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We are 230 years old this summer, just about right for an identity-crisis.
A rational commentary, without political diatribes. kwc Nation of immigrants isn't a land of guest workers By Ellen Goodman, May
19, 2006 It was a soothing color to see after so many stark shades of
black and white. The president, who has long boasted that he doesn't see a lot
of nuance, dressed up his speech on immigration in muted tones of gray. Illegal immigrants, he said, live in
"the shadows of our society" straining state and local budgets,
pressuring schools and hospitals. They are also "decent people who work
hard, support their families, practice their faith and lead responsible
lives." We got a brief glimpse of the man who had governed a state
with a 1,200-mile border with Mexico and yet adamantly refused to ban the children
of illegals from public schools. This time the president echoed the ambivalence among Americans who are
evenly split on whether immigration helps or hurts the country. He talked about law enforcement and he
talked about the melting pot. He spoke in tough words about using the National
Guard to keep foreigners out. And he spoke gently about a wounded soldier's
request for citizenship. Listening, I was reminded of how long we have viewed
immigrants as both heroes and threats. Every generation looks back through some
sepia-tinged lens at the immigrants who built this country. It's the American
story. But every generation also has those who look at new immigrants as
threats to our national identity. This was true when Benjamin Franklin rued the German immigrants
who settled his native Pennsylvania. It was true when nativists insisted that
the Irish and Italian and Jewish "races" were too foreign to ever
assimilate. It's true now when many rise up in alarm at Latinos who sing the
national anthem in Spanish. Much of this debate is about chaos on the border. It's also
about whether immigrants take jobs from citizens or do jobs Americans won't
touch. But how much is about identity? About becoming American? When my grandparents came to America, the door was open. Today,
foreigners can only get permission to move here through family connections or
job skills, as asylum-seekers or as winners in the annual visa lottery. We have
what historian Roger Daniels calls a bipolar population of immigrants. And also
of images. On the one hand, the foreign-born Ph.D. and will-be CEO. On the
other hand, the person who cleans your house and mows your lawn, picks your
lettuce and cares for your parents. The melting pot is still as powerful an American icon as
the Liberty Bell.
"The success of our country,"
said Bush, "depends upon helping
newcomers assimilate into our society and embrace our common identity as
Americans." But here is where the president's shades of gray
turn into the jarring colors of a policy patchwork. The most troubling part of the proposals now on the table
may not be using the National Guard — doomed from the get-go — nor the long,
rocky road to citizenship some label amnesty. It may be the expanded
"guest worker" program.
Many
employers see this as a way to satisfy the need for temporary labor. Opponents
see it as a way to undercut wages. What if it also undercuts the American
story? Do we want to create a constitutionally sanctioned category of
second-class citizens, or, rather un-citizens, or rather, never-to-be-citizens? Historian David Hollinger of the University of
California-Berkeley describes this as "a big deal" in our history,
"dangerous and un-American." The traditional presumption was always
that immigrants would come here and become full Americans. Some immigrants have
always gone back and forth. Indeed one in every three Europeans who came during
the great waves of the 20th century — half of all the Italians — chose to go
home. But under this expanded program of tracked transients, we might well
replace illegals who work "in the shadows" with guests who work in
the permanent shade of discrimination. In Europe, guest workers have long overstayed their welcome,
if welcome is even the right word. They've become the disaffected source of
trouble in countries that never much fancied the melting pot. It doesn't take
much to imagine "guest workers" in America becoming exactly what
illegal immigrants are now, a permanent subclass, and a living rebuke to the
idea of assimilation. "Americans are bound
together by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the
flag we fly, and an ability to speak and write the English language,"
said Bush. We are also a pluralistic society and it's hard at times to define
those "shared ideals." But an "appreciation of our history" will tell you
that we were built and constantly renewed by newcomers who came to call the
United States "my country" and defined themselves as citizens. Not as
guests. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/3875937.html |
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