The concepts of immigration and immigrants, and
migration and migrants are complex and difficult to understand. Much seems to
depend on how close to them you may feel. Those of us of color have always been
tied to them, directly and indirectly. Those of European Anglo-Saxon heritage
(Anglos) feel much further removed. This chapter is offered to help clarify the
complexity of immigration.
An immigrant is a person from a foreign country who
comes to the U.S. willingly or unwillingly to reside here. Black slaves from
Africa were brought here unwillingly. Most immigrants come legally. Some come
under H-Visas to work for an understood frame of time and then return to their
native country. Some come undocumented. A migrant is usually a U.S.-born worker
who has a home in some state. He/she leaves that state to generally do farm
field labor with the many seasonal jobs throughout the U.S. in agriculture
nurseries, fruit orchards, packing plants and canneries, beef/poultry products,
hotels, construction, etc. There are often undocumented as well as H-Visa
workers in their ranks.
The word “immigrant” becomes clearer when it is
distinguished with the word “native.” Native people were here in what has
become the “American” continent of which the United States is one of the 36
nations. They were here for thousands of years before the coming of immigrants.
First came the Spanish-speaking (Columbus, Cortes, Pizarro), then the
Portuguese (Brazil) and finally the English-speaking. The Natives came to be
called “Indians” because Columbus believed he had found India. The “Indians” of
today’s Mexico were Natives before they mixed with Spanish blood and became
Mexican “mestizos”. All the Natives are “American” because they are all of the
American Continent. Are they really immigrants if they merely move from one
part of America to another? Maybe they are just migrants?! Think about it.
The status of natives never changes, nor does that of
immigrants. If you are not native to the U.S., if your parents/forefathers came
from a foreign nation--you are an immigrant. Once you accept this status, you
will find it impossible to be anti-immigrant--for you cannot be anti-you! If
you sense yourself to be a “Nationalist”, you have two things to consider: First,
Nationalists want “America” for “Americans.” That view is really weak, because
the majority of the immigrants in the U.S. are from the American nations of the
American Continent! The second is more subtle, but also truer. Nationalists
want “America” for whites. This one you have to think over also. America the
continent is now and always has been dominantly “Indian” and Latino. If they
mean the U.S. in particular, then they will have to admit that racism is the
primary issue. You must think through all of this before you decide that you
are a “Nationalist.”
One other notion being aired is that we don’t need
immigrants. That is completely incorrect, and our need for them will be discussed
in my next chapter. However, many Anglos might not accept this notion, partly
because they may recall that their ancestors were not needed when they came to
Jamestown and Plymouth. Nevertheless, history shows that all immigrants to
America, past and present, have come because they need to. Some of the reasons
are such forces as poverty, displacement, cruel laws (such as the debtor prison
in England) famine (the Irish potato famine), war, political strife,
persecution, unfair (world) “free” trade arrangements, etc. No immigrant has
ever left because they don’t love their native nation.
Another defense being voiced is that immigrants should
be deported because they come here undocumented. That is a hard stand to make
when we know that all of the millions of immigrants who were the first to come
here were themselves “undocumented”!
The last defense to cover here is the one that uses
danger and fear; that immigrants are dangerous, drug users/sellers, murderers
and not law-abiding. Records show that they are more law-abiding than the
general U.S. citizens. As to “dangerous”, let’s recall the history of this relating
to the first immigrants (our forefathers) who came to this continent following
Columbus (1492).
Archaeologist and ethno-historian Henry E. Dobyns
ascertains that pre-Columbus “America” had a population of over 112 million
native people. Almost overnight, the genocidal diminution of America’s native
people began. They were receptive of the invaders, not resistive. Records and
diaries of clergy declare that they were friendly and helpful, resourceful,
family-oriented and societally structured. They had ample arable land and
mineral resources for the taking, including gold. However, there was some
practice of human sacrifice and cannibalism.
Unfortunately the church and state, already reeking
with historical barbarism, the Crusades and the Inquisition, found the natives to
be savage, heathen and uncivilized with no regard for the sanctity of human
life. This caused them to justify using genocide--the extreme disregard of
human life--as the primary means of getting rid of them. Those not liquidated
were removed from their lands by war, enslaved or placed in Reservations so
time could offer some form of humane resolution. Most of them in North America
are still “on reserve”!! Millions died from diseases brought from Europe like
measles, chicken pox, syphilis and the common cold. The Spanish moved into
today’s U.S. Southwest in 1540 and, between 1769 and 1836, established missions
from San Diego to San Francisco. During this time, the Indian population
declined from 310,000 to a mere 18,000!! The “white” Gold Rush of the 1800s
further decimated the Indian population. The North American Indian population declined
from 18 million to a mere 350,000 between 1492 and 1900!! In other words, the American
continent had eliminated 60 million Indians, leaving about 52 million--about
400,000 in today’s U.S.A. Clearly, the immigrant Spanish and white invaders
have been far more “dangerous” than the invaded. Our contemporary immigrants
carry no such record.
Every state in the U.S. has its genocidal history of
the Indians. Minnesota’s last military conflict with its Indian residents was
in the Dakota Uprising of 1862, known as the U.S.-Dakota War. Due to disastrous
U.S. Indian policies, it resulted in more broken treaties, and starvation due
to refusal to release promised government provisions. Rebellion was inevitable.
The war started in August and ended in September--six weeks. One thousand white
soldiers and civilians were killed. On December 26, 1862 thirty-eight Dakota
men were hung in Mankato--the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Another 265
Indians were sent to prison. Over 300 indigenous elders, women and children
died while displaced, and hundreds were moved to reservations in the Dakota
Territory--mostly Nebraska. An unknown number of Indian combatants died in the
war. We need to remember that it was the immigrants who displaced the Minnesota
Indian population.
I leave you with two questions:
1)
Do we deserve to be here anymore than most of the incoming immigrants (however
they got here) merely because we hold citizenship papers?
2)
Do most of them deserve a path toward citizenship sooner rather than later?
The next chapter will cover the dilemma of immigration
reform, the push for deportations and a rationale for detainment.
093017 update of 091517 (a little different)
093017 update of 091517 (a little different)
