Anti-immigration people constantly struggle to figure out why I support immigration. Is it because I want more votes for the Democratic party? Is it a scheme to make America less white? Is it a neoliberal plot to reduce wages? They just don't understand.
-
-
Show this thread
-
What they don't understand is that, like most people, I instinctively want to restore the America of my youth. And since I grew up under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush, my America was an America with immigrants. It was part of our communities, our culture, and our national story.
Show this thread -
Immigration was part of the fabric of daily life and community, but it was also a *nationalist* thing. We told ourselves that America, our country, was great because it was a nation of immigrants. That our nation took people from anywhere and uplifted them, gave them a shot.
Show this thread -
Immigrants were great people, of course. They were my friends' parents. They introduced me to interesting things. But on top of that, their presence symbolized the greatness of a nation that I felt I belonged to.
Show this thread -
Without immigration, we were - what? Just like all those other countries, which I imagined (not correctly, but not entirely incorrectly either) as closed-off societies that defined themselves by race, ancestry, and pedigree.
Show this thread -
In fact, I still believe something like this, though now I've seen with my own eyes the power of the xenophobic backlash that has also occasionally defined America throughout its history. I believe we have the power to stop that backlash if we want.
Show this thread -
The America of the 1990s and 2000s is gone now (and yes, parts of it needed to go). But I want the new America that emerges from our current time of troubles to retain the essential elements of the America I believed in when I was young. And immigration is one of those.
Show this thread -
This is not to say that there aren't also very good intellectual, pragmatic justifications for immigration. There are plenty. But for anyone who wondered about why I'm *emotionally* invested in the issue...well, there you go. (end)
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
My mother was an immigrant from Ireland. My grandmother was a refugee from Tsarist Russia. All the Jews in her town were slaughtered by the Germans in WWII. Her family was in America by then. The US has adopted a hatred of immigrants that I simply do not understand.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Policy must be based on rigorous analysis, not on visceral reactions. But before we can evaluate policy, we have to identify the core values that we want policy to promote.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
people validate their emotions and beliefs with intellectual arguments. We seek the ideas to justify our feelings, not the otherway around.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Thanks for the great thread. And it’s not just what you grew up with. It is an explicit and essential part of the American identity enshrined right in the Declaration of Independence.pic.twitter.com/SQowfydRoT
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
"Most people have .. intellectual reasons.... " I think a bit generous.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
When I was in HS, near Buffalo NY, Sunday radio programming included foreign language shows in German, Polish, Italian. I practiced my HS German listening to German music & chatter.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.