MONDAY, MAY 15, 2023 - IMMIGRATION 1

 MONDAY, MAY 15, 2023 IMMIGRATION

Title 42 had ended (whatever that means).  

Other than Native Americans, we are a nation of immigrants.  Maybe the first (and most significant in terms of culture) were the English.  We have New England, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.  Then Jamestown, Pennsylvania.  And the whole Eastern seaboard was primarily English.  Some Dutch settlers had New Amsterdam (that became New York).  

During the 1840s, the Irish potato famine prompted many Irish to settle in the United States.  German Unification brought more settlers to this country.

So, the early settlement of the United States was primarily Northern European.

Ah, but the Southern Plantation owners needed workers so they bought black slaves from Africa - so a large immigration of black Americans.  Italian unification brought Italian immigrants to the East Coast.

Some French immigrants, and few Spanish or Portuguese.  (Spanish immigrants generally went to South America, and Portuguese went to Brazil) 

And, here and there, pockets of Polish, Czech, and other immigrants.

The West Coast needed workers for railroad building - so Chinese immigrants.  

On the Statue of Liberty is a poem by Emma Lazarus - “The New Colossus”.  Here are the most famous lines from that poem:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Lazarus was a Jewish poet of Portuguese descent.  

I trace my heritage to mostly northern European background - German, Irish, English, Scottish - but I am friends with people from multiple backgrounds and cultural experiences.

So, why the uproar about potential immigrants on the United States border?  

Well 

• There are undesirables in the group (criminals)

• They’ll take our jobs

• They don’t know our language 

• They don’t know our culture

• They will hurt the poor (by taking away built-in benefits we have for the poort)

• They will abuse the benefits we give them

• They will add to the budget deficit

• They aren’t like previous immigrants

• They will hurt the environment, and cause additional crowding in cities

While the United States might have been a “melting pot” at one point, it wasn’t without problems.  Some WASPs (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestants) objected to Catholic Irish and Italian immigrants.  Japanese Americans were held in concentration camps during World War II (but German Americans were not). 

Of course, Black slaves were welcomed to work the plantations, but after the Civil War, free Blacks were treated as second-class citizens once they were free people (Jim Crow laws).  “Separate but equal” made separate schools, separate rules, and regulations -even separate bathrooms - after all, what White Americans would want to go into a bathroom stall where a Black American just was. Separate was almost never equal.  Sit in the back of the bus (until a very tired Rosa Parks sat in the “white section” on a bus.

When the United States was leaving Vietnam, many Vietnamese moved here.  There was a whole flood of backlash.  I don’t hear that backlash about Vietnamese today.  The United States supported Afghanistan and when our military withdrew, many Afghanistani sought to come to the United States.

My last years of teaching were at the University of Texas.  I’ve shared being a very privileged white male professor and coming to the realization that I was judgmental, biased, and just plain wrong - especially with black students, Muslim students, Indian students, and others.  

Three weeks ago I traveled to Big Bend National Park.  It is seven hours by car from my home in Georgetown Texas.  Many of those miles were through the desolate country - arid, desert lands.  I don’t know what those lands could be used for - but America has worked solutions for immigrants before.  

This week I want to (I have to) write about “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Above I gave nine reasons why people don’t want immigration.  I’m using a source: https://www.cato.org/blog/14-most-common-arguments-against-immigration-why-theyre-wrong 

A little reality - In Texas, traditional White Americans are about 50% of the population now and that percentage is dropping.  The birth rate of White Americans is less than those of other backgrounds (especially Hispanics).  

Yes, I have some biases - and some (most) of my biases are based on politics and in religion.  

I write “LOVE WINS” - and use the scripture “Love your neighbor as yourself”.  That particular scripture comes just before the story of the Good Samaritan - “Who is my neighbor”?  Yes, my worldview has changed.  Who is my neighbor - might be a family from Nicaragua - escaping from gang violence or poverty. It might be a Muslim from China that is persecuted by the Chinese authorities.  

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Oops - sorry that is no longer the case - we don’t want your tired, your poor, those that want to breathe free.  

So, let’s see how this goes!!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, MAY 15, 2023