My
book “A Wary Welcome: The History of US Attitudes toward Immigration” is now
available for sale.
Americans
are in the midst of yet another acrimonious debate over immigration. Often
the debate sounds more like a shouting match than a dialogue, as each side
states its case more and more loudly. The two sides characterize immigrants in
different ways. Some describe legally recognized refugees and undocumented
asylum seekers as families fleeing violence or starvation, in need of a safe
haven and ready to share their gifts of skill, character, courage and cultural
perspective with the country which gives them refuge. Others describe them as alien hordes who do
not understand our culture or our values, who are likely to become public
charges at the expense of already-struggling native-born citizens, and who
include large numbers of criminals and terrorists.
Both sides claim that they seek to
protect American values, but disagree deeply about what these values
are. Some describe the US as a nation of
immigrants and of principles, a nation profoundly committed to human rights.
Others describe the US as a nation of people of European descent and of laws, a
nation profoundly committed to the preservation of its traditional
institutions. An outside observer could
be forgiven for thinking that the different sides are describing different
countries.
This debate isn’t new. This country was settled by successive waves of
immigrants. As each group established itself, it began to wonder about
newcomers. I recently read an essay by a
prominent clergyman arguing that the US was being invaded by overwhelming
numbers of immigrants from countries with no history of democratic
self-governance, with a strong history of terrorism, and with deep ties to a violent
and barbaric religious law fundamentally incompatible with US law. The arguments
sounded eerily similar to what I hear now from people upset about Muslim
immigrants, but the piece was written in 1888 and the alien hordes were Irish
Catholics.
I researched and wrote this book trying
to understand the history of America’s mixed messages to and about immigrants. The opening chapters give a basic historical
overview of the three main flows of immigrants in to the US—across the
Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Southern border. Later chapters look at how
immigration affects and is affected by our views of race, labor and economic
justice, national security, religion, and the old and thorny question of what
it means to be an American.
Researching and writing it gave me a richer
perspective on the debate happening now—and some qualified hope that we may
work through this time of fear and division, as we have done through earlier
panics. I hope that this perspective may offer something of value to readers.
