I think there’s a lot of this going around. Looking at snapshots and believing they’re representative of the whole movie. I think that’s part of our political problem. It think it’s one of the causes of the high inflation we’re experiencing.
That’s how I interpret Fareed Zakaria’s remarks in his latest Washington Post column:
As an immigrant to the United States who has traveled a great deal around the world, I have always been certain that America was the best place for people like me — people who looked different, with brown skin and a strange name. I remember coming to America as a college student and feeling the openness and generosity of a country born of and made by immigrants. When visiting Britain around the same time, I could sense that I was treated politely but as an outsider.
He goes on to explain why he thinks that Britain is now more welcoming than we are.
I was a bit surprised by a number of things in the column. For one I don’t think that the United States has ever been that friendly to migrants. Please don’t quote “The New Colossus” to me or point to the Statue of Liberty. In 1883 most migrants came to the United States to farm. Those who did were tolerated to the extent that they farmed and there was lots of land seen as empty. The indigenous Americans had never seen the land as empty or available but that’s another subject.
There were anti-immigrant riots from the 1840s through the 1870s and in the early 20th century. To my knowledge there was also one immigrant lynched during World War I. That’s compared with no lynched Japanese-Americans during World War II although they were interred in camps. There’s also an anti-immigrant thread running through the riots of the 1960s and recent anti-immigrant violence going on right now.
I think that by and large my fellow Americans are good and decent people but I honestly wouldn’t characterize us as “friendly to migrants”.
I can’t comment on Britain but I would point out that the numbers are actually quite small. The United Kingdom has about 7% Asians and 3% blacks, most of whom reside in the big cities. Once you get out into the countryside you will encounter relatively few immigrants.
I suspect he is grading on a curve, in which case we do well. As I read our history it looks like we weave between hostility and no hostility which shades into acceptance. When I lived in Texas for a short while in the 90s it seemed like everyone had a wetback to do their yard work or to be a nanny. It seemed pretty well accepted.
Steve
In the particular case of Texas they’re getting migrants different from those to which they’re accustomed and they don’t like it.
Now, maybe. I am betting that landscapers, construction and the restaurant/hospitality people are still using them while publicly complaining. Which goes back to my point that there is a cyclical nature to this.
Steve