America, the Melting Pot The melting pot is a metaphor to describe how a society develops, whereby people of different cultures, races, and religions are combined to create a diverse, multi-ethnic society. The term originated in the United States and is often used to describe societies experiencing large-scale immigration from a number of different countries.

The writings of J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur in his Letters from an American Farmer (St. John de Crèvecoeur, 1792; reprinted in 1981) are an example from American literature of the concept of immigrants “melting”

into the new home country. He writes, “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.”

. . . whence came all these people? They are a mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes . . . What, then, is the American, this new man? He is neither a European nor the descendant of a European; hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds . . . The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared (St. John de Crèvecoeur, 1792;

reprinted in 1981).

The Statue of Liberty is one of the most distinctive landmarks in the United States. She is associated with immigrants because she stands on Ellis Island in New York Harbor, a place where many thousands of immigrants first set foot on U.S. soil in search of a new and better life. There is a poem called “The New Colossus” which is engraved on the pedestal where Lady Liberty stands.

The poem was written by Emma Lazarus, and it ends like this: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” (Liberty State Park, 2017)

1. America is a nation full of immigrants and descendants of immigrants.

In what ways do you think this shapes Americans’ views on immigration and acceptance of immigrants today?

2. America has the idea of being a melting pot. In countries that have no such idea that they are a melting pot of immigrants, how do you think they view immigrants?