America is once again at a crossroads.
We are a nation of immigrants who have somehow become fearful of immigrants.
We do this periodically, telling ourselves that our people were the good immigrants, the rightful immigrants, but these newcomers, they are the “wrong” immigrants, but they are too different from us.
The DACA kids (and their families) are dreamers. The one true statement Trump
said at the SOTU was to note that all Americans are dreamers, but, of course, he took this point of commonality and used it to create more divisions.
He also, offensively, referred to family migration (bringing over a family member) as “chain migration”. While the US was built on the backs (and dreams) of many voluntary immigrants from around the globe, it is another deliberate insult to ignore the fact that our country enslaved others, forced them come America literally in chains, and that their blood, labor, and dreams built the US, too.
It is time to reclaim our full immigrant history as we invite others to join us, adding their strengths and dreams to ours.
The psychology that makes America a nation of immigrants
The way Americans smile—
Immigration has defined the US and its citizens from the very start—down to how often and why they smile.
Smiling, and showing emotions in general, is more common in countries that are historically diverse than in homogeneous places, say researchers from Niedenthal Emotions Lab, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Individuals in diverse societies have to rely on emotional expression to navigate the panoply of foreign cultures, social norms, and languages they came across during the course of everyday life.
Among nine countries studied by the researchers, the US had the highest share of people who see smiles as a way to be friendly or bond with others—more than 80%. qz.com/...
Read the rest of the article to see how our immigrant experience affects—
The way Americans think — Immigration is also embedded into Americans’ psychology. “All Americans, that is, all non-Indian Americans, have left an old world behind”...
The way Americans hear — Immigrants to the US—and their descendants—don’t have the millenary myths or ethnic homogeneity that binds the citizens of their countries of origin…
The American welcome — ...research suggests that when Americans live with immigrants, they warm up to them…
Who are some of these wild and crazy
hippy radicals who believe that
immigrants are valuable to the US?
“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respected Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges…”
George Washington
“Our attitude towards immigration reflects our faith in the American ideal. We have always believed it possible for men and women who start at the bottom to rise as far as the talent and energy allow. Neither race nor place of birth should affect their chances.”
Robert F. Kennedy
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Remember, remember always, that all of us, you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
If you have a family story of immigration that you’d like to share below, please do.