Immigration and American Families

The Influence of Industrial Revolution on American Families 

The industrial revolution significantly impacted on the American families in economic, political and social perspectives. However, as presented by Stearns (2018) , the American family structure was disrupted with the change in lifestyle that led to increased pressure on men to provide for their families and maintain the traditional roles as family heads. However, the pressure amounted to more divorces and family break ups. On the other hand, some families remained intact. They were not affected by the change in the roles and men ought to remain at home and advance care to their children at home. In such families, children are rated highly and were considered the common bond among the family members.

The mass production and increase in consumption increased the need to for men to provide for their families. The increase in family demands exerted more pressure on men to meet the increased demands. The change to mass production rendered some tradesmen jobless thus struggling to be accommodated in the job market as well as trade unions to advocate for their deployment. In that light, there were mass divorce cases reported by the 1920 as compared to divorce rates in 1880s. On the other hand, women had limited job positions which impacted to their overreliance on men for their upkeep and fulfillment of family needs. According to Tilly & Scott (2016) , the change in lifestyle coupled the pressure from women to men to meet various family demands. This was however linked to desperation form lack of job and failure to meet family demands or greed from women for the increased earning from the mass production brought about by industrial revolution. Women could not be supported ion the new roles in the industrial revolution and therefore reduced their participation in caregiving and family upkeep.

However, there was significant variation in the impact of the changes based on ethnic and social classes. The low-class families struggled to meet their family needs as they took the laborer roles in the industries while the upper-class member of the society owned the factors of production and therefore managed to keep their families intact and content ( Stearns, 2018) . However, the main divorce case reported among the upper class were related to greed from women or differences on family duties. Most African Americans and other ethnic groups that were formerly deployed as slaves took the labor roles in the industrialization period.

Impact of Immigration Policies on American Families 

The immigration policies in the US affects distort s the family structure and the traditional family roles. Some of the crucial influences of the immigration policies include the separation of families and the reliance of men to women for upkeep and survival in the US. Men tend to hide away from the public with the fear of deportation and limit their participation in the facilitation of the family needs and demands ( Enchautegui, & Menjívar, 2015) . One significant frustration among men is the reversal of the traditional gender roles as they sit back in the house take care of the kids and wait for women to meet the demands of the family. In this case, women take over the breadwinning role for the families while men struggle with taking up the care roles. In some families, the patriarchal system persists with women providing for their families as well as taking care of house chores such as caregiving, cleaning and cooking. Resentment is recorded among many men in the society over the dependency on women for their survival rather that taking up their traditional roles due to tough policies and fear of deportation. During deportation, children are left in foster care disjoining them from their families ( Dreby, 2015) . On the other hand, the rate of single mothers is raised with mothers left to make ends meet. Children and family members always live in fear of deportation. Since the family members lack the freedom to freely interact with the society with the increased fear, the economic and social status of the family is negatively affected.

References

Dreby, J. (2015). US immigration policy and family separation: The consequences for children's well-being.  Social Science & Medicine ,  132 , 245-251. 

Enchautegui, M. E., & Menjívar, C. (2015). Paradoxes of family immigration policy: Separation, reorganization, and reunification of families under current immigration laws.  Law & Policy ,  37 (1-2), 32-60. 

Stearns, P. N. (2018).  The industrial revolution in world history . Routledge. 

Tilly, L. A., & Scott, J. W. (2016).  Women, work and family . Routledge.