There’s a simple idea that could change our society’s views and practices on immigrants. I want immigrants who have the skills to make our nation better. I want immigrants who are better than the average American. Frankly that doesn’t seem like much to ask.
Albert Einstein was an immigrant – and his presence improved my country. My grandfather was an immigrant – and to me, at least, one of the greatest people in this country. He died a month past my fifth birthday, but his positive regard has been with me a lifetime. My mother-in-law came into this country as a physician – her work experience was in Stalin’s Soviet Union, then in Hitler’s camps. I’d like to think she made the world a better place in all three locations. As I write, Mars Miego’s face and smile come to mind – he was Filipino. Forty years later, another immigrant from the Philippines told me of the bias he had encountered in Asia: “You Filipinos think that you’re little brown Americans.” Mike Catangui thought of the US – our laws, our Constitution, our presumption of equality – as much more nearly sacred than our native born do. These are immigrants who make our nation better.
If you want to appreciate immigrants, listen past the accents that tell of a foreign accent and work among the immigrants who make our world a better place. If you want to fear and despise immigrants, read the crime headlines and stories of immigrants who arrived under a non-selective system.
I want immigrants who are vetted and bring skills and attitudes that make my country a better place. I want immigrants that chose to be assimilated and become better Americans than our native born.
I learned of assimilation working with Native Americans – Indians – who would laugh and say, “I’m assimilated.” Somewhere in our association, I realized that, I have assimilated Native American values. Possibly from Scots ancestors who worked and laughed with their Cherokee and Choctaw neighbors. Definitely from Indian classmates in classes from elementary through graduate school. Definitely from co-workers.
Assimilation began early in our nation’s history – read of Squanto, and think how much he assimilated the Pilgrims. Contrast Americans with the attitudes of their European ancestors. I can scarce understand the speech spoken in my ancestral Scots lowlands. I can’t understand Norwegian – but that soft accent always brings back a memory of my grandfather. I want immigrants who will move into our society and assimilate what we have to offer, just as those Puritans who moved into Massachusetts in 1620 assimilated the American Indian regard for freedom and liberty that put their descendants shooting at British Regulars at Lexington in 1775. I want immigrants who will make my country better.
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