Know-Nothings Knew Something

In March 1854, a stone of marble donated by Pope Pius IX to be used in the construction of the Washington Monument was stolen by a group of political activists and thrown into the Potomac river. The activists were members of the Know-Nothing movement, so-called because of their pledge to reply "I know nothing" when asked about its secret activities. The movement formed a patchwork of mostly Whigs and some Democrats who were exasperated with those two parties' failure to deal effectively with the growing political influence of fresh Irish immigrants, who being immigrants and Catholic could obviously not be trusted. Know-Nothings demanded a return to "law and order" and warned Americans of the perils of outsiders who hailed allegiance to non-American masters, specifically the Pope and his Catholic minions.

Today, political activists still find immigration as sweet a fruit as any to pick from the tree of opportunism. As then, there is frustration in the heartland at the inability of politics to solve the problem of persistent human tides along our shores. As then, some of this frustration is an expression of a rational but erroneous concern that the nation's economic health is threatened by gangrenous hordes of migrant workers who would take our jobs and consume our resources. And as then, some of this frustration is the plea of identity. Will we be a nation of them and not of us?

The accusation that immigrants are poison to our economy is a grift in search of a scapegoat. The accuser should confer with that cousin, who claims that a Mexican in Mexico steals American jobs, and decide which tall-tale to tell. Of course, with U.S. unemployment at 4.7%, they could sell tanning beds to a Sonoran farmer if they can convince a rational American that jobs are scarce and it's the fault of a Mexican, immigrant or native. As for whether the presence of low-skilled immigrants depresses U.S.-born workers' wages, a study on the economic impact of immigration by Gianmarco Ottaviano (Univ. of Bologna) and Giovanni Peri (Univ. of Calif., Davis) has shown that immigration from 1980-2000 has actually increased the wages of U.S.-born Americans by 2%. This is because immigrants complement native U.S. workers, making the division of labor more specialized and thus more productive. Furthermore, in addition to the positive effect on the U.S. labor market, immigrants produce many goods and services at lower cost, a huge benefit to American businesses and consumers.

The more sensible objection to unimpeded immigration is the one that sees in our country active obstruction to immigrant assimilation. In our politics, our businesses, and our schools, narrow-minded elites have imposed an agenda of multiculturalism which threatens to balkanize our country and keep immigrants separated by ethnic group, by language, and by fear. The great "melting pot," which created a rich and diverse country from the various peoples of the world, has been replaced by sleight of hand with the "salad bowl," a dark solicitation to segregate people who would otherwise find common understanding. Most immigrants want to become American, to live the ideals of freedom and liberty, often more than American natives do (certainly more than any multiculturalist elite ever has).

Americans are generous enough of spirit to recognize that the freedom that we cherish and the system of government which serves and protects it can be shared with all those who revel in its light. But those who harbor allegiance to a foreign nation and wave the flag of the country they left to find opportunity here have no place asking for citizenship or privilege from a nation they scorn. It is these who a guest worker program serves. And yet it is the true believer in the American dream, who desires assimilation within a nation of such individualism, who the guest worker program shuns. Let us have an immigration policy that is open, that naturalizes far many more than are presently admitted, but let us encourage and not obstruct assimilation into American society, and promote American values and civics in our schoolhouses, statehouses, and boardrooms.

Calvin Coolidge, who quite reluctantly signed legislation lowering immigration quotas during his presidency, later remarked on the issue, "Every race and creed that has come here in numbers has shown examples of unsurpassed loyalty and devotion to our country. … We have certain standards of life that we believe are best for us. We do not ask other nations to discard theirs, but we do wish to preserve ours … We reflect on no one in wanting immigrants who will be assimilated into our ways of thinking and living." These comments are altogether reasonable, and reflect the charitable and assimilative thinking that dominated the public attitude for most of the twentieth century. Today this thinking is lost in the crossfire between those who would wall out the aspirants of freedom and those who would admit them but discourage their indigenization.

To the misguided migrant who finds himself in a land of riches and opportunity, waving the flag of his country of birth, I have this to say. If Mexico or Colombia or Guatemala is where your heart is, leave our land of opportunity and return to your home; there is much unfinished and unfulfilled in the country you have left. We can even help you get there. But if you have been inspired by the spirit of liberty, and admire not our riches but our enterprise, not our opportunity but our diligence, pick up that star-spangled banner, and tell all who will listen how much you admire the American dream, and how, God willing, you will live it.