Baby Boomers, Trump and Immigration

Donald Trump, photo by Michael Vadon

Edward McClelland has an interesting piece with Salon, in which he argues that Baby Boomers are uncomfortable with immigration because they grew up in an era with an exceedingly low foreign born population.

Their only immediate experience with immigration, McClelland colorfully writes, was “Gus, the refugee from the Greek civil war who ran a bar across the street from the factory gate; and Mrs. DiNardi, the parish widow who sailed from Sicily to Ellis Island in 1900.” As for immigrants on TV, there was just Ricky Ricardo and Uncle Tonoose. 

“When Donald Trump promises to Make America Great Again by building a wall to keep out Mexicans and banning all Muslims from entering the country,” McClelland continues, “this is the Great America to which he hearkens.”

McClelland offers a brief history of “nativist” immigration laws, arguing they “still resonate[] in the anti-immigrant attitudes of 2016.”

-KitJ