Everyone knows the phrase “The American Dream”.  If one were to ask someone 50 years ago if the American Dream was still possible, s/he would question your sanity and answer, “of course“.  Fifty years ago America was thriving with people from all around the world migrating into America. They all had hopes of achieving the American Dream, and with hard work they often achieved the American Dream.  However today is a different story.  It is a debate very real today that America is turning into a economic ladder that is impossible to climb. 
    Immigrants have the hardest time making there way to the top of the economic ladder, not only because of low education levels, but also prejudiced ideas and feelings against them by Americans.  The article “No Human Being is Illegal” by Mae Ngai illustrates that Americans should not be so negative towards immigrants.  Ngai suggests that Americans use immigrants as scapegoats, someone upon which to blame  problems.  She also points out that many people are stereotypical towards immigrants.  For example, last year a poll was taken on Mexican immigrants and they mostly consisted of females from older hotel workers to high school students.  The common thought would have been that most of the people polled were Mexican men who cleaned the floors at Wal-Marts across the country.  She also says that the idea that immigrants hurt the economy is not true but, instead, they help expand it.  She states, being a immigrant herself, that immigrants are more willing to abide by the laws than the native borns, and that the immigrants are willing to make themselves and their children learn English.  Ngai describes how women leave Mexico and come to America in search for money.  She says they often end up working as caretakers for other people’s children, hotel room cleaners, and sex workers.   Ngai also finds it ironic that Americans take pride and envy the fact that America is the most sought out place for immigrants to live.  She voices her opinion that Americans often ignore the harsh realities, thinking that the American immigration policy is yet still to generous. 
    The American Dream not only pertains to immigrants, but also to the every day American.  Eugene Robinson explains in his article “Tattered Dream” how the statistics prove that America is not anymore the “land of opportunity“.  The once perceived land of unlimited possibility slowly is turning into the exact opposite, a set class structure.  The Economic Mobility Project, a research done by the Pew Charitable Trusts, compared the income of parents in the late 1960s to the income of their children in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  The study showed only 6 percent of children born to parents at the bottom fifth of the sample moved to the top fifth of the sample.  On the other hand, 42 percent of the children born in the bottom fifth remained at the bottom.  Eugene Robinson compares America’s chances of moving up on the economic ladder to Britain.  It actually turned out that people have a better chance at going from bottom to top in Britain than people do here in America.
      John E. Morton, a managing director of economic policy had a great point.  He said “Traditionally, Americans have been ready to accept high levels of inequality because of our belief in the American dream.  What happens if we can’t believe in the dream any longer?”  Robinson includes another study completed on the earnings of African Americans born in the middle or upper-middle class, compared to their parents.  This study was conducted by Julia B. Isaacs, a Brookings scholar.  The research showed that the African Americans born into the middle and upper-middle class were less likely to make more money compared to their parents.  Isaacs  was unsure why this was, but one fact the data did show was that blacks are less upwardly mobile than whites.  Another one of Isaacs studies showed that men of all race have had a steady income throughout the time she had started the research until she ended.  Robinson notes that the average income in the 1960s was $55,600 and their children’s average income is $71,900.  However, this can be misleading because the rich are becoming far more richer when compared to the poor.  Robinson concludes there seems to be a bit of “stickiness on the ends of the ladder”, saying that once people are on the top people will most likely stay there and the same for once people are on the bottom. 
    The American Dream is beginning to diminish in today’s society.  Both articles make very good points to prove this.  In the article “No Human Being is Illegal”, the author brings up a very good point that immigrants do not hurt the American economy  but they expand it.  Immigrants work for lower wages and are willing to do jobs that most people are not willing to do.  (For example working at an assembly line at minimum wage.)  Granted, this does affect the amount of jobs available to Americans, but in the long run, it will make prices of the goods the company is selling cheaper to make and therefore, more affordable to the American public.  Society is very stereotypical of immigrants, which makes it harder for them to climb the economic ladder.  When a Mexican man happens to be stocking the shelves at a grocery store, the perceived thought is that he is an illegal immigrant, working for $3 an hour.  This often is not the case. Often times this man is just a father trying to support his family.  Mae Ngai proves the stereotype of Mexican immigrants to be wrong, anyhow, because it  actually is women that are more often are working in hotels, or they are students.  Eugene Robinson, in the article “Tattered Dream” shows through research that people who start at the top of the economic ladder are more likely to stay at the top and the same with the bottom.  This statistic reveals a lot.  It shows how much money can help someone in terms of setting up their future when a child.  If a child were born into a wealth family, the child will be provided with the best of schooling, always have plenty of food on the table, a maid always to do their chores, and will never have to have a job. (Maybe even a few bribes here or there under the counter.)  However, if a kid was born into a poverty-stricken family, s/he are publicly educated, while having to maintain a job because their family can’t afford to live a healthy lifestyle.  That child’s schoolwork is not as important to them because they have to worry about surviving and making it to the next day.
    Prosperity and equality are part of the American Dream.  It seems that as America is growing older, this dream is being harder to obtain, whether it be moving up in the economic ladder or freedom without people judging one based on their nationality. With that said, the American Dream may just be an idea, nothing ever reachable, an unobtainable goal.

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