By MICHAEL A. SMITH
Insight Kansas
It’s Fourth of July season! Time for barbecues and Chinese-made fireworks (watch out for those tariffs). For Independence Day, I suggest also celebrating some folks that really make America great—immigrants.
Throughout our history, waves of immigrants have made our country stronger, bringing in new Americans willing to risk everything to live the American dream.
Immigrants believe the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty, “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” They work hard, raise families, and establish communities and businesses. Naturalized citizens take a citizenship test and an oath in which they swear off allegiance to any other government or leader.
Today, politicians and pundits spew outrage at the suggestion that the U.S. was founded on slavery and the removal of Native Americans. It’s a plain fact that these things happened. Yet they do not need to define us.
Himself the grandson of Irish migrants, President Kennedy offered a far more inspiring vision in his 1958 book, A Nation of Immigrants, which celebrated the American story. President Reagan was pro immigration too.
America is so much more than our sins of the past–and present. We are a dynamic, vibrant country that has repeatedly reinvented ourselves. Today, studies show that immigrants contribute far more to the U.S. economy than they take out– and yes, that is after accounting for public welfare benefits.
Immigrants stabilize the population of communities that would otherwise be declining, including many in rural Kansas. They take jobs that many native-born Americans will not.
Studies show that immigration helps relieve one of America’s worst economic challenges today: the housing shortage. While immigrant families need housing too, the fact that many work in construction more than offsets that, resulting in a net increase in the nation’s housing stock.
Immigrants enrich our culture, while also becoming a part of it. Migrant families typically assimilate within three generations. The children of immigrants from non-English speaking countries are usually bilingual and serve as translators for their parents. The immigrants’ grandchildren typically speak English as their first and perhaps only language.
A few years ago, TLC aired All American Muslim, about a Lebanese American family in suburban Detroit. The show was discontinued, but not because of prejudice. Instead, the family’s daily life was so typical, so suburban, so American, the show simply lacked the drama that reality TV viewers expect. Just another American family, nothing to see here.
Immigration enriches our culture. For example, German immigrants brought us the Christmas tree. Today, more and more Americans observe Dia de los Muertes (Day of the Dead), a celebration of our ancestors. The day originated in Mexico and is becoming mainstream here.
If you’re looking to binge watch something patriotic this weekend, I recommend Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Streaming on the PBS app Passport, the show features famous Americans whose ancestors come from all over the world.
For most guests, researchers document their family history in the old country as well as their journeys to the United States, uncovering stories of courage, sacrifice, and hard work. Of course, some find scandal in their genealogy too. Many guests are brought to tears when Gates shows them a timeline of their family history. Even when records are unavailable, DNA testing and other research can help uncover more information about their past than they ever imagined possible.
This Fourth of July, celebrate something that really makes the USA great. Welcome immigrants into your community and learn their American stories—and yours.
Michael A. Smith is a Professor of Political Science and Chair of Social Sciences at Emporia State University.