America - The Land of Immigrants
Read more articles on Life and Politics and Law and Legal Issues.October 9, 2006
Posted by Tiffany Aller
October 9, 2006
Posted by Tiffany Aller
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This article is part of a series of articles entitled “Immigration: My Perspective”. To return to the main page of the series, click here.
This wonderful country we inhabit had citizens long before the European settlers of yesteryear came stumbling upon the eastern shores. So-called “Native Americans” or “American Indians”, it is believed that these earliest settlers of North America arrived during the last ice age, when a land/ice bridge spanned what is now the Bering Sea between present-day Siberia and Alaska. In the thousands of years between their settling of North American and the arrival of European explorers, the population of the true Native Americans grew to around 10 million, spread from sea to sea.
After the 15th century, when the Europeans claimed “discovery” of America, and especially after it appeared that the “new continent” would become a viable country in its own right, residents of nations throughout Europe flooded to America for a variety of reasons: to escape political or religious persecution, to seek adventure and glory, to take part in international trade, or to achieve a better life for themselves and their families. These motivations link the earliest European immigrants to the immigrants of today.
America is the thriving, fascinating diverse land that it is today because of the influence of these earliest settlers, and of the settlers who followed in the next several hundred years, until the early 20th century. Like immigrants of today, their predecessors were so eager to come to our shores that they made sacrifices almost unbelievable in nature in order to gain passage. But the similarity ends there.
Two words that could accurately describe the attitudes of settlers of America from the 16th through early 20th century would be “acclimate” and “assimilate”. Webster’s online dictionary defines the word “acclimate” to mean “to adapt to a new temperature, altitude, climate, environment, or situation”. The same source defines the word “assimilate” to mean “to absorb into the culture or mores of a population or group”. Although immigrants from England, Ireland, Italy, Spain and other nations kept a sense of their heritage, they also sought to blend into the culture they’d chosen to become a part of, and their contributions have defined what being an American is today.
Have you ever wondered how some of our cultural beliefs and activities came about - those values and events that set us apart from our neighbors around the world? To discover our heritage as Americans, we do not need to make present-day comparisons, but instead look at how our ancestors helped shape a new country. Why, to this day, do we celebrate Independence Day with such pride and festivities? Because our ancestors fought many bloody battles to ensure our freedom from tyranny and our viability as a nation. Why is Labor Day a holiday celebrated each year in early September? Because we remember the struggles of our ancestors against unfair wages, inhuman work environments and ungodly work days and weeks. Besides a celebration of gluttony and football, why is Thanksgiving such a big deal? Because it is a remembrance of our very earliest settlers breaking bread with the natives they encountered in this land - two very different societies who would endure many bloody times at the hands of the other sharing momentary piece to give thanks for their blessings.
A common cry of modern-day immigrants is that their perspective is not understood by people who are already citizens of the United States. To some extent, they are correct - a lasting legacy of our forebears is the ability to march boldly into the future, while putting the past behind us. But remembering the insightful words of George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” No matter which side you take in todays arguments over immigration, remember that we are all the products of immigration. And that’s what makes America wonderful.
Tiffany Aller earned a degree in Political Science and a minor in history from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. The articles in the series “Immigration: My Perspective” contain a mixture of historical research, present-day world views and personal experience. Feedback to these articles, constructive in nature, is encouraged.
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