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Past Perfect: Immigration in PerspectiveAuthor(s): Joyce MilambilingSource: The North American Review, Vol. 291, No. 3/4, Annual Summer Fiction Dobule Issue(May - Aug., 2006), p. 88Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25127641 .

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N A R

PAST PERFECT

Immigration in Perspective JOYCE MI LAMB I LING

"Should Immigration Be Restricted?"

By Simon Greenleaf Croswell

During recent years there has been

a growing interest in devising some

plan for checking or limiting the tide of immigration whose waves sweep in

upon the United States almost daily in

constantly increasing volume. [...]

[. . .] There has been a noticeable

lack of one element which can give

certainty to the arguments and force

to the conclusions. Inferences, deduc

tions, conjectures, and a host of less

persuasive probabilities have been

brought forward [. . .] but of facts, such facts [. . .] as bear directly and strongly upon the problems

involved, there has been little use

made. [. . .] The problem divides itself at

the outset into two distinct

questions: First, is it the advantage of

the United States that immigration be checked or limited? Second, if so, in what way should the

check or limit be applied? [. . .] There is nothing mysterious,

or even very complicated, about

republican institutions. A little

time, a little study, a little experience with the practical workings of elec

tions, is sufficient to convey to any

person of ordinary intelligence as

much familiarity with these

matters as is necessary [. . .] All that is

needed is to amalgamate this

heterogeneous mass, to fuse its

elements in the heat and glow of our

national life, until, formed in the

mold of everyday experience, each

one shall possess the characteristic

features of what we believe to be

the highest type of human development which the world has

seen, the American citizen.

From the North American Review,

April 1897, Volume 164, Issue 485,

pp. 526 and 536.

In our bumper-sticker culture, there

is one saying that should be

displayed on the backs of minivans

and luxury automobiles alike:

"Immigration is patriotic!" There are

many reasons why this does not

appear on car bumpers, but it is not

because many American citizens fail to

appreciate and respect how the US came to be and how the nation is

continually recreated.

The 1897 NAR article excerpted here highlights this issue that is on the minds of the US public today and is featured daily in the media.

Behind the question in the title are

others that are fundamental to an

understanding of who we are as a

people: Who deserves to be here? Who are "we"?

When it comes to immigration, economics is the center of the contro

versy. There are jobs in the US, and

families can live together and thrive.

Now in the midwestern US, many meat processing plants employ newly arrived Mexican and Bosnian workers

among longer-term residents who

work there. It is hard work and

everyone there, not just the immi

grants, know that it is one way to

enter and become established in the

American workforce. Various factors,

as Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan

Institute points out over 100 years later, "draw some 1.5 million immi

grants to the US annually in an

all-but-inevitable flow. We imagine we can fight it but the best we can

do is manage it." (See the Council on

Foreign Relations website for an

online immigration debate at

< www.cfr.org>.)

And what is this that Croswell

said about American citizens being "the highest type of human develop

ment which the world has seen"?

Although it may not be something that is openly said these days, this senti

ment is certainly something with

which many people would still agree. There is a sense of superiority and

entitlement that is widespread in the

US, although challenges to this have

been made and continue to come from

other countries and regions. Instead of

realizing that being born in the sub urbs of Chicago rather than in the

slums of Mexico City is an historical

accident, many US citizens, themselves

a result of earlier waves of immigra

tion, see their place in this society as

something that sets them apart and even above others. This attitude is at

best naive and at worst dangerous.

In 1897 Croswell stated that "the rea

sons, if there are any, from a political

point of view, why immigration should

be limited, would not apply to the ques tion viewed on its industrial side, and

vice versa." Those two sides are still in

opposition. Political and labor leaders

grapple with the issues surrounding

immigration, but the real struggle is the one that those who seek to come here,

to contribute to our way of life and our

prosperity, engage in every day. At pres

ent, the US House and Senate are dead

locked over what to do with the esti

mated 12 million immigrants who

bypassed immigration laws to enter or

remain in the US. A solution needs to

be found that we can live with, but one

that also embodies the ideals upon which this nation is based, and affirms, above all, our

humanity. D

The Past Perfect column showcases today's writers on notable items from the NAR's almost 200 years of back pages. Read the

full article at Cornell University's Making of America web site at <http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/moa_browse.html>.

88 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW May-August 2006

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