Abstract
Immigration to the United States is certainly not a new phenomenon, and
it is therefore natural for immigration, culture and identity to be
given due attention by the public and policy makers. However, current
discussion of immigration, legal and illegal, and the philosophical
underpinnings is ‘lost in translation’, not necessarily on ideological
lines, but on political orientation. In this paper we reexamine the
philosophical underpinnings of the melting pot versus multiculturalism
as antecedents and precedents of current immigration debate and how the
core issues are lost in translation. We take a brief look at immigrants
and the economy to situate the current immigration debate. We then
discuss the two philosophical approaches to immigration and how the
understanding of the philosophical foundations can help streamline the
current immigration debate.