Growing up in New Jersey as an Indian-American kid during the 1980s and 1990s, I dealt with bigotry and prejudice. But the person who understood most what I was going through was my 80-year-old Italian American piano teacher, Mrs. Baldino.
Talking to her, I realized that what I endured was remarkably similar to what she had gone through through growing up in the 1920s and 1930s. It was confusing to me, however, because some of the kids who gave me a hard time were Italian Americans. Mrs. Baldino explained to me, “They always forget what their grandparents went through.”
This seems to be the case with our current political climate.
Immigrants make for easy targets. They aren’t American yet. They don’t vote. Some may struggle with English. And when times get tough economically for Americans, they make for an easy scapegoat.
We all have heard of the all-powerful immigrant that is simultaneously stealing our jobs while living off the government. And some of us have been made by politicians to think that this wave of immigrants is somehow changing this country for the worse. Why do so many Americans, who themselves descend from immigrants buy into these fear tactics?
The answer is that historically, there are people in America who refuse to believe that immigrants who are coming into this country now are just like their ancestors who came generations ago.
Now I need to stress that former President Trump and his campaign’s recent attacks on the Haitian community of Springfield, Ohio, didn’t apply to “illegal” or undocumented immigrants. He referred to the entire group of migrants that have moved into Springfield over the last five years. Why is that? Because Trump and his movement want people to be scared. It’s time we stop falling for it. Why? Because generation after generation of immigrant waves have proven one thing; that their kids always assimilate into America.
When immigrants come to this country, they struggle. It’s a new country with a different language, foods, religions, holidays, customs, and even different systems of measurement. It’s hard, and sometimes the best way to navigate this new world isn’t alone, but though a community. So, you will go where other immigrants go.
We saw this for decades during the late 19th and early 20th century with Italian tenements in New York. We saw it in San Francisco with Chinatown. Scandinavian immigrants settled in Minnesota and Czech immigrants picked Central Texas. Back when I was a kid, Indian immigrants set up a hub in Edison, N.J. Immigrants settle in these enclaves and hire each other, open stores that cater to each other, practice their religion together and survive this journey of immigration with one another. It is easy to look from the outside and get scared and xenophobic.
But we often look past what happens next. These immigrants have kids. And these kids, the first-generation Americans, throw themselves head-first into becoming as American as possible. It is tough, because they have to deal with the “Old World” customs at home and reconcile that with the “New World” the minute they walk out the door.
But they work hard in school, they try out for the football team, they go out for cheerleading, they audition for the school play, they go to the movies with friends, and they hope they can get into a great college. When they become adults, they get involved in the community. They join the military, become cops, doctors, lawyers, politicians, business owners and have kids. They add their culture, food, holidays and customs to our own.
The next group of kids, the second generation, have it best. They get to be raised fully as Americans but to celebrate the old holidays and get old world cooking with the grandparents. But as the generations pass, something curious happens. You have descendants of that group looking at new immigrants coming in, and you assume that somehow the power of American culture won’t assimilate them as well. It is almost as if they don’t believe in the power of America.
Today, Trump and MAGA Republicans talk about the MS-13 gang and Latin American immigrants as if they are one and the same. We did the same thing when we conflated the Mafia with all Italian Americans. Trump and the MAGA Republicans will tell you that Venezuelan immigrants are bringing Marxism. We did the same thing when we conflated anarchism with Italians. Trump and the MAGA Republicans will scare you about religions like Islam and Hinduism. We did the same with Catholicism and Italian Americans. Notice a pattern?
It is easy to look at immigrants and see the differences. It’s even easier to learn to be scared and fall prey to the fear mongering of a politician. But if you really want to see how much immigrants love America, look at their kids. Immigrants may not be as American as apple pie, but their kids most certainly are. And that alone is a reason not to fear them.
Jos Joseph is a master’s candidate at the Harvard Extension School at Harvard University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and lives in Anaheim, Calif.