Thanks, Steven, for your article. It hit the spot, showing that the current bogeyman in the US is the fear of immigrants. That fear is simply wrong. I teach and work with immigrants whom I find to be kind, honest, generous, grateful for anything they get — like a job, encouragement, or an English lesson. They aren’t perfect, but i find them to be a cut above most other groups and far above many other groups. When I first started to work with them, they thought my clothing was too informal — tee shirts and blue jeans. So they spent their hard earned money to buy me clothes that they thought I should wear. We live in a casual area, but they wanted me to kick my clothing style up a notch. They bought clothes for my husband too. We both rolled over and continue to dress in a manner that makes the immigrants comfortable — 30 years later.
As a group, they manage their money extremely well, work hard, care for their families here and those members still in their native country. The cities and towns they came from flourish now from the money that comes from those working here. When the immigrants I know came here, their homes in their native countries didn’t have plumbing or electricity. Nobody had a phone. Now all the homes in the old country have plumbing, electricity, and cell phones. The cities they came from were enriched as well as the cities they came to in the US from their hard work and their generosity. They are amazed by Americans who don’t work. The immigrants are thrilled to have the opportunity to work, work that will provide more than food for the day; they just don’t ‘get it’ when Americans don’t work as hard as they do. They ask me about it all the time.
I’m not suggesting all immigrants are wonderful. Like any group of people, there are really good ones and some that aren’t so good. But singling immigrants out as what is wrong with America is truly stupid, especially when ‘willfully stupid’ is what’s wrong with so many of us.