Immigration is a very publicized and talked about issue globally, especially in the United States, mostly because of the uproar towards undocumented immigrants crossing the Mexican border. Although it is a highly focused issue, there are still many myths around immigration, and it is scrutinized from a very impersonal perspective. Some better ways to understand and learn about immigration is to talk to the people who consider themselves immigrants, learn through their experiences, and reconsider your own history.
What is an immigrant?
The straightforward definition of an immigrant is a person who permanently lives in a country that they were not born in. Similarly used words are: migrant, international migrant, and foreign-born. As of 2019, around 3.4% of the world population were international immigrants, and this number has been increasing over the past few decades. Most of the immigrant population is from less-developed countries moving to another impoverished country. According to the Migration Policy Institute, there are multiple categories of immigrants: naturalized citizens, permanent residents, refugees, twilight statuses, and unauthorized.
A nation of immigrants?
The United States is many times referred to as a “nation of immigrants” or a “nation built by immigrants”, referencing the fact that most people in the United States have an ancestor that came from another country. In 2018, 44.7 million of the total population of 327.2 million were first-generation immigrants, and that number is growing. The United States has the largest immigrant population in the world, in fact, “four times that of Saudi Arabia and Germany, the two countries with the next largest numbers of immigrants”.
Breaking myths
There are many stigmas and negative connotations behind the word “immigrant”. In the Oxford dictionary, the sentence example of the word is: “they found it difficult to expel illegal immigrants”. Whenever the word “immigrant” is brought up, many people think of illegal, uneducated Mexican immigrants coming into the United States, either stealing jobs or not working, and taking over the country. Many of these are myths pushed by stereotypes. Immigrants are not taking over the United States, they only account for around 13.5% of the U.S. population. This statistic is about the same as it has been historically. Also, these immigrants are not all Mexican. 30% of immigrants come from Asia, and more come to the U.S. from China than Mexico. The stereotype that immigrants don’t work is also completely wrong. Half of the total U.S labor force growth over the last decade has been immigrants, and 72.5% of immigrants believe hard work is the way to succeed in America. Also, immigrants are not taking American jobs. 7.6% were self-employed compared to 5.6% of native-born Americans and immigrants have founded more than 40% of Fortune 500 companies. Immigrants are usually very educated. Immigrants who came to America in the last 10 years are more likely to have college degrees than native-born Americans, and immigrants are also likely to have advanced degrees.
In reality...
Victoria Platonova was born in Moscow, Russia and lived there until she was 12 years old. She then moved to Los Angeles, California, in the United States. She is very aware of the many negative connotations that others associate with the word “immigrant” but she believes that “being an immigrant is something to be proud of. We have to create our own space in the society we immigrate to. We were not born with privileges like native-borns were, so we had to work for them”. For her, “immigrant” “stands for hard work and resilience, for finding your own place in the new world, and not being scared of changes”. When Victoria first moved to the U.S., she struggled with negative views of immigrants and felt excluded, especially because she came from a country that was constantly feuding with the U.S. She was afraid that people would not like her for her nationality. However, this exclusion was all in her head, and she felt very lucky to live in California. Although it was a culture shock at first, the California habit of smiling at strangers and asking how other people are doing helped her feel accepted despite the fears in her head. Looking back, Victoria feels very lucky to “be young and in the right place”. Instead of feeling at a disadvantage for being an immigrant, she says that it has positively impacted her life. Her background has allowed her to have insight into other people. She is “more understanding and open to ideas” and can easily understand “why people think the way they do, even if their ideas are radically different from mine”. As she notes, this is a skill that not many people have, and she has because she moved. However, because she can see and understand conflicting viewpoints, “it’s hard to choose who is right and wrong sometimes”. One negative shock, that she has still not adjusted to, is how casually Americans dress and behave.
I grew up in the Bay Area in a particularly white, middle-upper-class area with a complete lack of any type of diversity. There was one black student in my middle school. There were two conservative students in my high school. Almost all students in my middle school, and high school, were born in California, and most of their parents were born in California as well. My freshman and sophomore year of college in rural New York had slightly more diversity in race and ideas. But 91% of the student body was born in the United States, and because the entire college was just under 3,000 total students, there were not many international students or immigrants. I transferred to UCSB for my junior year of college and was suddenly met with a much more diverse environment than I had ever been a part of. There was a huge range of races, ethnicities, and countries represented in the student body. Victoria was the first student born outside of the United States that I really got to know. Once I became friends with her, it was easy to see how where she was born and where she grew up impacted her personality and beliefs.
Talking to my mom, I remembered that my family has a history of immigration too, just like Victoria. I’m not an immigrant, and my mom is not an immigrant, but people farther back in our ancestry are. My great-grandmother was born in Canada, and moved to Massachusetts, where my grandmother was born. Then she moved to California later in her life. My great-grandfather was born in Mexico, and moved to California, where my grandfather was born. My grandfather and grandmother met in California, got married, settled down, and had my mother, who grew up in Salinas, California. And that history leaves an imprint on our lives. My mom's stories about who her parents were shows the impact of immigration on each of them, even though they were not first-generation immigrants. Their lineage impacted their personalities and lives, which in turn impacted my mom’s life and personality, which impacted the life that she wanted for me and the life she created for me.
Immigration may seem like an impersonal topic when numbers and percentages are thrown around in the media, or not applicable to everyone when you first think about it. Even if you did not immigrate to where you live, you may have friends that did. Also, your family has probably not lived where you are now for many generations. Asking your relatives about this can reveal a lot about the history of your family and how your life and personality have been influenced.