We are a nation of immigrants…we were at our beginning and we remain so. It is not a condition to be feared or demonized.
Our forefathers braved a treacherous journey to avoid persecution and embrace a new beginning, a new nation unfettered by either an aristocracy or a theocracy, a land of limitless opportunity. We began to populate the land with families from across Europe…hard-working, unschooled,, but ambitious. They built cities with the hopes of providing something better for their children than they’d had in their home country and our nation responded.
It was emblazoned on the Statue of Liberty:
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries we welcomed immigrants through the cavernous halls of Ellis Island from Eastern Europe, South America and the Caribbean. Gaggles of foreign voices and foreign smells filled the ghettos of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore before these newcomers gathered their meager possessions and moved west. They started new industries and modernized old ones. Black Americans, once slaves, educated their children as well, and those boys and girls became doctors and engineers and entrepreneurs.
Today too many people decry the entry of immigrants but without them jobs across the economic ladder go unfilled and who will be the leaders of tomorrow if not their children. We have, indeed, evolved into a multi-hued country.
INDIA – Today there are nearly 3 million Indians living in the United States…the 2nd largest population group (behind Mexico) of new Americans in our century. Their success at integrating is breathtaking…more than 80% have Bachelor’s degrees, half have advanced degrees. 28 of the 34 winners of the National Spelling Bee have been young Indian boys and girls.
ASIANS – 15 million Americans who identify as Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese or Japanese live among us, as well as 4 ½ million Filipinos. Some are recent arrivals, others arrived as refugees from the Korean and Vietnam wars. They all share American values.
MEXICO & LATIN AMERICA – In 1980 Latinos and their descendants counted 15 million…7% of the population. Forty years forward…2021, it had grown to 62 million…19% of our population. Like others who came here, they were escaping violence and poverty, often walking thousands of miles with their children, seeking a better life. They brought their religion, love of family, community and a strong work ethic with them.
AFRICANS – 2 million sub-Saharan Africans from 51 countries now call the United States home. Like others, they were escaping war and poverty as well as the effects of global warming.
Today nearly 50 million of Americans are foreign born. They work, pay taxes and contribute to our country’s prosperity. Their children will start businesses…they will invent new products…discover new cures, and travel to outer space. If America is to have a continuing prosperous future it will depend on the ‘Gens, X, Y, & Z’s of all ethnicities.
This is not a diatribe for open borders. Every country needs to make intelligent decisions on who to allow in, but as we attempt to do that we need to acknowledge the contributions each group had made in enhancing our nation’s identity as a democratic republic accepting of all races and all religions.