The U.S. has thrived thanks to immigrants
Two years from next July, the United States will be celebrating its semiquincentennial. But don’t plan your picnic or order your fireworks just yet because, according to certain xenophobic political candidates, our two 250-year-old democracy is doomed.
We hear from Donald Trump and the far-right hate groups that immigrants constitute a threat to our nation. President John Adams said the same thing about the French in the 1790s. In the 1800s, the Chinese were going to take our jobs and the Eastern Europeans were going to vote Communist. “No Irish Need Apply” signs told the Irish to look for work elsewhere, and Catholics were going to vote for the pope for president.
Trump’s own German ancestors refused to assimilate, speak English, and even drank beer on Sundays after church.
Despite these dire warnings, the United States has thrived thanks to the ingenuity and energy that immigrants have contributed. Over 13% of our current population is foreign born. Twenty-eight percent of physicians and surgeons and over half-a-million home health aides contribute to our health care. Construction, agriculture, information technology, hospitality, tourism, and education would all suffer were it not for immigrants filling the need.
If you, like Trump, want to close our borders and deport all those dangerous immigrants, you may want to consider this. How long are you willing to wait to have an American doctor set the leg you just broke trying to shingle your own roof?
Mark Kramer
Bavington