I think most people have both intellectual and deeper, visceral reasons for the policies they promote. When people ask me why I defend immigration...Yes, there are lots of good intellectual reasons, but also, *it's what I grew up with*.https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1056206835810791425 …
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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)
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it also made me believe that i could go out into the world outside this country and do things, and that's what i did. i didn't have this belief that somehow all great things were contained within the borders of the town or state or country where i grew up
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You sir are a twitter poet
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Interesting - I also have very strong positive emotions about immigration because I grew up with so many immigrant families. But I never thought of them as a symbol of anything.They were classmates and friends but it never occurred to me to think of them as "hyphenated-Americans"
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I was born in 1990 so it sounds like there's about a decade between my childhood and yours. Interesting how the culture shifted in that time. Even stranger how it has shifted now. It's only been the last few years that I became conscious of the strong influence...
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of immigrants on my life. I've gained that pride in the multiculturalism of America, something I didn't particularly recognize before. It's just a shame it came about because so many others were expressing hate.
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Here's a picture from the other side: when I was growing up, we were immigrants, but we were also just "Americans." Now, we are not just Americans, but we are "diversity," practically props for someone else's script. 1/
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There is something different about today's idea of diversity that's fundamentally different from that of 80's and 90's that I find deeply unnerving at times. 2/
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One ancestor fought in the French and Indian war. Others escaped Ireland in 1850s. We don't know much else. When people ask my identity I say "american," because there is no other answer available. America's embrace of immigrants is always something I've been immensely proud of.
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