The story of most American families starts with; “They immigrated from…” so you would think immigration is a subject most of us would fondly embrace, sadly this not the case. This does not surprise me. Throughout our nation’s history the immigration debate has aroused passionate emotions. But today, these emotions have exploded into a form of neo-immigrant hatred which has Americans divided, agitated, and confused about immigration. This vitriol has aroused quite a bit of hostility against immigration. Apparently a deeper understanding of immigration is in order.
Generally speaking, discussions about immigration are mostly about history, they are not about us personally. The dialogues are about our intrepid immigrant grandparents and great-grandparents who contributed their brains, brawn and bravery to build America starting more than 245 years ago. Their sacrifices and contributions shaped the nation. I would like to believe we are all proud of the contributions made by our family members to the development of our great nation. But, our political leadership is telling us that our immigration history is no longer instructive or meaningful. I disagree. Factual answers to questions raised in the American psyche about immigration are important to current and future generations and deserve to be supported by the facts, serious academic research and thoughtful experiential learning.
There was a time when politicians could be counted on as reliable sources of truth, but recently they have developed a tenuous relationship with truth which is straining their credibility. As hyperbole and fabrication ascend to legitimacy in American Politics it is a rare moment when, strictly for political gain, the president, the congress, and the immigration elite are not dehumanizing and vilifying immigrants by referring to them as criminals, murders, Mexican vermin, killers, invaders, rapists, slave traders, illegal aliens and narco-terrorists. Incidentally, these pejorative references to immigrants have absolutely nothing to do with immigration. They are references to different types of cross border crime. To make their claim of an immigration crisis more alarming the administration has turned to conflating crime and immigration.
To garner support for this position they need to convince us that immigrants are law breakers with no redeeming social values or morals. They tell us, if we let them, they can fix the problem they conjured up with more “get tough” immigration laws. This causes us to hold contradictory beliefs about immigrants and immigration. No wonder we are confused, agitated and divided about immigration.
Until a few years ago, Americans were united in their belief that morally and ethically lying was an insult to our core values. We believed truth was fundamental to our way of life. Regrettably, the ardor for truth in some of our politicians has flagged. Today, within both political party’s intellectual consistency and respect for scruples and veracity is on the wane. Each of us is being hurt by lowering the standards required to hold political office. We deserve better from our politicians and we should insist on it.
Immigration is constantly shaping the American landscape and it is important to the nation in both a symbolic and practical way. Symbolically, it continues to be America’s major advantage over other countries. Disproportionate shares of the world’s ambitious people are fighting for a chance to realize their entrepreneurial ambitions in the United States.
Practically, even though some Americans still harbor deep-rooted concerns about immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers who look, behave and believe differently, immigration continues forging new levels of diversity throughout America. It is revitalizing and redefining long cherished norms of national and community identity. This is not happening without controversy.
Dr. Julian Simon, former Economics Professor at the University of Maryland rationalized the issue this way, “immigration involves a complex mix of values that may not be understood by all but, which are in no way irrational, such as the desire to maintain a degree of cultural or racial homogeneity in the country, and to keep a political or racial balance. The impulse is called “xenophobia” and it is quite normal. What is abnormal is for our leaders to use our impulse toward fear of foreigners to pit us against one another simply to achieve their political ends. This is happening with such frequency that citizens have started accepting these falsehoods as true even though they should know they are mendacities. The current immigration crisis being hawked by the Administration is cooked up, not supported by the facts and needs to be relegated to the trash heap of fake news.
The principal resistance to today’s immigration is cultural. It is not fueled by the economy or national security concerns. The strain of immigration on the nation’s social fabric may be too great for some to bear. For each group of immigrants who start new businesses and work around the clock to assimilate and make their businesses flourish, there are groups of Hispanics who aren’t learning English fast enough, Haitians still practicing voodoo, Iranians preaching Shi’ite fundamentalism or more generally, immigrants that seem to be diluting the sense of “Americanness” by not assimilating quickly enough. This too is normal. Assimilation is a plant of slow growth.
China and India are now the number 1 and number 2 countries of today’s immigration. Until recently, at least half of all immigrants were from Spanish-dominant countries. Now, Mexico is a distant third. In fact more Mexicans are leaving the country than are arriving. We are still receiving a large number of immigrants from non-English speaking countries but that too is not unusual. Germans, who made up a third of the immigrant population in the mid-nineteenth century, struggled to get through the assimilation process. While they struggled Benjamin Franklin warned that German immigrants were too stupid to learn English, and therefore represented a political threat to America. Good thing we were smart enough to not heed his warning. Today 1 in 5 Americans can trace their immigrant heritage to Germany.
These facts are instructive to concerned citizens because they provide evidence that those currently going through the assimilation process are not behaving differently than previous immigrants. According to most studies, first generation immigrants are not comfortable in English. The assimilation process begins in earnest with their American-born children. A case in point would be the “Dreamers.” Their parents brought into the country as children without the benefit of an immigration inspection. They have grown up here and know no other home. They are fully assimilated into the American culture. I say they are as America as any of us.
Without a doubt, America has faced serious immigration challenges. Past immigration disruptions were more severe because, in those days, immigrants seemed more foreign, immigrant arrivals were greater in number and more frequent. Yet, we have emerged as the strongest, most dynamic and most open society in the world. Instead of being weakened and overcome, the nation has been enriched and made stronger by immigration.
If a lot of new people immigrate here with a lot of new ideas, customs, and languages, America will look and feel different. So what? It might make sense to protect “recognizable” national characteristics in a society where national identity is fundamentally associated with a single religion or language or set of folk ways. That isn’t the case in America. Because we are a nation of immigrants, such things are much less important in defining our national identity. Our American identity is an amalgam of a rich mix of immigrants.
If I were to randomly select a group of 100 Americans and ask you to pick out the Germans, Poles, Irish, Italian or Hispanics simply by observing the group, you would be hard pressed to do so. We have become an undifferentiated mass of people known as Americans. The common denominator for each of us is that we are Americans. I am an American but my cultural legacy comes from Mexico. Yours may come from Africa, Europe or Asia. The diversity that the cultural legacy each of us brings to the mix of “Americanness” is what sets us apart and makes us the wonder of the world. In true American fashion, “E pluribus unum” (One from many) stands as a strong statement of Americans determination to form a single nation from a lavish mix of immigrants.
Americans are a good and a strong people. In my experience, when the truth about immigrants and immigration is accurately portrayed we tend to be favorably disposed toward immigration. Just think how much richer America would be if we could re-discover our heritage of nourishing liberty and opening our hearts to those seeking the same legacy.
Justo Gonzalez, the youngest person ever awarded a Ph.D. in historical theology at Yale tells us: “Cultures and societies, like living organisms, require food from outside in order to grow and survive. And, like every living organism, the moment they cease changing, they begin to die.” America should feel pride in the new life-blood immigration brings to our society, rather than resentful of it.
Ricardo Inzunza, a native of San Diego, California, was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) by President Ronald Reagan. During his 8-year tenure, his office was the central source for the development, implementation and oversight of all immigration service policies and practices. Now as CEO of RIA International, Ltd, Ricardo is often asked to serve as a business consultant to clients such as the World Bank and the Peoples Republic of China. He can be reached at 662 418 0913 (O), 202 664 3274 (M), or riatria@aol.com