Topic > Social Theories of Immigration: Functionalism, Conflict, and Interactionism

A social problem is defined as an activity that causes more harm than good to families, countries, and the world at large. Immigration falls into the category of a social problem throughout the world, but particularly in the United States. Immigration has been the subject of much controversy, as well as a cause of division over whether the impact of immigration is minor or severe in the long run. immigration can be defined as the act of a foreign person or group entering the border of a country to which they are not native. It is important to look at immigration because people have the wrong idea of ​​what immigration really is and fail to realize the economic growth it brings and fuels the economy. Ignoring immigration can lead to exploitation and other problems such as family separation. It is fascinating to explore immigration in sociology as we delve into how functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism can relate to immigration and gain a clearer picture of why it is such an important issue in today's world . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssaySymbolic interaction is the theory that focuses on the relationships and interactions between individuals within a society. The theory uses communication which in this case is the exchange of meaning through symbols and one-to-one interactions. Individuals attach meaning to their own actions or actions and those of others. We tend to act towards someone or something based on the meaning we interpret from it. Immigration can be linked to symbolic interaction because it contributes to its main idea, which is that symbols play an important role in communication. In this case the symbols and words used for the social problem contribute to the perception of what people have against the problem. For example, humans have attached meaning to the word "immigrant", when a person hears the word immigrant they tend to attach to the word words like brown, uneducated, Mexican, "wet back" and consider them people who only came to the United States to give money to their poor families. People tend not to think about the many other immigrants who come to the United States, such as college-educated people who come for a specific job or people who are refugees and are fleeing the deaths and political views of their country. In high school I befriended someone who was an immigrant, there were multiple occasions where she was constantly stereotyped as a poor, dumb Hispanic who only spoke Spanish, while also having the perception that her parents were Gardners or a housekeeper. This interaction he encountered had a change of direction with respect to one word, the perception of the word immigrant. A simple word can have so much meaning that it convinces others to connect to it and have the same meaning behind it. By changing the word immigrant to "undocumented immigrant" instead of "illegal immigrant" we do not find ourselves having the same connection as before, the stereotypes become less worrying. Symbolic interactions help us amplify how people's perceptions of certain issues contribute to their attitudes toward the problem. It is important to know their opinions as they can be addressed and focused on more easily. Another theory that helps us zoom in on the social issue of immigration is social conflict theory. Social conflict focuses on perspective.012809.102651)