I am the granddaughter of immigrants.

[lightningandsnow]

I am a second generation Canadian. My grandparents came to Canada after the holocaust - they were all survivors - to start a better life. They were fleeing persecution and trying to start a new, better life. They had nothing when they came here.

My grandfather on my mom's side owned a furniture store. My paternal grandfather built rotisserie ovens. They were hard workers who wanted a good life for their children.

Unless we are Native or Inuit, we are all the descendants of immigrants. Real people who didn't just "steal jobs", but who made a contribution to society. People who came here in search of a better life, for them, their children, and their grandchildren.

I am who I am today because of immigration. And this country is what it is because of the same.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. the immigrants will take your jobs and marry your women.

:P

:hi:

[ReliantJ]

2. True

Homer Simpson: Did you know everday Mexican Gays sneak into the border and unplug our brain dead ladys? I heard it on Fox

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. ...

:rofl:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. As am I

having done genealogy for years, I can sadly state that it is unlikely I have any Native American ancestors. My immigrant forebears came in waves, from 1620 until 1872, to America. I wouldn't be here if they had been tossed out.

[elocs]

5. I am a 12th generation American. First ancestor on my mother's side came in 1628.

My father's grandmother was a Cherokee. So I have deep roots in this country. For all of those people who like to chant at immigrants to go back where they came from I'd have to say my ancestors were probably here before theirs and could have said the same thing to them. Ultimately, we are really a nation of immigrants but we seem to only welcome them when it is convenient for us or we need their services.

[glinda]

23. Did you know that the Cherokee Tribe is the largest in the Nation because they

did not abide by blood quantum and they also intermarried with many people and let many people into their Tribe mostly without records on them? Not to lessen your affiliation but that is the History of the most mentioned Tribe.

[elocs]

26. My father was from Mississippi and my mom said one of his aunts was a corn cob smoking hillbilly.

That my grandfather married a Cherokee, and "Indian" was not exactly something the family was shouting from the rooftops and so it was kept as kind of a dark secret passed by word of mouth, one that I'm sure most of them wished did not exist and would not have made up. But on my mom's side, her family history from 1628 is well documented. So in another 19 years my family will have been in this country for 400 years.

[glinda]

28. My husband is Ojibway.

[Donnachaidh]

6. did the oven builder own his business or work for someone else?

Regardless of what generational immigrant you are, if the jobs have been outsourced to other countries to pay smaller salaries and rake in higher profits - that leaves f*ck-all for the people who USED to work at the shuttered factories and businesses that went to other countries.

It's all very PC to whip out the *we are all immigrants* argument, but when those who have always had jobs are forced to fight even more for jobs, just to keep their families fed, it's GOING to get nasty out there. Holding hands and singing We are the World just doesn't WORK the way things are now.

It's going to be one UGLY spring and summer if the jobs keep leaving.

[stillcool]

8. Perhaps some of those who have lost ..

their jobs can go to Mexico and work in one of the outsourced factories there.

[Donnachaidh]

9. you forgot your sarcasm thingie

And if you didn't forget it - you should be ashamed of yourself for saying that. That's the sort of rightwing comment that shouldn't even be seen on this board.

[stillcool]

14. Right-wing?

They wouldn't even acknowledge their precious corporations took those jobs to Mexico. The blame for them lies solely at the feet of the immigrants.

[Donnachaidh]

19. so that makes it okay for you to tell the unemployed to go to countries

with outsourced jobs? If they haven't started saying it yet, it will be a rightwing comment when things start heating up. And anyone saying that should be ashamed for being so callous.

[stillcool]

21. oh please...

do you really think they will ever blame anyone but 'immigrants'? I haven't heard a wing-nut yet criticize multi-national corporations, or Reaganomics which turned them into juggernauts. Should they need to cross the border to find work, and feed their families, I would find it to be their just rewards. I would also hope that they would be treated exactly as they have treated others. Right down to dying in the dessert, held in detention centers, being deported without their kids, paying taxes, ...all that fun stuff.

[LeftyMom]

12. So what tribe are you?

:rofl:

[LeftyMom]

7. My grandfather was an illegal immigrant

He came to the US as a teenager. In those days most people didn't register their children's births until they were almost grown, so a family registered him as a home birth and his official place of birth is Seattle. His actual place of birth was the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The US really didn't want migrants who were Catholic, Eastern European or native German speakers, let alone all three and dirt poor besides. But sticking around Europe wasn't a real good idea for a teenage boy, so his parents sent him to Italy with money to get himself to the US, which was probably just about all they had. So he came here, got dodgy papers and a job, worked his ass off, started a few businesses and a family, and put five kids (my Grandmother's two from her prior marriage plus three they had together) through parochial school.

[amandabeech]

20. Employers sure wanted those immigrants.

Otherwise, they might have been forced to hire African Americans which they did not want to do.

German speakers, especially Protestant ones, were quite welcome and had been coming since before the Civil War in large numbers.

German speakers were much less welcome during U.S. participation in WWI, in which Americans fought Germans, and Germany was considered the enemy.

[LeftyMom]

22. Not on the west coast.

Chinese and Mexicans (depending on the industry) were the cheap labor of choice in California. Displacing black workers wasn't a major factor, as there weren't many to displace until they came here in large numbers for defense industry jobs between the wars.

As I said my grandfather came over at the start of WWI so a German speaking Hungarian teenager was about as welcome as a fart in church. There were quotas, and getting in legally wasn't much of an option. (Gee, this sounds familiar...)

He managed to make something of himself anyhow, though I guess it took a while because he married rather late in life for the time period- he was in his mid 40s when his first child was born. Luckily it's pretty easy to learn English if you know German (or vice versa) so he picked up the language fast- there were vigilante groups that specialized in attacking German speakers as potential spies (or just "the enemy") back then. Thankfully we have a bit of a family talent for picking up accents- he spoke perfect English for as long as anybody can remember, at least until he hit 90 or so and started to forget, then we had to talk to him in German (or Deutschlish for those who only knew a little bit) and that was nearly incomprehensible because he spoke some godawful obscure dialect and his hearing was failing besides.

[amandabeech]

27. Thanks for the info on the West Coast scene.

I wasn't aware of the Chinese/Mexican situation. Sounds very similar to African Americans in the eastern part of the country.

I also wasn't aware that there were ethnic quotas prior to the 1920s immigration laws.

[lumberjack_jeff]

10. Everyone is where they are because of immigration.

There are only two kinds of immigration:
a) with the permission of those who are already there, or
b) illicitly. Either surreptitiously or by force.

In general, previous waves of immigrants came here because it was in the citizens interest. A government who operates in its citizens interest will strictly control immigration.

[Captain Hilts]

11. Oh, to be in Tee Oh right now...

Last year this time I was up there for three weeks and we had three feet of snow. I loved it.

I was near Summerhill metro station.

[deoxyribonuclease]

13. I'm a first generation American

My parents came to the US in 1980. My dad, who grew up dirt poor in the rice paddies of southern Taiwan, excelled in his studies and eventually earned a visa to the US to enroll in a PhD program. My parents ended up staying the US and obtaining citizenship.

Thanks to them, my childhood was drastically different compared to theirs. Whereas during their childhood they struggled to survive and had to work the fields and tend the livestock all day, they provided me with a comfortable, secure, middle-class environment.

[noamnety]

15. And now here you are

exploiting our bandwidth!!! I hope everyone sees this is the type of behavior immigrants and their offspring engage in!

;)

One of my ancestors snuck over here to get out of an arranged marriage she was going to be forced into.

[DavidDvorkin]

16. I'm an immigrant to the US

I married an American girl. Hahahahahaha!

And I've spawned! Hahahahahahahahaha!

And I'm quite proud of myself.

[glinda]

24. Funny!!!!!!!!!!!

[KamaAina]

17. I would imagine the xenophobia factor is much lower in the Great White North

similar to the lack of mass hysteria over marriage equality.

Why must a country so civilised be so frakkin' cold?! And when are you gonna get rid of Bush Jr. Harper??

[lightningandsnow]

18. Yeah, I think we might be more chill like that.

Haha, chill. It is, indeed, friggin freezing here this time of year.

As for Harper? Soon, I hope. :hi:

[dustbunnie]

25. You can't claim the life of your elders even if you tried. n/t

[old mark]

29. L&S: My father immigrated to the US as a child in 1919.

He and my grandmother came from Germany where she was a nurse to NYC where she was a house cleaner. They became citizens, he married and all 4 of us kids went to college ahd have (or had) great jobs and marriages of their own. My dad is still living - he was 92 on Jan 1st.
His father - my grandfather - was a soldier in the Imperial German Army, an enemy soldier fighting against the US. He died in the war.
I don't think people know how much immigrants pay back to their adopted countries, but I think we feel a debt to our countries that others do not.

mark

[uppityperson]

30. I am the granddaughter of immigrants.

I am a second generation USAnian. My grandparents came to USA before WWI as they could see the handwriting on the wall in Germany/Austria areas and wanted to survive. They were fleeing persecution and trying to start a new, better life. All they had was their family (for one) and nothing (for the other) when they came here.

They had a news paper in a small town, and experienced a lot of bigotry during the WWs due to their heritage, but they perservered.

"Unless we are Native or Inuit, we are all the descendants of immigrants. Real people who didn't just "steal jobs", but who made a contribution to society. People who came here in search of a better life, for them, their children, and their grandchildren.

I am who I am today because of immigration. And this country is what it is because of the same."

[Lex]

31. A beautiful song and pictures

here by Steve Earle. "City of Immigrants":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWnGctWs4JM

A lyric for example: "All of us are immigrants, every daughter, every son . . . "

Your post reminded me of it.

[lightningandsnow]

33. I'll check it out!

I'm in the library right now, so I can't. But I'll definitely watch/listen when I get home.

[jmg257]

32. And?

[Romulox]

34. So, the American people aren't allowed to have self-determination

...because your grandparents immigrated to Canada? That makes no sense whatever.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

35. DEYRE TAKEN ARE JAWBS!!! n/t

[Romulox]

36. Anyone notice this board being invaded by agressively incoherent types like the above?

I've also noticed that there tends to be an influx of rightwing trolls on "Freeper Friday" who try to paint a caricature of what a "progressive" is...

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

37. Sorry...

I'm not exactly rational when it comes to dealing with shit like xenophobia and racism. I can only deal with Indians being referred to as "Apu" or people being told to "go back to your own country" for so long before I start to get irritated at crap like your posts.

[Romulox]

38. None of that had anything to do with the message that I posted.

"I can only deal with Indians being referred to as "Apu" or people being told to "go back to your own country" for so long before I start to get irritated at crap like your posts."

I didn't post anything like this. :hi:

[yellowwood]

39. What Are You Trying to Say?

Are you saying that most of us are descendants of immigrants and, therefore, immigration is a good thing? I don't think many of us would argue much about that, except some Native Americans who haven't been treated very well by these immigrants. However, this statement sometimes sets up this false argument: because immigration has been a good thing, there should be no rules as to further immigration. This just doesn't make sense.

Unfortunately, there are millions of people all over the world who would like to immigrate into the United States because their lives are miserable where they are. It would be kind of us to take them. But if we take in more immigrants than we have land and resources to accept, we, too, can turn this country into a miserable place.

That's why there need to be laws controlling immigration. And the laws should be observed. For all of those people who cannot be accepted, we should provide foreign aid in any way that we can.
Under the Bush administration, we provided little help to some of these countries in the way of birth control, thus making their lives harder.