-Taylor KirkThe debate in Congress over how to approach immigration issues varies from an attack on 'aliens' and the audacity they have to invade our country to a discussion on how to accomodate guest workers once they are here. An article in today's Washington Post, noting that our Olympic Team in Turin will be the most diverse ever, should remind us once again that the word 'American' (as distasteful as it may be in other parts of the Western Hemisphere) is not an ethnic or racial identification, but a signal that one adheres to the basic ideals that the United States is supposed to espouse. People of European descent in the United States conveniently tend to forget that their lineage on U.S. soil has existed at most for 500 years (a tiny dot in the timeline of human history), and that parts of what is now the United States were once happily settled by people of other races.
Of course, none of this information is new, nor does it add anything particularly refreshing to the immigration debate. However, we should be prepared to examine the nature of that debate and how it came it came to be. We show a schizophrenic response to simple questions on immigration, overwhelmingly telling pollsters that immigration is a good thing overall for our country, while saying in the same breath that more should be done to curb it. Some might say that the first question recalls an earlier period of immigration from European countries, while the question referring to 'curbing' immigration refers to current immigration patterns from Latin America and other parts of the world.
If this is the case, we have some serious questions to answer about what an American is. Since millions of people have immigrated to this country to produce the population that exists today, how can we call people that now want to be part of this country 'aliens'? Their desire to come here exhibits a willingness to be part of the American dream, whether or not that ideal is attainable. Our instinct to build a wall or fortify our borders may come from a fear that the America that will exist 50 years from now may be very different from the one we live in today. Racial majorities today will no longer be such, which has caused considerable anxiety in places like Miami and my home state of Texas.
Our Olympic Team this year should remind us that those fears existed years ago when many questioned the wisdom of allowing African-Americans to be citizens and receiving immigrants from Japan. That we eventually did both produced world-class citizens and stellar representatives of our country. We should keep this in mind when we formulate policies that will determine the nature of our country generations from now.
immigration, Politics, border, Illegal immigration, latin america
1 comment:
Since millions of people have immigrated to this country to produce the population that exists today, how can we call people that now want to be part of this country 'aliens'?
It has always been the reaction of Americans to be weary whenever a new wave of immigration appears to be "taking over." It happened with Eastern Europeans, Asians, Catholics, etc. What makes it even more difficult a question to deal with nowadays is the fact that before, an ocean separated recent US immigrants from their home countries, whereas now (particularly in the Southwest) the only separation is the Rio Grande. Ultimately, we will process this wave of immigrants, like the old ones, they will assimilate and change the character of what it means to be American, for now the debate continues.
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