“What does America mean to you?”

By

Gerry Niskern

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I will lift my lamp beside the golden door.

We all, as children, learned the words on the plaque at the feet of the famous lady standing in New York Harbor welcoming immigrants to America.

When I actually saw the Statue of Liberty, I confess I looked up with a huge lump in my throat and tears in my eyes as our ferry drew close. It was overwhelming. I wondered what my grandparents thought when they arrived from Austria many years ago and were welcomed by her.

I also remember thinking,  “What if my grandparents hadn’t come to America? Would I even exist? Where would I be?”

It’s always interesting to hear someone declare, “My ancestors came through Ellis Island. They worked hard and became citizens! They had no help!” Actually, there were no limits on immigrant laborers back then. THAT was the help.

And about their citizenship status, unless you’ve seen their records, don’t be too sure. Thousands of immigrants, who fled Europe during the 1800s, didn’t pursue citizenship.

Grandpa was recruited to work in the West Virginia coal mines, just as thousands of Hispanics have been recruited to work in U. S. industries today.

My grandparents sacrificed by leaving a year old daughter behind in the care of a grandmother because as with many immigrants, they planned to work, save and return to buy more land for the family farm.  I honestly don’t know if they ever became citizens.

From 1870 to 1920, approximately 25 million immigrants came to the U. S.  It was the first large wave of immigrants that settled and populated this country. Political instability, restrictive religious laws and deteriorating economic conditions started the largest mass human migration in the history of the world. The United States needed cheap labor and welcomed them.

My mother didn’t know English when she started school. Each evening she and my grandfather went over the day’s reading lesson. She helped him read the newspaper. He was very interested in learning about his new government and how it worked. They learned the language together.

My grandpa and grandma worked hard, raised a large Catholic family and paid taxes. None of the children in that second generation had more than two children each. In other words, they assimilated, just as the Hispanics working in the United States will also do in time.

Even though most work two minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, some of my Hispanic neighbors have the prettiest yards in our area. And my guess would be that many a school child is helping dad learn English in the evening, while mom is at work.

The income gap between the U. S. and Mexico is the largest between any two contiguous countries in the world. This disparity is producing massive demand in the U. S. and massive supply from Mexico and Central America. Yes, we need to tighten security and regulate the future flow of immigrants.  But we also have to include expansion of the legal immigrant labor pool. But most important of all, we need to treat the existing population of illegal immigrants with practicality and decency.

What we don’t need is to beat-up on an entire racial group. That’s not the America I know and it’s not the America of the Lady in the harbor.