The New Wave of Immigrants

The United States has been experiencing an unbelievable wave of Spanish-speaking immigrants from Latin and South America over the past decade. When I was in high school I never encountered any Hispanic people; however, by the time that I had graduated from college, Spanish-speaking people were not only common, but were becoming a significant element in the demographic composition of Rowan County and North Carolina. Apparently, this is a common trend throughout the United States – a trend that has many Americans concerned.

I am actually glad to see this wave of immigration. In a way it tells me that America is still doing something right. If it weren’t, people wouldn’t still want to move here in droves. America has always been a nation of immigrants. If you believe what the scientists tell us, even the Native Americans (that were here before Europe had figured out that the world really was round) immigrated across a great Asian land bridge.

Every generation or so, (at least since the discovery of the Americas by Europe) a new round of immigrants has come to our shores. They have come here for different reasons: some are trying to escape pestilence or oppression in their homeland, others sought the ability to worship as they chose, many desired economic opportunity, and thousands of others simply yearned for the freedoms that we enjoy here. Each wave of immigrants has brought with them many elements of the cultures that they left: foods, traditions, and ideas. Many of them also carry with them the vision of what America is supposed to be. They actually believe when they come here that it is a land of opportunity – that if they work hard and are creative they can live the American Dream. I read a great article, entitled What Makes America Unique, illustrating this very attitude on Newsmax today.

America would have never beaten the Russians to space or the Germans to the discovery of atomic power without the wave of German immigrants during World War Two. Indians have proven their ability in computer technology. And we have gained much knowledge through the Russian and Jewish scientists that have come to our country.

Just think of the foods that we would be missing without immigration! There would be no Chinese food and no pizza! Japanese steakhouses wouldn’t exist. What about the fabulous Jewish bagel shops and delicatessens that we would be without? Mexican food? It just wouldn’t be here without our immigrants. How about peanut butter? Without African immigrants, we may have never discovered one of my favorite foods! (Thank you, George Washington Carver!) The American culinary landscape would be far less interesting without our (relatively) new neighbors.

There are also holidays that we wouldn’t celebrate without our immigrants. Who would be interested in celebrating St. Patrick’s Day if there were no Irishmen in our American family tree? Would there be Cinco de Mayo celebrations without the Mexican descendants that live among us?

These waves of immigrants have also provided our industry and job markets people that have been willing to work hard for little money at jobs disdained by many - all for the sake of a shot at the American Dream. It has happened over and over and over again throughout our history as a nation. Whether it was Scots escaping the tyranny of British rule, or the Irish seeking to escape starvation during the potato blight, or the Poles, or the Chinese, the Hispanics, or even African slaves that were brought here against their own will; these people have brought their ingenuity and hard work to the American labor force.

America just wouldn’t be America without ethnic and cultural diversity. There is no escaping it – we would never have accomplished what we have in America without the input of people from all over the world that have bought in to our vision of freedom and opportunity.

Oddly enough, with each wave of immigration has come a resistance to that wave. I suppose that the primary cause of that resistance is people’s natural reticence regarding change. Just like a chemical equation, each addition of a reagent causes a change in the system – an instability that remains until equilibrium is reached. People like equilibrium, but aren’t too happy about instability. They are afraid that the changes will be bad, that the way of life that they have grown to love will be lost because of all of these newcomers and all of their new or foreign ideas. I recently watched a History Channel documentary about the Ku Klux Klan. This horrible organization was at its strongest during a period of significant numbers of new immigrants coming to America. In fact, they commented that it was fear of this wave of immigration that fueled the popularity and growth of the Klan during this period of our history. These fears were unfounded, though. The simple fact is that these waves of immigration have never changed the core DNA of the American vision.

I am more and more aware of similar concerns surrounding the current influx of Hispanic immigrants. The increased voicing of these concerns worries me because I believe that the conditions are becoming right for the return or emergence of an organization like the KKK to vent the fears and prejudices surrounding the Hispanic culture. This sort of racism and ignorance is foolish and unbecoming of Americans.

That is not to say that there are not valid concerns regarding the current immigration. In fact, I have several concerns myself regarding the differences that I see between this migration and the others that our nation has experienced.

The first difference that I see is that many of those who came in past immigrations came to our country legally with full intentions of becoming American citizens. When they arrived they understood that they needed to learn the language of this country and did. They also worked to become citizens. They took classes to learn about the American system of government and history. Sadly, many naturalized citizens know more about how America works than those who are born citizens!

I am not convinced that these same motivations are present in many Hispanic immigrants. Many are here illegally and seem to have no intention of becoming citizens. Few attempt to learn English. Assimilation into the American culture seems to be the last thing on their minds.

Secondly, There are many stories of these illegal aliens abusing medical, food, and housing entitlement programs only to return to their home country with American dollars without ever paying taxes on those earnings. There are also disturbing reports that non-citizen Hispanics are being allowed to vote in American elections. This is ludicrous! Why would anyone become a citizen if they were able to enjoy all of the benefits of citizenship without having to commit to the responsibility of supporting this country financially or physically through military service?

Granted, these problems are our own fault. It is evident that there is need for reform in many areas of our country. Immigration laws need to be enforced. Electoral policy needs to change, making it necessary to provide proof of American citizenship to vote. Laws need to remain firm that English is the official language of this nation. Welfare laws need to be reformed so that non-citizens do not receive the same level of benefit that citizens are entitled to.

I love Hispanic culture. There are many very praise worthy elements to it. The people are fun loving, hard working, and generous. Granted, there are negative elements to the culture too, but every ethnicity has undesirable characteristics, just as every individual does. I say, let us welcome this wave of immigrants among us, but at the same time let’s make it clear that this is America, and if these folks want to be here they need to do things the way that we do them. It's our country. Play by our rules. That means pay your taxes, learn English, be here legally and work towards becoming a citizen. It isn’t too much to ask. It is what every wave of people coming to America before has done.