Blogging from Shangahi, part 6

The United States is a nation of immigrants, but the United States is also a nation that loves to debate immigration policy. It’s been that way since colonial times, and it was that way federally even during John Adams presidency. As I’ve explained to my students here in Shanghai, the U.S. has always been made up of citizens and policy makers who are pro-immigrant and those who are anti-immigrant (with a lot in between). Depending who is in control in any particular era, the U.S. emotes an openness toward immigrants or negativity toward immigrants. So sometimes the U.S. demonstrates its gratitude and appreciation toward immigrants by being more generous; other times the U.S. demonstrates an ungrateful side. When the U.S. entered into the Burlingame Treaty with China in 1868 encouraging open migration and trade, the U.S. demonstrated a generous, open attitude. When the U.S. enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, the U.S. showed a real lack of gratitude for all that the Chinese had contributed to agriculture, railroads, small business development, an culture in the U.S. up to that point. When the U.S. enacted the 1917 literacy laws and the quota laws of the 1920s, the U.S. demonstrated its more shameful side because those who didn’t like Catholics, Jews, and eastern Europeans had wrested control of the policy. By the 1965 amendments, the U.S. (based largely on the egalitarian views and proposals of John Kennedy who was assassinated in 1963) made a bold statement to the rest of the world that we are committed to being a nation of immigrants.

Unfortunately, the debate rages on. Everyday, we see evidence of the ungrateful side of America in the form of the Joe Arpaios of the world and anti-immigrant local laws and hate crimes. But we see good the good side of America as well, when we hear the words of defenders of immigrants like Ted Kennedy, Luis Gutierrez, Tom Vilsack (when he was governor of Iowa), Maxine Waters, and Zoe Lofgren. People like they and countless others recognize the contributions of immigrants and they are grateful.

For many, the debate is over who is capable of being a “real” American. For me, we are all capable of being a real American, including all of my immigrant and refugee friends from all of the world who have reached the shores of the U.S. They have the true values and commitments to make America strong, and they are willing to work hard to prove it in the communities and neighborhoods. They understand, as famed Filipino American writer Carlos Bulosan put it several decades ago, that America is in the heart.

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