There are 39.5 million immigrants living in the United States in 2010, that is nearly 13% of the U.S. population (“Facts”). The United States is a country where people from other countries can come over and live their life how they want, without any restrictions they might have had before. In a poem by Emma Lazarus, she writes about how America is accepting to people from other countries. People are welcomed into the country to start a new life. In Bharati Mukherjee’s short story “Two Ways to Belong in America” she tells her story about how America accepted her and her sister. They have both moved over from India and created a new successful life. The article “The Facts on Immigration Today” reports on the United State’s population. It tells the different kinds of people living here, and what they are. People coming to America to have a better life. Immigrants have integrated their culture into America’s. The United States is a golden door for the underdogs.

It is known that every year there are more immigrants coming to America to get a better life. In America, this country is welcoming of the immigrants from other countries to come and live here. There is freedom and opportunity that people from other places in the world do not get in their homeland. They come here to escape and start their new life of freedom. In Mukherjee’s short story, she writes about coming to America from India. “I am an American citizen … I am moved that thousands of long-term residents are finally taking the oath of citizenship”(Mukherjee 143). Mukherjee shares with the reader that she moved to the United States from India with her sister to further her education and get a successful job. She is a legal citizen in the U.S. and is happy that other people are becoming a U.S. citizen. It is people like Bharati that are coming to the United States to get a better life. The immigration population is going up because people want to get what they could not have gotten back in their country. Bharati got into a college here because she knew that the U.S. would have more opportunities than India. Immigrants also come to the United States because we are a welcoming community. Back in the 1800’s, immigrants who came into the country first would see the statue of liberty. It is a mother figure of the country and represents what Emma Lazarus’ poem is about. In the poem it says “A mighty women whose flame is the imprisoned lighting, and her name Mother of Exiles” (Lazarus). The representation of the poem is saying that the country is accepting all the banished people. Immigrants who come to the United States are people who were isolated, did not get any freedom as a person, so they came here. The country wants the underdogs to come into the country because freedom is allowed for anyone who lives in the U.S. The immigration population is rising because the United States is helping those who want freedom. Immigrants have blended their culture into how we live every day.

Walk down the street and look around, what would anyone see? All around, there are people who look different from each other. No one looks exactly alike, dress alike because they are all different. There are people from different countries that moved to America. People from different backgrounds and cultures blend in to create a diverse community. The different cultures help make America a place where everyone can be accepted and fit in wherever. There are sections of places that have a certain kind of culture they had back in their country. They live in America, but they still maintain their national culture. In the story by Bharati she writes about her sister still