Perspectives on the Immigrant Experience and Nativism
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Section_03_5500.qxd 12/9/09 3:38 PM Page 54 SECTION THREE Perspectives on the Immigrant Experience and Nativism We are all wanderers on this earth. Our hearts are full of “ wonder, and our souls are deep with dreams. ”Gypsy Proverb s the Gypsy proverb notes, human beings of immigrants intended to stay permanently, and have always wandered from place to place historically, most of them settled in urban areas. Alooking to find new homes and achieve Two major changes in recent immigration trends new dreams. Because of its ongoing history of are that the majority of immigrants are people of immigration, the United States has been called a color and that they are more likely to be located “nation of immigrants,” but this term is inaccu- in small cities and towns where people of color rate since it neglects millions of indigenous peo- have had little or no presence in the past. Such ple who had probably made their journey communities now find themselves changed not centuries earlier and were well established on the just because of the new ethnic diversity but also North American continent at the time the first by linguistic diversity in schools and religious European immigrants arrived. (Estimates of na- diversity in churches. The presence of these new tive populations at that time range from a total of immigrants has renewed the ongoing, often bitter over two million to eighteen million.) Yet it is fair debate among American citizens about how to say that immigration has been a driving force many immigrants should be permitted to settle not only for our nation’s growth and prosperity here. It is a curious debate whose dynamics John but also for its ever expanding diversity. Steinbeck described in America and Americans, a Some immigration has been temporary or book written and published almost 50 years ago: cyclic as certain immigrants returned to their To all these (immigrants) we gave disparaging native country after achieving some economic names: Micks, Sheenies, Krauts, Dagos, Wops, Ragheads, Yellowbellies, and so forth. The turn success, and there were migrants (primarily from against each group continued until it became Mexico) who came for seasonal work and went sound, solvent, self-defensive, and economically home when the work was done. Yet the majority anonymous – whereupon each group joined the 54 Section_03_5500.qxd 12/9/09 3:38 PM Page 55 SECTION 3 Perspectives on the Immigrant Experience and Nativism 55 older boys and charged down on the newest who take menial jobs for minimal compensation. ones. Having suffered, one would have All of them contribute to the American economy, thought they might have pity on the newer come, but they did not.1 (p. 15) to their families, and to their communities. For the many laborers who immigrate here, the issue Despite the hostility, there is ample evidence that ought to receive more attention is not sim- that the United States, historically and currently, ply their contributions to our society but whether has enjoyed enormous benefits from the talents they are exploited and inadequately compen- that immigrants have brought to this nation. For sated for what they do. Yet many Americans example, in the late 1800s Charles Steinmetz insist that we are letting too many immigrants immigrated to America and became an excep- into the United States and that these immigrants tional electrical engineer, working mainly for aren’t contributing to the country, thus perpetu- General Electric. After he retired, he got a call ating myths and misperceptions of immigrants from G.E. managers, who begged him to come to and strengthening anti-immigrant attitudes. a factory where their best experts could not lo- The selections for this section begin with a cate the cause of a breakdown among some com- well-established pattern of migration–that of plicated machinery. Steinmetz walked around Mexicans and Mexican Americans who join the the equipment, testing one part and then an- migrant stream primarily into the Midwest to other. At last, he took some chalk from his harvest crops such as tomatoes or beets. Elva pocket and marked an “X” on one of the ma- Treviño Hart was a small child that summer chines. After the machine was disassembled the when she first went with her family to experts examined parts from behind the place Minnesota and Wisconsin, and she provides a that Steinmetz had marked and discovered the detailed portrait of the migrant experience from a defect that had eluded them. Later, when Stein- child’s point of view. Much has been written metz asked for $10,000 compensation for his about this ongoing migration pattern and many work, G.E. insisted that he submit an itemized statistics have been gathered and reported, but bill justifying such a large amount. Steinmetz Hart’s essay offers a very personal and human sent a note that said: “Making one chalk mark = perspective describing the experiences of one 2 $1.00. Knowing where to place it = $9,999.” migrant family. Like Steinmetz, many immigrants today come Immigrants have always had different reasons with professional training and degrees, or they for coming to the United States. For some it was receive their education here and go on to distin- to seek their dreams; for others it was to escape guish themselves in an array of occupations. On from a nightmare. After the Vietnam War when the other end of the spectrum are the laborers What the people want is very simple. They want an America as “ good as its promise. ”Barbara Jordan (1936–1996) Section_03_5500.qxd 12/9/09 3:38 PM Page 56 56 SECTION 3 Perspectives on the Immigrant Experience and Nativism the communists took over South Vietnam, thou- in the United States requires the refugees to sands of Southeast Asians immigrated to Amer- adapt to a reality that is quite different from what ica, not only Vietnamese but also Laotians and they expected. Despite the difficulties, refugees the Hmong. These refugees have encountered work hard, learn what they must, and usually significant cultural and linguistic challenges, and embrace the traditional vision of the American Sonia Nieto captures some of their difficulty in Dream, a Dream that that they believe is possible this excerpt from her “Case Study: Hoang Vinh.” for them to achieve. What they want from Amer- After a brief introduction to her subject, Nieto ica is what every American wants. lets Hoang Vinh tell his own story. He describes The most emotional immigration issue today the enormous amount of information he has to concerns undocumented workers, typically re- master. Developing English skills and a vocabu- ferred to as “illegal aliens,” mostly Latinos and lary adequate to function in everyday life is diffi- primarily from Mexico. Although Americans cult enough, but Hoang must achieve enough seem to tolerate refugees, the condemnation of fluency in the language to be able to attend col- undocumented or illegal immigrants has caused lege because a college education is required to many Americans to insist that we secure the gain access to economic opportunity. In addition, Mexican border to keep undocumented workers Hoang must understand the nuances of the dom- out of the United States. In response, Congress inant culture while also learning about the di- approved funds for a proposal from George W. verse racial and ethnic groups that he interacts Bush’s administration to erect a fence along a with in his urban community. Hoang’s story re- portion of the Mexican border, but as Michael flects the experience of many refugees, but espe- Scherer reports in “Scrimmage on the Border,” cially those from Southeast Asia. this issue is far too complicated to be resolved by Refugees are a unique category of immigrants such simplistic solutions. Scherer describes the because the injustice they have faced has caused efforts of the Border Patrol and the so-called them to flee from violence, persecution, or sim- “Minuteman” groups of volunteers patrolling the ply chaos in their native lands. In the past, border. In interviews with these volunteers, refugees were usually placed in large urban areas Scherer discovers the racism and prejudice that on the east or west coasts, but in recent years fuels their efforts to prevent undocumented they have been sent to smaller cities and commu- Mexicans (and other Latinos) from coming to the nities across the nation. In “Arrival Stories and United States. Although he presents the anti- Acculturation,” Mary Pipher describes the lives of immigrant perspective of Tom Tancredo, the Con- refugees who have settled in Lincoln, Nebraska. gressman from Colorado who was a candidate for Unlike other immigrants, refugees do not tend to President in the 2008 Republican primaries, be fluent in English when they arrive, so they Scherer also interviewed Americans who under- must immediately enroll in English classes as stand how the United States is benefiting from they look for employment. Pipher describes some the cheap labor of undocumented workers. Al- misconceptions Americans have of the refugees, though the battle of the border is likely to con- but also some misconceptions that refugees have tinue, Scherer’s essay provides us with the about America. Part of their adjustment to living context in which it is being fought. Section_03_5500.qxd 12/9/09 3:38 PM Page 57 SECTION 3 Perspectives on the Immigrant Experience and Nativism 57 After exploring the concerns facing refugees, never experienced in Haiti, but these experiences migrants, and undocumented workers, Section are well understood by African Americans. Al- Three appropriately concludes with a literary though they share a similar skin color, the black memoir written by a Haitian immigrant. In families in her neighborhood do not share the “Dyaspora,” Joanne Hyppolite describes the im- same heritage as the Haitian immigrants, so the migrant experience of leaving her native land to diaspora child is largely on her own to sort out live in another culture.