Growing up as an Indian-American in New Jersey in the 1980s and 1990s, I faced prejudice and discrimination, but the person who most understood what I was going through was my 80-year-old Italian-American piano teacher, Ms. Baldino.
As I talked with her, I realized that what I was going through was strikingly similar to what she had experienced growing up in the 1920s and 1930s. But I was confused because some of the children who tormented me were Italian-American. “They always forget what their grandparents went through,” Mrs. Baldino explained to me.
That seems to be the case in the current political situation.
Immigrants are easy targets. They're not yet American. They don't have the right to vote. Some of them may not be good at English. And when times are tough for Americans economically, they're easy scapegoats.
We've all heard about the all-powerful immigrants who are simultaneously making us dependent on the government and taking our jobs, and some of us have been led by politicians to believe that this wave of immigration is somehow changing the country for the worse. Why do so many Americans who are the descendants of immigrants buy into these scare tactics?
The answer is that historically, there have been people in America who refuse to believe that the immigrants coming to this country today are exactly like their ancestors who came generations ago.
It is important to emphasize here that the recent attacks by former President Trump and his campaign against the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, do not apply to “illegal” or undocumented immigrants. Trump was referring to the entire group of immigrants who have moved to Springfield over the past five years. Why? Because Trump and his campaign want to scare people. It's time to stop being fooled. Why? Because successive waves of immigration have proven one thing: their children will assimilate into America.
When immigrants come to this country, they struggle. This is a new country with a different language, food, religion, holidays, customs, and even a measurement system. It's hard, and sometimes the best way to navigate this new world is not alone, but through community. So you go where other immigrants go.
I saw this phenomenon for decades in New York City's Italian tenements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I saw it in San Francisco's Chinatown. Scandinavian immigrants settled in Minnesota. Czechs chose Central Texas. When I was a kid, Indian immigrants established themselves in Edison, New Jersey. Immigrants settle in these enclaves, employing one another, opening stores that serve one another's needs, practicing their religions together, surviving their immigrant journeys together. It's easy to look at this from the outside and be intimidated or xenophobic.
But we often overlook what happens after. These immigrants have children. And these children, first-generation Americans, try their best to become as American as they can. It's hard, because from the moment they leave home, they have to deal with the “Old World” customs of their homeland and reconcile them with the “New World.”
But they study hard in school, join the football team, participate in cheerleading, audition for the school play, go to the movies with their friends, and hope to get into a good college. As adults, they get involved in their communities. They join the military, become police officers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, business owners, and have children. They adopt their culture, foods, holidays, and customs into ours.
The next generation, the second generation, are the most fortunate. They are raised fully American, celebrating traditional holidays with their grandparents and eating traditional foods. But as the generations go by, something strange happens: Their descendants look at the new immigrants and assume that American culture won't allow them to assimilate in the same way. It's as if they don't believe in America.
Today, Trump and the MAGA Republicans MS-13 Gang We did the same thing when we lumped the Mafia together with all Italian Americans. Trump and MAGA Republicans will say Venezuelan immigrants are bringing Marxism. We did the same thing when we lumped anarchism together with Italians. Trump and MAGA Republicans will scare you about religions like Islam and Hinduism. We did the same thing with Catholicism and Italian Americans. Notice a pattern?
It's easy to look at immigrants and see the difference. It's even easier to be scared and fall prey to politicians' fear-mongering. But if you really want to know how much immigrants love America, just look at their kids. Immigrants may not be as American as apple pie, but their kids are definitely American. And that's why we don't have to fear them.
Jos Joseph is a Masters student at Harvard Extension School, Harvard University. He is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq and lives in Anaheim, California.
