OUR Immigrant Past
Almost all of us have an immigrant story. Our families at some time in the past decided that it was worth the cost and risk to traverse the seas and come to America for a better life.
When Trump spews hatred about immigrants, think of your own immigrant past. Was your families’ journey really very different that those coming here today?
unlikely your family immigrated legally
You may say your family immigrated here legally. But what did that really mean in the late 1880’s and early 1900s? There were no immigration laws until the late 1800’s. The first laws on immigration were in 1882 and excluded Chinese from entering the country and placed a .50 cent tax on immigrants. Subsequently, Congress passed laws that excluded other specific groups but generally our doors were open to all until 1924 (ballotpedia.org ). The Immigration Act of 1924 set up the modern immigration quota system. So unless your family came to America after 1924, the idea that they immigrated legally is not really meaningful as immigration was not regulated.
MY STORY
My father’s family left Czarist Russian to avoid having to serve in the army where Jews were not well treated and to escape the pogroms. In today’s world, they would probably asked for asylum.
They came around 1905, passing through Ellis Island and settling in lower Manhattan. My grandfather painted houses for a living and my grandmother did not learn to read until she was 60. Were they very different from today’s immigrants? They were uneducated, spoke a different language, and followed a different religion.
I am sure there were those who wished they had stayed in Russia. They worked hard, paid taxes, and transformed their lives. Of their six grandchildren, all went to college, two have PhDs, one is a lawyer, and one is a doctor.
We are more alike than we are different
Immigrants have fueled growth in the United States and overall contribute positively to our country. Trump has latched on to illegal immigration as a campaign theme, playing on people’s fears of differences. He has blown the challenges associated with illegal immigration out of proportion. So the next time he characterizes them as rapists and drug dealers, says they need to be locked up while they are waiting for asylum, or need to have their children take away, think of your own immigration story. It is probably not so very different that the story of today’s immigrants and you would not want your grandparents to have been locked up.