Post by Okwes on Jul 2, 2006 16:10:06 GMT -5
www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413203
Halbritter: 'Immigration hysteria' is nothing new in
America
Posted: June 23, 2006
by: Ray Halbritter / Oneida Indian Nation
Editors' note: This column was published in The
Buffalo News on May 21,
2006.
Real" Americans are getting hysterical over
immigration, again. The U.S.
House of Representatives has passed a bill that makes
it a crime to pursue
the American dream without the proper papers.
"Real" Americans are calling for the mass roundup and
deportation of an
estimated 11 million people who have entered the
United States illegally,
although they are short on details, like where these
people would be
incarcerated while awaiting formal deportation
proceedings.
This latest spell of immigration hysteria is nothing
new, and it is no
coincidence that it comes at a time when persons of
Latino or Hispanic
origin are reshaping American cultural identity.
In the 120-year history of U.S. efforts to exert
control over the flow of
immigrants into this country, virtually every such
effort has been in
response to some panic over race, religion or
ideology, and the targets of
these initiatives have invariably been those who do
not look, worship or
think like the so-called "dominant European culture"
of this country.
The very first official federal immigration law,
passed in 1882, was called
the Chinese Exclusion Act; and it barred all
immigration from China for 60
years. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt made a
deal with Japan. He
would force California schools to integrate Japanese
students already
living here, and in return Japan would stop its
citizens from trying to
enter the United States. By 1917, nearly all Asian
immigrants were barred
from entering the country.
Not satisfied to stop there, in 1921 Congress moved to
restrict immigration
from southern and eastern Europe by introducing quotas
for each country.
Eight years later, the government formally reserved 70
percent of all
admissions for immigrants from northern and western
Europe - that is, the
primarily Protestant, light-skinned populations of the
British Isles,
Germany and Scandinavia. Only 30 percent of all
admissions were reserved
for people from the "less desirable" areas of southern
and eastern Europe,
where the population was primarily Catholic or Jewish
and darker-skinned.
Listen carefully to the arguments and proposals
concerning immigration
today, and you will hear that this wave of hysteria is
just as racist,
bigoted and intolerant as any other in our history.
The House bill calls
for a 700-mile security fence along the Mexican
border, but there is no
similar provision for a security fence along the
Canadian border. Is it
only a coincidence that Canadians look more like
"real" Americans than
Hispanics do? Of course it isn't. Like the northern
and western Europeans
of a century ago, Canadians are "desirable"
immigrants, while Hispanics are
in the same "undesirable" category as the Italians,
Jews, Slavs and
Russians of the 1920s.
The unpalatable truth is that America's mythical
"melting pot" has always
been highly compartmentalized and more like "alphabet
soup." Just as
American Indians were forced onto remote reservations
to keep them out of
the way, immigrants were forced into segregated
neighborhoods - think of
every major city's Little Italy, Chinatown and similar
enclaves - where
their differences would not offend the dominant
culture. Today we have
English-only initiatives and penalties for people who
employ illegal
immigrants, policies that are designed to close doors
rather than open
them. But none of these has stemmed the desire of
people from other
countries to live here.
The United States, thanks to its wealth, its
opportunities, its
constitutional freedoms and its shining principle of
justice for all, is
clearly the promised land for millions of people
living in abject poverty
under corrupt, repressive or simply ineffectual
regimes. The vast majority
of immigrants, legal or illegal, don't cross our
borders because they
aspire to become wards of the government. They come
because they dream of a
better life for themselves and their children, of
opportunities that are
denied them at home, of the freedom to work, worship
and think the way they
want to.
Those self-professed guardians of our borders, the
"real" Americans, could
learn a lot from the first Americans. American Indians
have dealt with
"boat people" ever since their initial contact with
Europeans. Our
ancestors doubtless experienced some qualms about
dealing with people who
looked different, spoke a different language and
worshipped differently.
Yet the newcomers were welcomed. Resources were
shared. Friendships were
forged. Thanksgiving was created.
Panic, intolerance, bigotry and isolationism will not
resolve the issues
attending the immigration debate. It is time for all
sides to step back a
pace, take a deep breath and look for solutions that
are both reasonable
and compassionate. It is time for this country to
renew its commitment to
the ideals symbolized by the Statue of Liberty,
shining her beacon of
freedom for all the world to see and inviting, in Emma
Lazarus' famous
words, "your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe
free."
All it takes is a willingness to look beyond the
things that divide us and
bring out the things that unite us. That, after all,
is what true leaders
do: They bring people together.
Ray Halbritter is nation representative for the Oneida
Indian Nation of New
York. Halbritter is CEO of the Oneida Nation's various
business
enterprises, including Four Directions Media, the
publisher of Indian
Country Today. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Halbritter: 'Immigration hysteria' is nothing new in
America
Posted: June 23, 2006
by: Ray Halbritter / Oneida Indian Nation
Editors' note: This column was published in The
Buffalo News on May 21,
2006.
Real" Americans are getting hysterical over
immigration, again. The U.S.
House of Representatives has passed a bill that makes
it a crime to pursue
the American dream without the proper papers.
"Real" Americans are calling for the mass roundup and
deportation of an
estimated 11 million people who have entered the
United States illegally,
although they are short on details, like where these
people would be
incarcerated while awaiting formal deportation
proceedings.
This latest spell of immigration hysteria is nothing
new, and it is no
coincidence that it comes at a time when persons of
Latino or Hispanic
origin are reshaping American cultural identity.
In the 120-year history of U.S. efforts to exert
control over the flow of
immigrants into this country, virtually every such
effort has been in
response to some panic over race, religion or
ideology, and the targets of
these initiatives have invariably been those who do
not look, worship or
think like the so-called "dominant European culture"
of this country.
The very first official federal immigration law,
passed in 1882, was called
the Chinese Exclusion Act; and it barred all
immigration from China for 60
years. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt made a
deal with Japan. He
would force California schools to integrate Japanese
students already
living here, and in return Japan would stop its
citizens from trying to
enter the United States. By 1917, nearly all Asian
immigrants were barred
from entering the country.
Not satisfied to stop there, in 1921 Congress moved to
restrict immigration
from southern and eastern Europe by introducing quotas
for each country.
Eight years later, the government formally reserved 70
percent of all
admissions for immigrants from northern and western
Europe - that is, the
primarily Protestant, light-skinned populations of the
British Isles,
Germany and Scandinavia. Only 30 percent of all
admissions were reserved
for people from the "less desirable" areas of southern
and eastern Europe,
where the population was primarily Catholic or Jewish
and darker-skinned.
Listen carefully to the arguments and proposals
concerning immigration
today, and you will hear that this wave of hysteria is
just as racist,
bigoted and intolerant as any other in our history.
The House bill calls
for a 700-mile security fence along the Mexican
border, but there is no
similar provision for a security fence along the
Canadian border. Is it
only a coincidence that Canadians look more like
"real" Americans than
Hispanics do? Of course it isn't. Like the northern
and western Europeans
of a century ago, Canadians are "desirable"
immigrants, while Hispanics are
in the same "undesirable" category as the Italians,
Jews, Slavs and
Russians of the 1920s.
The unpalatable truth is that America's mythical
"melting pot" has always
been highly compartmentalized and more like "alphabet
soup." Just as
American Indians were forced onto remote reservations
to keep them out of
the way, immigrants were forced into segregated
neighborhoods - think of
every major city's Little Italy, Chinatown and similar
enclaves - where
their differences would not offend the dominant
culture. Today we have
English-only initiatives and penalties for people who
employ illegal
immigrants, policies that are designed to close doors
rather than open
them. But none of these has stemmed the desire of
people from other
countries to live here.
The United States, thanks to its wealth, its
opportunities, its
constitutional freedoms and its shining principle of
justice for all, is
clearly the promised land for millions of people
living in abject poverty
under corrupt, repressive or simply ineffectual
regimes. The vast majority
of immigrants, legal or illegal, don't cross our
borders because they
aspire to become wards of the government. They come
because they dream of a
better life for themselves and their children, of
opportunities that are
denied them at home, of the freedom to work, worship
and think the way they
want to.
Those self-professed guardians of our borders, the
"real" Americans, could
learn a lot from the first Americans. American Indians
have dealt with
"boat people" ever since their initial contact with
Europeans. Our
ancestors doubtless experienced some qualms about
dealing with people who
looked different, spoke a different language and
worshipped differently.
Yet the newcomers were welcomed. Resources were
shared. Friendships were
forged. Thanksgiving was created.
Panic, intolerance, bigotry and isolationism will not
resolve the issues
attending the immigration debate. It is time for all
sides to step back a
pace, take a deep breath and look for solutions that
are both reasonable
and compassionate. It is time for this country to
renew its commitment to
the ideals symbolized by the Statue of Liberty,
shining her beacon of
freedom for all the world to see and inviting, in Emma
Lazarus' famous
words, "your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe
free."
All it takes is a willingness to look beyond the
things that divide us and
bring out the things that unite us. That, after all,
is what true leaders
do: They bring people together.
Ray Halbritter is nation representative for the Oneida
Indian Nation of New
York. Halbritter is CEO of the Oneida Nation's various
business
enterprises, including Four Directions Media, the
publisher of Indian
Country Today. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School.