Legal immigrants are welcome: Let’s work together for solutions to border problems
LAST NOVEMBER my daughter Zoe spoke to granddaughter Ella’s third grade class about her Mayflower ancestors and their pursuit of religious and civic freedom. She illustrated her presentation with a chart, the top half of which shows the family units who sailed from England. The individuals who did not survive their first year in the New World appear as gray silhouettes in the bottom half of the chart. The graphic is a powerful representation of the hardships faced by those early settlers.
With all the news concerning conditions as the border, I began reflecting on my immigrant connections. In addition to my Pilgrim forebears, there were my Scottish ancestors who drifted south from Canada to live in sod houses on the Dakota prairies. My husband’s Swiss grandmother was forced to come to America because her stepmother felt there were too many mouths to feed. Our son’s Vietnamese in-laws fled the country when Saigon fell to the Communists. I even began thinking about those ancient peoples who crossed the land bridge from Asia, looking for better hunting grounds.
During my musings, I came to a couple of conclusions. First, all migrants and immigrant groups have a unique story, and it is wrong to rank any immigrant experience as more noble, more special, more heroic than any other. At the root of the immigrant experience is a desire for a better life.
Second, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to our immigrant ancestors for having the courage to give up the comfortable and known for a difficult and uncertain future. Our ancestors’ hard work, perseverance and willingness to risk all have made our lives immeasurably easier and country infinitely better. I’m not sure I have the same sort of strength.
Therefore, we must honor those who have come before us by welcoming people who immigrate legally, who want to embrace our Constitution and democratic values and who want to join this messy experiment that is America. We must encourage our politicians to put aside their partisan bickering and work for solutions that protect our security and extend opportunities to potential migrants. And finally, we all must stop identifying ourselves as member of this or that narrow group and start viewing ourselves as, first and foremost, Americans.
KATHERINE OTT Albuquerque