence of immigration on culture, business, and the academics is very positive and essential in order to continue to make extensive leaps of progress. The speech uses examples from both qualitative and quantitative data concerning the impact of immigration on American business and culture. As such, the data can illustrate an understandable and noticeable influence of immigrants in American society.
Introduction
Attention getter – In a time when politicians attempt to blast a negative light on immigration, to convince their listeners to fear immigrants and enforce views that suggest danger and lessen the value of immigrants, it is vital to look at the truth.
Reveal Topic – The importance of immigrant-influence on American culture is undeniable, and the effects can be seen in the industries of America, from small business, to large tech companies, to the culture of art.
Establish Speaker Credibility – The following speech will illustrate specific ways in which the presence of immigrants has changed the landscape of American culture for the better with the implementation of recent studies and literature reviews.
Relate topic to your Audience – Some of these influences may not be immediately visible, but it is likely that the impact of immigrant work has benefited everyone in this room, whether directly or indirectly.
Preview Main Points – Though the influence of immigrants on the social landscape of the U.S. is unlimited, three primary areas of focus are especially important. These are the influence of immigrants on business, the sciences, and the arts.
Body
According to the Small Business Administration, or SBA, of America, immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start a business when living in the U.S. than non-immigrants. (Bates et al., 2018)
Currently, approximately 18 percent of all small businesses are owned by immigrants. The importance of small business to the local and national economy cannot be overstated. Small business indicates specialization, self-dependency, and stability that cannot always be observed in larger corporations.
- Small businesses that are owned by immigrants create job opportunities for American citizens. The appearance of new firms from outside the country signifies a growing market, less competition for already existing jobs, and varied employment opportunities.
- Immigrants are also more likely to create their own jobs. Currently, out of all the workforce of the U.S, 7.5 percent are self-employed while only 6.6 percent of non-immigrants are self-employed. (Bates et al., 2018)
B. Immigration has also increased the earnings of American workers, while creating a demand for locally produced products and services. Immigrants are able to expand a variety of business activities while contributing to already existing firms by being consumers.
- Current research indicates that the earnings of Americans have increased by 0.7 percent in direct correlation to immigration. The growth is steady and is likely to continue a stable improvement in the wages of Americans.
- The purchasing power of immigrated Latinos and Asians alone has reached $1.5 trillion and $775 billion respectively in 2015. Such demands for local goods and services reflect positively on the growth of large and small businesses. Continued immigraton is likely to increase further demand for local products. Additionally, the collective impact of immigration leads to a steady increase in the GDP of the U.S, which in turn, can indicate an improvement of wellbeing and economic welfare of average Americans. (Bates et al., 2018)
Transition: The sciences are inherently connected to business. An improvement in one is likely to stir growth in the other. As such, it is not strange to notice immigrants making huge progress in technology and the sciences within different industries in the U.S.
Immigrants can and have developed incredible technology and business concerned with tech. They have impacted the sciences by showing exceptional skills in invention, engineering, mathematics, as well as numerous other fields.
A. According to the National Venture Capital Association, or NVCA, 25 percent of public U.S. companies that were backed by venture capital investors were started by immigrants. These include but are not limited to eBay, Yahoo, Intel, and Google. (Lee & Eesley, 2018)
- Such a large portion of immigrant involvement in the advancement of technology is likely to continue, and is likely to improve and progress both the industries and the sciences.
- Many first or second generation immigrants are involved in technologically start-ups or smaller firms after attending U.S. universities. As such, while they contribute to the scientific and economic landscape through their companies, they have also contributed to the market of higher education.
Immigrants represent a substantial portion of engineers, mathematicians, scientists, and stasitians of the U.S.
- While only 16 percent of immigrants have any degrees equivalent to a bachelor’s degree or higher, they represent 33 percent of the working engineers in the country. Additionally, 75 percent of patents issued in 2011 were credited to foreign-born investors. (Lee & Eesley, 2018)
- The success of such individuals also suggest that many students can be trained and become skillful in alternative learning methods, if a full university course is unavailable or unaffordable.
Transition: The contributions made by immigrants to tech, science, and research is undeniable, but so is their contribution to performing, liberal, fine and other arts, and further cultural pursuits.
As an example, the large presence of immigrants in Hollywood have pushed American institutions to show more meritocracy and become more open to innovation that would otherwise be seen as objectionable.
Even during segregation, variety was able to prosper in many art forms, music being a primary and leading area for innovation.
- Though jazz and the origins of African American musical traditions were not recognized by White Americans prior to the 1930s, the genre’s importance cannot be understated in the current landscape of music production and culture. (Winichakul & Zhang, 2021)
- More exposure to different cultures, such as in the case of music, often leads to infusion, mixing, or inspiration of different styles that originate from various cultures. Essentially, it allows for constant change and discovery that would likely not occur in a culturally homogenous society.
A recent study has observed that communities that include more immigrants in creative fields of work are more likely to have art business and nonprofit organizations in their jurisdiction. (Winichakul & Zhang, 2021)
- As such, these individuals or groups employ large portions of the county population, facilitate an increase in revenue, and receive a larger number of art grants than counties that have a limited history of immigration.
- The following examples illustrate a system that not only allows, but improves and gains on diversity, varied culture, and immigration.
Conclusion
Signal ending – The list of ways in which immigrants have altered the landscape of American culture cannot be exhausted. Current immigration continues to cultivate diversity, innovation, and improvement in different industries of America.
Summarize main points – Though the primary effects may be seen in the areas of small business, science and technological development, or the numerous faculties of the arts, the interconnection of the influence of the various immigrant cultures continue elsewhere too.
End with impact – In a time when some try to convince us otherwise, it is vital to remember the truth, that America’s ability to facilitate so much innovation, novelty, and advancements is a result of diversity, of inclusivity, and og immigraiton.
References
Bates, T., Bradford, W. D., & Seamans, R. (2018). Minority entrepreneurship in twenty-first century America. Small Business Economics, 50, 415–427. Web.
Kolsten, D. (2018). Entrepreneurship rate of refugees compared with other immigrants and US born workers [Photograph]. National Immigration Forum. Web.
Kolsten, D. (2018).Share of Main Street business owners who are immigrants [Photograph]. National Immigration Forum. Web.
Lee, Y. S., & Eesley, C. (2018). The persistence of entrepreneurship and innovative immigrants. Research Policy, 47(6), 1032-1044. Web.
Winichakul, K. P., & Zhang, N. (2021). Enter stage left: immigration and the creative arts in America [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Pittsburgh.