A foundational aspect of our national identity is the widely regarded notion that the United States is a nation of immigrants.
While the country has also seen periods of restrictive immigration policies, our history is deeply intertwined with the movement of people from other nations. No other state has as large an immigrant population as does the United States.
With the important exception of those descended from native peoples and/or enslaved Americans, few people in this country cannot trace at least part of their ancestry to an immigrant either recently or centuries ago.
Today, almost 15% of our population is foreign born. Nevertheless, immigration has persistently remained one of the most contentious social and political issues in our history.
The policies and activities initiated by the Trump administration serve as a case in point.
Historically, from roughly 1607 to around 1830, immigration into this country began with colonial patterns shaped by diverse motivations, including religious freedom, economic opportunity and the forced migration of Africans through the slave trade. Early settlers predominantly arrived from England, followed by waves of Germans, Scottish and Irish.
The second wave of immigrants—more than 10 million people—arrived during the period dominated by the idea of “Manifest Destiny,” the belief that the United States was destined to expand its territory and spread its political, social and economic influence across the North American continent.
This idea fueled a westward expansion, which required a constant flow of reinforcements to expand, secure and defend the frontier. Immigrants filling this need consisted predominantly of Anglo protestants, later followed by Northern and Western Europeans.
Around the mid-19th century, immigration was influenced by multiple foreign and domestic events. The potato famine suffered by Ireland, around 1846, brought almost one million new immigrants from that country.
The California Gold Rush of 1849-1855 prompted an infusion of fortune seekers. And the Homestead Act, signed into law by President Lincoln in 1862, allowed any citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms against the U.S., to claim 160 acres of surveyed government land, drew millions of settlers and shaped the demographics of the American West.
The introduction of Irish Catholics challenged the dominance of native Protestants, spurring the rise of an anti-Catholic “Know Nothing” movement in Massachusetts and elsewhere.
During the 1860s and 1870s opposition to Chinese migrants culminated in the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned the entry and reentry of Chinese immigrants for more than 70 years.
And the Immigration Act of 1924 added literacy tests and country specific quotas. The motivation behind these restrictive measures was mostly cultural, the fear that allowing foreign cultures would increasingly dilute and pollute the demographic makeup of the native population. However, much of cultural prejudice was converted to expressions of economic concerns, suggesting that new arrivals would give the native population disadvantageous competition.
The “Immigration and Nationality Act” of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, eliminated the national origins quota system that had favored immigrants from Northern and Western Europe. It opened the door for new immigrants seeking better economic opportunities and escaping political turmoil. As a consequence, over 70 million immigrants arrived in the U.S., 18 million from Mexico alone. Although not all stayed, and many were ultimately reclassified, by 2023 more than 48 million foreign born individuals lived in the U.S..
Not unexpected, the volatility of the issue has proven to be fertile political fodder for our elected representatives. The racist, draconian and selectively demonizing policies of the Trump administration, spearheaded by Stephen Miller, the president’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor, has been decisively one sided feeding into a manufactured anti-immigrant frenzy. Unsurprisingly, the administration has ignored the beneficial impact and positive contribution provided by adding new immigrants into our cultural mix.
An often overlooked statistic is generated by the reality that our population is rapidly aging. This trend is driven by increased longevity and lower birth rates. By 2030, adults over 65 are expected to outnumber those under 18. This poses significant complications for the economy, health care and social security systems. The accepted population replacement level is 2.1 births per woman. And this would only result in zero population growth. Our current fertility rate is just 1.7%. Immigration can help rectify this situation. Foreign born women tend to have much higher birth rates than those born in the country.
Immigrants, including those who are undocumented, help businesses fill positions vacated by retirees. Their taxes help fund the governmental social security programs upon which retirees depend. In their totality, in 2022, immigrants contributed $382.9 billion in taxes. Of this $59.4 billion came from the undocumented segment of this population. (Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.)
Immigrants possess skills that are complimentary to those of natives, who end up specializing in jobs that have higher earnings prospects. They are also more mobile than U.S. born workers. They move to areas of relatively high labor demand. Besides, immigrant labor keeps prices low, while immigrant demand for goods and services stimulate growth in the economy. Moreover, the foreign born start new businesses at significantly higher rates than U.S. born individuals.
The question remains: Are we a nation of immigrants, or should we be?
History established the relevance of immigrants during the development and growth of our country. We actively recruited them when we needed help during our post colonial westward expansion, as a necessary supply of labor during the period of rapid industrialization, and as fieldworkers for our agricultural production. Besides, in the famous words of Emma Lazarus, inscribed on a plaque connected to the Statue of Liberty, we have taken in many of the millions of “tired and poor” refugees passing through Ellis Island, which, in many ways, cemented welcoming immigrants as one of our core values. Independent analyses convincingly established the significant net benefit immigrants contribute to our economy.
While nativist expressions of discomfort with the influx of immigrants have surfaced periodically, the current administration’s approach appears unnecessarily mindless and demonic in concept and execution. Immigrant contributions to our history and culture should be celebrated and revered, not trivialized and vilified.
