The Immigrant Experience

We All Come From Somewhere, and Our History Sounds a Lot Like the Present

A Citizenship Naturalization Ceremony (AP).

I am the progeny of immigrants. Unless you are descended from Native Americans, you are too. We all came from somewhere. Many of our ancestors were fleeing poverty, authorities, war, and lack of opportunity to come to the United States, and chart courses that were unavailable to them in their homelands. Eventually, our ancestors made the journey here, labored, endured the stigmas associated with their status and class, faced harsh racism and division, built communities and eventually prospered and integrated into mainstream society. The only variations are in where they came from, how and when they came and why, along with what they dealt with once here.¹

That’s why watching immigrants come to America from Mexico and Central America is both inspiring, heartbreaking and sympathetic.

Coming to America

The Start

Before they can leave, quite often they have to settle accounts where they live. Debts have to be paid, and most of the assets sold for cash, which may cover expenses for the trip or incidenals along the way. The proper paperwork needs to be put together, and ocassionally bribes need to be made to officials to expedite the process. Most importantly, travel has to be procured before the journey begins, otherwise they may get stuck in a foreign staging area for years, with little money for food or shelter.

The Journey

Once on the way, the journey can be long and arduous. Weeks can pass, in cramped quarters, the sun and weather beating down on them in harsh conditions. If they are lucky enough to have family or close friends with them, they can look out for one another, huddle and consolidate resources and security. The not so lucky can be taken by scammers, underworld members or criminals preying on their insecurity.

After time and distance, the voyagers almost reach their destination with America in sight, and that is where the waiting begins again; just outside of the country where the weary travelers can look across and see the Land of Opportunity on the other side of a fence or river. They can smell the food from the restaurants and factories across the border and can hear the sounds of America buzzing in the distance. But they don’t have entry yet.

The Process

This is where the bureaucratic purgatory begins. They present their paperwork and attempt entry into the United States. If they were lucky, they were recruited for work and already have potential employment locked up, and their process is short and temporary. A small health check to make sure they are not bringing any disease into the country with them, and once through they can continue on with their journey. If they don’t, they can wait, sometimes for months. The paperwork grows and the cases pile up. The lucky get in, the unlucky don’t, and either wait or go back home.

Even if they get in, they can be hounded by government officials for years. Police are hesitant to help patrol the immigrant crowds, so a pattern of self-policing and extra-judicial secondary governance begins. Crime and contraband within immigrant communities becomes the norm. It isn’t until they get full citizenship that the shadowy aspects of immigration wanes.

Employment

Sometimes those crossing have already been recruited for work. Other times, people are waiting for them near the border crossing ready to hire them. Often, they will even pay for their transportation to other states, where the work is ready. But the stories are all similar. They work for small amounts of money (relative to other wages here), in near poverty conditions and squalor, doing manual labor for excessive hours. In many cases, the meager earnings they make are still substantially more than what was available to them back in their native countries. Other times, they have to do with the best they have. The worst exploiters confiscate their passports and documentation so the immigrants have no recourse.

The Chain

If the net experience is positive, they will wire the money home to loved ones, tell them that opportunities in America are much better than where they are from and the chain migration begins. When word spreads, waves and caravans of masses of people make their way to the borders, yearning to get into the other side. Once here, they live with loved ones and friends they knew from back home, building subcommunities within the overall community. Cottage businesses catering to them, putting together comforts of a country long departed, nostalgic for the home country.

They are looked down on by the locals, whose ancestry came here prior from somewhere else; the only consideration the locals view important is that they were here first. The immigrants are condescended to and are shunted to the fringes. The culture of the overall community changes; what was once a homogenic society evolves to incorporate the outsiders, now making a larger portion of the town and resistance to that change grows feverishly. Their food, music, art and culture becomes both a point of scold and ridicule yet also a point of pride and definition.

The “Anchor Babies”

Since 1868, birthright citizenship has been a part of the Constitution.² These first generation immigrants give way to the second generation, the first wholly born within their new home country, and indeed citizens of the United States of America. Without first-hand knowledge of the conditions where their parents left, and no actual ties except through the stories the old timers tell, they grow up a hybrid nationality; that of their home country and that of a melting pot American identity.

This generation is witness to the exploitative horrors their parents endure daily, and are aware of the indignation that goes with it. They are treated differently, unfairly by the other children whose families have been mainstays for decades prior. They subscribe to the entrepreneurial spirit, and set out to make a better life for their families than their parents had. They start businesses, they call out the exploitive tendencies of the employers of their communties. They organize and serve as conduits for they’re parents and others to enter the forums of society.

Quite often confrontations occur, sometimes violent, between members of the ethnic group and the longtime residents. The now citizens no longer want to be viewed as the sons and daughters of immigrants, as they are now citizens with the same rights and privileges as everyone else. Racism is endemic. There is pushback by locals who’d rather see them return back to their country, but it is too late; being born in this country means it is as much theirs as it is the longtimers. Assertion of those rights, along with a lot of patience and commitment, eventually wins out.

Acceptance

Over the generations, they become intermixed with the overall population, and while the heritage still serves as a source of pride and identity, the descendants primarily view themselves as Americans, living the American dream, working towards a safe community, being solid representatives of society at large and good neighbors. Generations marry and intermarry with other nationalities and families without condition to heritage. They are no longer viewed as immigrant families, only as Americans, and locals.

The Narrative

You may think I was talking about the caravans of Latin American immigrants coming to the southern border in my stories above. That’s actually not true. I was describing what my German ancestors endured on their way to this country in the latter half of the 19th century. The experience is the same. It’s what all of our ancestors endured coming here.³

My ancestors originally came from near the Bavarian/Bohemian border. Droughts killed crops, debts ran high, as did the taxes. Young men were drafted into military service. Inheritances still went by primogeniture, which means if you were the eldest son you were in luck and may inherit a farm but if you were a younger son, or God forbid a girl, you often cost money to the family and could only find work as a day laborer. Marriage was only possible and endorsed by the church if you had income and provided a decent standard of living for a family; as a result, bastardy and illegitimacy were rampant, which only served to close doors further. Main thing was that opportunities were sparse. Politically, the Hapsburgs had begun funneling trade through Austria-Hungary, and so the old trails between Prague and Munich were less traveled, bringing in less travelers and less tolls. The towns they lived in were dying.

A small contingent of locals were recruited to work in the lumberyards in Wisconsin. Several went and wrote home about the wonderful opportunities there, the farms, the clean air and wide spaces, where it didn’t matter what order you were born in, only if you could work. And that set off a huge wave of migration from the Moldau River Valley bordering Bavaria and Bohemia to Wisconsin.

Once here, they were relegated to the south side of town; a dirty melange of beat up sties and farmland, with a marsh dissecting the two areas of German settlement. Despite the new surroundings, different dialects of German was the unofficial language there. The laborers would work in the exploitative sawmills during the day, getting paid pennies, walking home via the taverns and local groceries, and raising a family of 10 in a single story shack at night. The lack of resources meant that families grew close and worked together to make ends meet and for the betterment of all. Money earned was often pooled and sent back to bring over other family members to Wisconsin.

In the early 1900s, as the labor movements grew and Teddy Roosevelt set a more progressive agenda breaking up the monopolies, the Germans became more politically active and assertive, with violent labor strikes and clashes with the lumber barons. They were tired of being looked down on by the wealthy English business owners on the North side of town. Once World War I came around and many of the Germans and English boys alike served side by side, only then did the community really enjoy true unity. By then, German establishments on the south side of town had become fashionable, and enjoyable restaurants and bars for all families to attend.

My story, that is the story of my ancestors, is no different than those coming to the Southern border. They seek the same things, have traveled the long distance, have the same dreams and ambitions, for themselves and their children, and seek to contribute to a society, just as my great-great-great grandfather and his family did. They’ll become upstanding members of society, contribute to the overall good, and weave their lineage into the fabric of an ever evolving United States of America.

We should give them that chance.

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PurpleAmerica’s Recommended Stories

One of the best books on immigration that I have read is “Coming to America” b Roger Daniels. It covers all the various waves and where the immigrants went and has been updated to cover immigration in the world of globalization.

https://www.amazon.com/Coming-America-Immigration-Ethnicity-American/dp/006050577X/ref=asc_df_006050577X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312736349443&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8094507198523319235&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019498&hvtargid=pla-492139815329&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=63700707018&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312736349443&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8094507198523319235&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9019498&hvtargid=pla-492139815329

PurpleAmerica’s Obscure Fact of the Day

Where immigrants have come from has evolved over the past 300 years. The primary source of immigrants⁴:

• In 1750s were from England.

• In 1800s were from Ireland and Scotland and western Europe.

• In 1850s were from Ireland and Gemany; this is the start of the central and Eastern European mass migration.

• In 1900s were from Germany, Britain and Austria-Hungary. Eastern European migration maintains its high volumes of emigrants.

• In 1950s were from Germany, Italy and Netherlands. The start of the Cold War and the “Iron Curtain” effectively stops Eastern Europe migration.

• In 1970s were Southeast Asian refugees and the start of Latin American migration boom.

• In 1980 and 1990 was from Mexico. In the ‘90s a full 44% of all immigrants came from Latin America.

• In the 2000s you start to see a rise in immigration from India, China, and Asian countries. The volume still dwarfs the amounts from Latin America but is a noticeable uptick.

In the history of the United States, there has never been a net migration out of the country.

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PurpleAmerica Cultural Criticism Corner

The thing I love about talking about Immigration is that it gives me an opportunity to post my favorite Neil Diamond song.

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Outstanding Tweet

Two for the price of one today.

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Footnotes and Parting Thoughts

Let me know what you think of the page. Please share and comment!

1. The African immigrant/slave experience is radically different than the British and Dutch immigrant experience in this regard. Many of the subsequent issues of that we are still dealing with today.

2. U.S. Constitution, 14th Amendment.

3. I do have to qualify this again. The African American experience is indeed wholly different. Much of the stigmatization and racism they do have in common (ust not in degree), but from getting here (they were forced here with no say in the matter) to their exploitation (whereas other workers made some money, albeit little, slaves got nothing) and the experience post Civil War where blacks were subjugated and never allowed to enter mainstream society largely until the 1950s and 60s, that whole experience is quantifiably different.

4. Intentionally ignored in this analysis were Canadian immigrants. While Canada has always been a large source of immigrants to the United States, like America, their ancestry originates elsewhere. There has always been a migration between Canada and United States that has been very high.