Welcoming Immigrants

 With Texas and Florida sending planes and buses filled with new immigrants crossing their borders to Chicago, New York and Washington DC, they have capitalized a political movement around immigration. Yet both states gain from immigration and have for generations. 

Texas and Florida governors are turning the immigration problem into a major political issue and hoping that other republican governors do the same. Too bad. Ugly behavior on anyone cooperating with this. Both Abbott and DiSantis hail from immigrant ancestors. We all do.

We are a nation of immigrants. I know, I know, many will burst out saying, “I was born here.” So was I, but our roots are in immigration. The only exception are native Americans, the Amer-Indians our forebears so industriously tried to erase from our soil.  

The rest of us all are related to immigrants from all over the globe. That is fact.

Most of our ancestors were welcomed with open arms. It was a natural course of life in America. That statement does not paper over the stark fact that many generations were barred from immigrating to America. Those who were allowed entry to our nation, were often subject to discrimination, violence and bullying. Irish, Italians, Germans know this well. So do Asians.

Although many of us grew up surrounded by discrimination – some were the discriminators, others were the victims – we didn’t think much about it. The odd thing was, schools taught American history to include the ‘land of the free and the land of the brave.’ Land of opportunity was another label used. trouble is and was, many American citizens feared rampant immigration as a threat to their jobs and a threat to the expense of social programs covered by taxes. Those fears rapidly grew to quotas on immigration. Those quotas we made to sound logical and valued.

What they were, however, was a tool of discrimination. Even in 2022 there are quotas and outright bans on who is allowed into the United States. Sad. True.

America continues to be a destination for many foreigners. Even though our problems are many, our standard of living is the envy of the world. Opportunity is also attractive. Our social norms support initiative, creativity and invention. Anybody wanting to succeed, can. With ability, anyone can succeed if they invest the necessary blood, sweat and tears. This model is not automatic. It relies on the individual and innate talents and will. Not all people have these traits. Failure is also a common result.

In the end, immigrants are an asset to our nation. They are core to our diversity, growth and change.

Political ideologies to the contrary, do damage to our nation’s strengths. Fixing our immigration policies and mechanisms would do much to make the best of the opportunities immigrants provide us.

This should never be a political issue. It is the center of defining who and what it is to be an American.

September 19, 2022

 

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