Guest Column: Immigrants help make our country stronger
Long before the American Revolution, my ancestors landed in Plymouth, Mass.
They didn’t come alone. They brought their friends, adversaries and children. They had babies here. And like the clothes in your dryer, the dreams of the people tumbled together, stacked like bricks on top of one another, to build the foundation of this country.
Other ancestors managed to secure passage here after their potato fields rotted black with disease. Starvation and bleak opportunity for change compelled them to risk their lives to make the journey to America.
Now, generations later, we who are the “born-heres” seem to have lost our way. Instead of welcoming the poor and famished from other countries, we’re guarding our privileges like snarling dogs.
Are we any better than the young mother and father from Mexico or Asia? Do we not desire the same — education, promotion in life’s station and the undeniable right to happiness?
Do we not pine for a better life for our children?
Civil advancements
Is it coincidence that after every significant immigration that America has moved steadily and speedily toward engineering, civil and economic advancements?
“These people,” so excited for a public education and a minimum-wage job — though they eagerly settle for less — are bringing the next generation of greatness to America.
According to University of Washington professor Roberto Gonzalez, most of the undocumented children “are honor roll students, athletes, class presidents, valedictorians and aspiring teachers, engineers and doctors. Yet, because of their immigration status, their day-to-day lives are severely restricted — and their futures are uncertain.”
Earning citizenship
That’s why I’m in support of the DREAM Act.
The DREAM Act is an immigration bill that would allow these children to earn U.S. citizenship though college or military service. If we’re raising these children, who themselves are innocent of illegally crossing into our country, why not embrace them?
I understand that not every individual who comes to America will significantly strengthen our core. But we can’t restrict immigration to just those with advanced degrees and wealthier status.
Many of us are concerned that this influx of people without health care or employment will bleed our resources dry, but immigration or not, money and ideas are running thin. We need new blood, new ideas.
There is a ringing truth in the words from Emma Lazarus’ poem:
“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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
We need to be challenged and made uncomfortable. There can be no room for solution if challenge does not squeeze it out.
Let’s remain the golden door.
Lindsay Joslyn is a resident of Plainfield.