Newcomers should be citizens, not guests

Illegal immigrants, he said, live in "the shadows of our society" straining state and local budgets, pressuring schools and hospitals. They are also "decent people who work hard, support their families, practice their faith and lead responsible lives."


We got a glimpse of the man who had governed a state with a 1,200-mile border with Mexico and adamantly refused to ban the children of illegals from public schools. This time Bush echoed the ambivalence among Americans who are split on whether immigration helps or hurts the country. He talked about law enforcement and about the melting pot. He spoke in tough words about using the National Guard to keep foreigners out. He spoke gently about a wounded soldier's request for citizenship.

I was reminded of how long we have viewed immigrants as heroes and threats. Every generation looks back through a sepia-tinged lens at the immigrants who built this country. It's the American story. But every generation also has those who look at new immigrants as threats to our national identity.

This was true when Benjamin Franklin rued the German immigrants who settled Pennsylvania. It was true when nativists insisted the Irish and Italian and Jewish "races" were too foreign to ever assimilate. It's true now when many rise up in alarm at Latinos who sing the national anthem in Spanish.

Much of this debate is about chaos on the border. It's about whether immigrants take jobs from citizens or do jobs Americans won't touch. How much is about becoming American?

When my grandparents came to America, the door was open. Today, foreigners can only get permission to move here through family connections or job skills, as asylum-seekers or as winners in the annual visa lottery. We have what historian Roger Daniels calls a bipolar population of immigrants. On one hand, the foreign Ph.D. and will-be CEO. On the other, the person who cleans your house and mows your lawn, picks your lettuce and cares for your parents.

The melting pot is still as powerful an American icon as the Liberty Bell. "The success of our country," said Bush, "depends upon helping newcomers assimilate into our society and embrace our common identity as Americans." Here is where his shades of gray turn into the jarring colors of a policy patchwork. The most troubling part of the proposals now on the table may not be using the National Guard nor the long, rocky road to citizenship some label amnesty. It may be the "guest worker" program.

Many employers see this as a way to satisfy the need for labor. Opponents see it as a way to undercut wages. What if it undercuts the American story? Do we want to create a constitutionally sanctioned category of second-class citizens, or, rather never-to-be-citizens?

Historian David Hollinger of UC Berkeley describes this as "a big deal" in our history, "dangerous and un-American." The presumption was that immigrants would come here and become Americans. Some immigrants have always gone back and forth. One in three Europeans who came during the great waves of the 20th century - half of all the Italians - chose to go home.

But under this expanded program of tracked transients, we might well replace illegals who work in the shadows with guests who work in the permanent shade of discrimination.

It doesn't take much to imagine guest workers" becoming what illegal immigrants are now, a permanent subclass, and a living rebuke to the idea of assimilation.

An appreciation of our history will tell you we were built and constantly renewed by newcomers who came to call the United States "my country" and defined themselves as citizens. Not as guests.

ELLEN GOODMAN is a columnist for The Boston Globe. Her column appears in Opinion. Contact her by e-mail at: ellengoodman [at] globe.com.


Originally published May 22, 2006