The People Who Want to be Americans

[babylonsister]

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-resilience-of-the-american-idea/551531/

The People Who Want to be Americans

Amid the roar of the immigration debate, there are still those working quietly and diligently to become citizens.
Alex Wagner Jan 27, 2018 Politics


On a brisk evening at the New York Historical Society in Manhattan on Tuesday, a handful of green card holders were gathered to learn about the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The group ranged in age and origin: a young man and a young woman in their twenties and a mother in her late forties were all from the Dominican Republic; an older couple was from the Netherlands; a middle aged woman was from Peru.

All of the attendees were taking part in the Citizenship Project, a series of free classes offered by the Historical Society to help green card holders prepare for their US Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization exam, using artifacts and documents from the collection of the museum. (The civics test requires applicants correctly answer 6 out of 10 questions about American government and history that are drawn from a list of 100. It is not multiple choice).

snip//

To say that these have been trying times in the debate over American immigration is an understatement. I asked the students in class that evening, Why now? What made you decide that this was the moment to become a citizen of this place, so clearly fractured in its values and its politics? The older, European immigrants in class—some of whom had been here for several decades—seemed energized and resolute. “To vote!” bellowed one Austrian woman—and it was apparent that her enthusiasm was borne directly of the chaos. She had been here so long, she explained, that she very nearly felt American—and now she wanted to exercise her most fundamental right as one.

A young man from the Dominican Republic was lagging behind the rest of the group. I asked him if the tumult of the present moment made him question whether he actually wanted to be a part of this country. “No,” he responded, without hesitation. “This is still the land of opportunity.” The same was true for his compatriot, the young Dominican woman who was attending class with her mother. She had not found herself victim to any hostilities, she said, and still believed in the promise of United States citizenship.

snip//

That night, walking through the museum displays dedicated to the slave trade and the Trail of Tears, the sins of this moment were overshadowed by the brutalities of the past, as the group of would-be Americans took in the transgressions of their (hopefully) soon-to-be forefathers. American trust in American institutions is at historic lows, and the rest of the world trusts America less than ever before, but here, however fleetingly and at whatever scale, was evidence that the idea of America remained resilient. It had taken a beating (it still is) but even after examining this country’s indelible stains, its complicated story of plunder and progress, and amid the cacophony of national name-calling and brinkmanship, a group of people still walked out into the chilly New York night, convinced.

[IluvPitties]

1. Immigrants are the future... they are the ones that might save us from ourselves...