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Yesica S. Mena

Instructor Kat King

English 1A

December 11, 2018

America: A Nation of Immigrants…..No More

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the

wretched refuse of your teeming shore …. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Those are the

word engraved in a plaque on the base of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York,

and those have been the words welcoming many immigrants that arrived at this country for

decades. America is considered, at least by the inhabitants of developing countries, as the land of

opportunities; the country where anyone can achieve their dreams if they work and strive for

them, no matter where you come from, what culture you belong to, or the color of your skin.

With that idea, various migratory movements have been observed throughout the history of

America, all relying on the promise expressed in the poem on the statue in New York. But in

these days, an increase in anti-immigrant and nationalist sentiment in the country has shown that

the ideal of America as a country created by immigrants that gives refuge to other immigrants

fleeing persecution or poverty in their countries is increasingly disconnected from reality. In this

essay, an analysis of the reasons why, at present, America does not live according to its ideal

regarding the migratory situation is going to be presented, and how the biased information on the

Internet and social media has contributed to the increase of this issue, even reaching episodes of

violence. In addition, experiences of other countries in connection with this problem will be

addressed and attempt to offer possible solutions to this issue.

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The history of the formation of America is the result of the colonization of the territory

by a group of people who crossed the Atlantic Ocean from England; some were fleeing from

religious persecution, and others in search of new opportunities to achieve economic well-being.

For this reason, the migratory movements towards America have been an important component

in the growth of the population of the country throughout its history. It is undeniable that

America has served as inspiration for large groups of migrants from different parts of the world.

This ideal of freedom and progress is expressed by Alex Tizon in his essay "The Land of the

Giants" when he says “Looking back now, I could say it began with love. Love of the gifted and

their imagined life; love of America, the sprawling idea of it, with its gilded tentacles reaching

across the Pacific Ocean to wrap around the hearts of small brown people living small brown

lives." (Tizon 1). In this essay, Tizon singles out his family, Filipino immigrants fleeing poverty

in their country, who feel a special admiration for America. This feeling leads them to make

great personal sacrifices in search of reaching the dream that this country represents. The idea of

the United States is, as John F. Kennedy explained in his book "A Nation of Immigrants", a

country of refugees and immigrants with multicultural roots that drive the development of the

nation. But in reality, this ideal has been threatened many times, over time, by the emergence of

anti-immigrant movements that seek to stop the arrival of refugees. These groups push an agenda

in which prevail the concepts of protectionism and superiority of the American over the foreign

as it happens today with the growth of nationalist sentiment that invades a big part of the

country.

Although America is considered a nation of immigrants, recent events have shown that

reality is far from being fulfilled. The polarized environment in which we currently live has been

the perfect breeding ground for the emergence of nationalist movements. These groups have
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shown that in America, now, refugees, like those who make up the caravan of people who cross

all of Central America in search of asylum on the US border, are not welcome. As Marcelo and

Carola Suarez-Orozco write in their essay "How Immigrants Become Other", an illegal action

does not define the human being and, on the contrary, the association of this word with people

entails a climate of criminalization and prejudice (Suarez-Orozco 1). The recent midterm

elections were marked by an exaggerated use of the immigration factor to exacerbate voters'

animosity by appealing to nationalist sentiment. The members of the caravan that left Honduras,

had been presented before the American people as a horde of criminals who came to loot the

country and commit all kinds of crimes. And in response to this image, a good sector of voters

reacted by denying aid to hundreds of people who walked thousands of miles fleeing persecution

and hunger. The fear of the caravan is so great that the government has even sent troops from the

army to reinforce the border with Mexico who did not hesitate to attack women and children

trying to enter the country. The nationalist and protectionist feeling installed in the American

government contradicts the idea of America as a country that receives and welcomes refugees

from other countries, and on the contrary, seeks to criminalize them and punish an act as human

as seeking refuge. In this effort, social media and the way the internet spread messages are

playing a crucial factor in the increase of this phenomenon.

To understand all this growth in nationalist sentiment, we need to learn about the root of

the problem, which lies in fear of the unknown. The basis of this movement is the perception that

the identity of America as a nation is under attack by the growth of the population of immigrants

who bring their culture and little by little change the face of the country. Nationalism promotes

the concepts of protectionism, conservatism, and overvaluation of one's own culture. That is why

one of its main problems is immigration. The idea of the Nation-State, where its citizens are
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mainly homogeneous in aspects such as culture and physical appearance, is a concept that

clashes with the increasingly diverse population in the country. A part of America resists

changes, they feel fear of what they perceive as the disintegration of society as they know it; as a

consequence, a rejection of the external and new is manifested in the repudiation of international

treaties and institutions that protect the rights of others and support for the protection and

empowerment of American society. In this context, leaders who are openly in favor of this

thought and who feed these exacerbated moods are widely accepted. Their beliefs, scattered

through the cyberspace, serve to inflame the passions of people. Here is where social media

plays a fundamental role as explained by Charles Seife in his essay "The Loneliness of the

Interconnected". In the essay, Seife supports the argument that the Internet, while simultaneously

connecting us with the world, also isolates us from ideas that attack our thoughts and challenge

our beliefs, thus facilitating the emergence of extremist ideas. That is how cyberspace becomes a

sort of podium from which messages, such as those offered by conservative ultra-right groups,

reach more and more people who identify with that movement, not only in America but also in

the rest of the world.

So far, we have dealt with the problem of the growth of the nationalist movement in

America and the causes of this issue, but the United States is not the only country where this

phenomenon is on the rise. The European Union also has observed the resurgence of nationalism

recently. England, for example, with Brexit, has rejected a more globalized model of government

and decided to abandon the regional alliance that benefits the majority of the European continent

by opting for a more conservative and protectionist model. Countries that for some time lived the

darkest expression of nationalism during the Holocaust. We are now seeing white supremacist

messages resurface and weaken a government that tried to maintain its policy of openness and
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acceptance of immigration. Governments such as that of Vladimir Putin in Russia, with marked

nationalist tendencies, are admirers of the protectionist and defense systems of the national

interest. But one characteristic of nationalist movements is the overvaluation of the national

culture over diversity, in this context, peaceful coexistence becomes a difficult task to deliver.

The growth of nationalist sentiment stems from the perception that American society is

deteriorating. The anti-immigrant aspect of nationalism is the one that has been treated with

more depth in this essay, but it is not the only one of this movement. Other areas of the citizens’

lives are affected by the implementation of conservative policies driven by these movements that

seek to "restore" the society they consider ideal. For that reason, a change in people’s mentality

becomes essential. In a time when the Nation is exalted as the primary good, and the foreigner is

minimized and attacked, a culture of acceptance and empathy with the suffering of others is

necessary. Social and mass communication media can be an excellent vehicle to spread this new

message, offering information that encourages research on issues such as immigration to begin a

discussion. At a higher level, as with the government, a more humane approach to the

immigration problem is required. It is therefore imperative to improve immigration laws that

allow for peaceful assimilation of those human groups that wish to join and contribute to the

development of the country. Throughout history, America has benefited from the migratory

flows that have changed society, making it more productive and richer. Let's not lose sight of one

of the main characteristics that made America the great country it is now.
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Works Cited

Orozco, Carola and Marcelo Orozco. “How Immigrants Become Other.” Rereading America:

Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing, Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2015, pp.

666-674.

Seife, Charles. “The Loneliness of the Interconnected.” Rereading America: Cultural Contexts

for Critical Thinking and Writing, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016, pp. 289-303.

Tizon, Alex. “The Land of the Giants.” Big Little Man: In Search of my Asian Self, Houghton

Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.