Coming To America

The following post is one that was written for & published on another site about a year ago, but with the continuing controversy in Arizona especially, I think it's obviously still relevant to our national dialogue:

As the grandaughter of immigrants, I feel a kinship with all of those people who are brave enough to leave their own countries to start a new, hopefully better, life in a new country. My paternal grandfather, who came here as a teenager from Italy, loved America & was always thankful for the opportunities he had been given here. I once asked him why he never went back to Italy to visit, & he told me that in Italy he had nothing, & not much of a future to look forward to, but that America had given him the chance to become a success & to provide his family with the type of life they would never have had in Italy. He was proud when both of his sons, my father & my uncle, went to fight in WWll for their country, even though the country of his own birth was aligned with the other side. I couldn't understand that at the time, & I confess that I still find it somewhat strange.

We who were born here seem to take a lot about our lives for granted, even if we are only first or second generation Americans, whereas immigrants are grateful for & embrace all of the things that they didn't have in their homeland. The most important of these things is simply opportunity. While native-born Americans sometimes act as if success is owed them, those not born here look at it as a gift that they must nevertheless work to achieve. This is as it should be, but sometimes I wonder what immigrants must think when they see people become famous & materially successful without actually working for it (if the shoe fits, then wear those Jimmy Choos- everybody knows the people I'm talking about).

I really believe that most Americans, especially those of us whose ancestors came here as immigrants (which is actually everybody but Native Americans, but you know what I mean), do welcome people from other countries & other cultures. However, there are still some people (hopefully, in the minority) who apparently think that everyone who emigrates here is after their jobs. It doesn't seem to matter that most of the jobs taken by immigrants are those not exactly coveted by the majority of Americans. In fact, a lot of highly educated professionals from other countries can't actually practice their chosen professions here because of poor documentation, licensing problems, language barriers or other difficulties, especially if they come from politically volatile or repressive countries. How many times have you heard of otherwise highly qualified medical doctors, scientists or engineers who end up driving a taxi or working in a fast food place to make a living, most often working for minimum wage to support themselves & their families?

However, most of the problems we see with the backlash toward immigrants are with those poor souls from Latin America countries, especially Mexico, who often come here the only way they know how, by illegally crossing borders or rivers. They don't get to see the Statue of Liberty before landing on Ellis Island, as all of my grandparents did, or to see the welcoming words written by Emma Lazarus at the foot of this magnificent beacon of hope & opportunity: "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!" Instead, what they often see are vicious dogs & bigots with guns

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I do understand that the terrible economy & the horrendously high umemployment rate have been a factor contributing to the backlash, but I suspect that these mean-spirited individuals who want to patrol the border with firearms, use barbed wire & barrier walls & immediately deport everybody here illegally actually would think like this even if circumstances were better. No matter what they call themselves, these right-wing crazies are all cut from the same mold, & intolerance seems to be their real political movement & hate their real religion. We certainly do need a new federal immigration policy, but it must be more than a selfish, punitive kind of policy. It can't be that difficult to come up with a solution to this very real problem that is fair to all concerned, leavened with the admonition given to us from Jesus, & echoed by all of the world's major religions in one form or another, to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". We really are all brothers & sisters, & we should start acting like it. This is America, which is still a singular & magnificent experiment, no matter where we started out. There is simply no other country like it. We all end up in the great melting pot that blends our diversity into shared humanity. We can't let those who don't actually believe in the underlying concept of our country control the dialogue about immigration (or anything else, for that matter). Real patriots need to be the face of America in the 21st century.