  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.
