Sociology

How do Race, Gender, Sexuality and Class Intersect to create Obstacles for Immigrants
The history of the United States of America has been evident for witnessing the impact of race, gender, sexuality and class as the prominent aspects that create obstacles for the immigrants to access the rights of citizens. Among these aspects race is the most prominent one that has been creating problem of discrimination in the access of the basic rights of a citizens including education, employment, children welfare, health facilities, voting etc. In New York alone the rate of the people of colors deteriorating economic condition has made many from the Human rights development to nod worryingly over the seriousness of the issue. The non- white community makes 80 of New Yorks population but they are living below the federal income poverty level. According to the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD, a human rights treaty) in the United States of America, the elimination of racial distinction is obligatory. It is important at first to see how the very word immigrant is defined. The term immigrant encompasses conditions of immigration, constellation of risks, crossings, in betweens, fragmentations, otherness, insecurities, survivals, resistances and creativity after the events of September 11, 2001 (Gupta, 2006, p.4). Immigration is the process of developing an identification with another country and is often followed by an application of citizenship (Charles, 1999, p.76).

Some researchers have presented the case studies to show how an immigrant family faces problems for getting their children admitted in public schools to benefit from cheap education that is the very basic right of a person. The children would face problem if their mother tongue is not understood by others. They not only face obstacle in progressing in their class but also would fail to intimidate with their fellows. Similarly Gender can act as an obstacle for children from immigrant families. In the school a girl is told not to wear a religious symbol that is important to her or if the girl is an accomplished dancer and she is told that she can not apply to the districts special school for the performing arts because there is no English as a second language she would face problem (Muy  Congress, 2009, p.231).

The issues of sexuality also pose problems for the immigrants for accessing the basic rights. Many people(gay and lesbians, transgender) originated from other countries who wish to join their partners in the U.S face many problems in the legitimatization of their partnership. Antiimmigrant feelings regarding the deviance in sexual relationships is not novel in the policies of the United States of America and the identity of the immigrants had been a question mark only due to the policies of the U. S. The opposition was not as severe in the early 19th century when the U.S needed labor at any cost so the government attracted the immigrants but paid very little. The government also fear the mixing of the immigrants with the citizens through relationships and some conservative politicians have denounced them for they would out breed Anglo Saxons. Immigrants became a biological threat for their sexuality. When in 2003 sodomy laws were legitamized it was seen as a fruit of the vast immigration in the countries assuming that it was the values of other countries that have taken place in the U. S.

Immigration Policies and Legislations in the U. S History-
Many laws and policies have been presented solely to determine the status of the immigrants but the fact remains that these were restrained to limit the immigrants under certain demarcations while denying the basic rights as equal to the citizens. Some of them are discussed briefly.

Naturalization Act in 1790-
The law prevented the right of citizenship to the people of color that also included slaves. And for those of white people were obliged to stay for two years in order to apply for citizenship.  Simpson-Mazolli Act (1986)-

Another act that affected the lives of the poor immigrants in the United States of America was Simpson-Mazolli Act or the Immigration Reform and Control Act(IRCA) that aimed to prevent the granting jobs to the illegitimate immigrants and demanded the immigrants verification of their status. The legislation not only changed the hiring process as it became through subcontractors as mediators which further lowered the wages of the immigrant employees.

California Proposition (1994)-
In the U. S history many legislations and policies have affected the immigrants. The one very prominent was California Proposition 187 in 1994 that aimed the prohibition of benefits by the government to the illegal immigrants in California. The proposition was also criticizes as based on racism and xenophobic reactions of Hispanic immigrants. The immigrants were not found of any serious violation of the rules except crossing the border as a result of poverty but they worked hard and contributed in providing valuable services to the people of California at low wages. These immigrants were denied equal rights as well as they were the victims of abhorence of the citizens.

Illigal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996-
This very legislation formed the notion of illegal immigrants as well as the barriers of staying in the country for applying for citizenship regardless of having a spouse or children with citizenship. The violators of the legislation could face deportation including detention as well.

Social Welfare Policies-
As the U. S history is replete with events as wars, economic depression, and many other political decisions that have served to influence the social welfare policies of the U.S that also resulted in Personal Responsibity Act that aimed to curb the fund after a limited period of time. It also included the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program. The Personal Responsibity and Work Opportunity (PRWO) was criticized for its being to the point of racism and misogony which marginalized the unpaid labor and single mothers. The case of the immigrants was thus worsened as the government did not had money for the citizens so it could not pay the migrants as well. The non- qualified immigrants are denied the enrollment in most federal public schools (Muy  Congress, 2009, p. 313).

Das Guptas Concept of space making Versus place taking politics-
Das Guptas concept of the politics of space making and place taking are important in the discussion of the rights of the immigrants and the impact of the aspects like race, gender, sexuality and class that correspond to the obstacles for the immigrants in alien countries. Monish Das Guptas book Unruly Immigrants Rights, Activism, and Transnational South Asian Politics in the United States is a fertile ethnography that describes the practices of South Asian American organizations and how the rights of the immigrants are conceived and studied in the United States. She emphasizes the way the organizations are trying to claim rights as immigrants, not citizens, in order to challenge the various forms of exploitation unleashed in this current phase of globalization (Gupta, 2006, p. 4). There she makes the distinction between space making and place taking clear. The different organizations, she finds out, are attempting to get the citizens the rights as improved wages or protection from violence but ignore to claim the rights as equal citizens. Citizenship for immigrants, says Gupta, guarantees their place in the national community or their rights that must accompany the access of the migrants to have civil, political, social, and economic rights (Gupta, 2006, p.14). Gupta argues that the organizations demand the rights for the immigrants not for a place as citizens but for their recognition of basic rights as migrants. She maintains that over the last three decades, we have been able to denaturalize gender, race and sexuality so that we can see them as principles that organize power relations in society and she demands to see citizenship as similar structure of power (Gupta, 2006, p. 256-7).  She argued that the immigrations must be provided the rights equal to the citizens.

Conclusion
Although in the history of America immigrants have been facing problems and obstacles for accessing the rights of citizenship that included facilities and funds from health to education from the days of slavery but the condition of the immigrants in the United States of America worsened after the September 11, 2001 attacks that precipitated a long sequence of amendments in the established legislations while making the lives of the immigrants petty with the passage of time. The immigrants, including slaves, Jews and alien communities were regarded as the violators of the American values in the past but after the events of September 11, the Muslims were included in the line of the inferior ones. It was, thus not only the race, gender, sexuality and class that created obstacles for the immigrants but religion also became a prominent aspect that served to pose obstacles for the immigrants in the access of the rights of the citizens.