In my academic job at a large medical center, I participate in the training of residents for a challenging surgical discipline. Many of the most resilient and hardworking trainees are first- or second-generation immigrants to the USA. They come from every continent. With little sense of entitlement, they feel daily gratitude to America for the opportunities offered and are determined to pay her back by achieving excellence. The inspiring story of one such surgical trainee, who firsts came to the USA as an undocumented migrant fruit picker, is told in the book “Becoming Dr. Q“.
Our best asset
A secret sauce of American success is how it assimilates immigrants, at various socioeconomic levels, and allows them to improve their own lives while contributing to their new nation. An excellent recent documentary, The Donut King, tells the story of Cambodian refugees who fled civil war to became successful American business owners. Many of our most innovative entrepreneurs (Elon Musk, Sergey Brin) came from other countries, as do 20% of the USA’s engineers and scientists. In addition to these benefits of immigration, consider the strange fate of several Asian countries that shun immigration in favor of a social harmony based on ethnic homogeneity. Those nations will soon face demographic collapse.
Historical nativism
Although Americans often self-identify as a “nation of immigrants”, we haven’t always been so welcoming. In 1856, after decades of assimilating many newcomers, former American president Millard Fillmore sought a nonconsecutive second term as a candidate for the American Party (known colloquially as the “Know Nothing” party). This nativist movement opposed immigration and promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy theories to boost its cause. Sound familiar? Fillmore’s quest for political resurrection gives us a creepy historical parallel to the current political moment, except that his grievance was focused on Irish Catholics rather than on Latin Americans, and that he lost his bid for a second term.
Later, for a 40-year period beginning in the isolationist 1920’s, our borders were largely closed to all but persons from Northern Europe. These restrictions ended with one of President Lyndon Johnson’s most consequential but least known initiatives, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. That Act opened the doors, once again, to immigrants from all over the world.
Making America Small Again?
An ugly and ironic element of Trumpism is that it bashes immigrants while purporting to stand for “American greatness”. The movement deliberately confounds illegal immigration with its legal variety, perversely rallying opposition to an actual source of American greatness.
However, the President-elect could not have made an anti-immigration stance a winning issue but for the chronic bipartisan political failure to manage this potent American asset in a way that garners the support of a majority of citizens. For example, the current chaotic system forces persons legitimately seeking work in the USA to enter illegally (due to the lack of an organized guest worker program), or to abuse an outdated system for politial asylum. This understandably unpopular. In the months before the 2024 election, Senate Republicans proposed a law that would better regulate entry of new workers. But since this could have mitigated the anti-immigrant fervor animating Mr. Trump’s core supporters, he cynically nixed the effort. Post-inauguration, without a campaign to run, perhaps the new President will allow a similar, sensible immigration reform bill to succeed in Congress. If so, he can keep America great.
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