“I have a friend who is French who is a great Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He was born in France but his parents were from Tunisia (he’s Jewish). He was born in France so he has no accent. But he told me that he ultimately left France because everyone he met treated him as a Tunisian and not French. Even though he was born in France, the French still felt he was an immigrant. Now, he says i[n] his very strong French accent, people in Silicon Valley treat him as an American”. –Auren Hoffman, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur
May18th2006
are you suggesting that, by extension, america is welcoming of all immigrants? that immigrants (despite their national origins) are treated as “americans?”
No, I am not suggesting that we have completely reached *that* level yet, but I am suggesting that we are far better at it than the Europeans (and the rest of the world, for that matter).
HP- What evidence do you have that “are far better at it than the Europeans (and the rest of the world, for that matter)” in our treatment of immigrants? And if we talk about treatment of immigrants what immigrants are we specifically talking about? Because as you and I know, there are differences in the treatment of immigrants both defacto and dejure in the treatment on immigrants. For example, the rhetoric around immigration is tied to “securing our borders.” BUt you know that its not borders, and it really is border (southern, with Mexico, Latin America. In addition, all of the hijackers (911) came with legal documentation so Any discussion of treatment of immigrants that does not critically analyze the issue of race in the treatment of “other”-in my opinion, is rather shallow.
Many things, here are just a few…
1. We take in a much larger amount of immigrants than other industrialized nations do (especially low income immigrants)
2. Our immigrants tend to move up the economic ladder faster than other industrialized nations, and the ones that don’t, have a much lower unemployment figure
3. You could see much more diversity in our governments, our business leaders, and our overall make up, immigrants tend to be in more higher places here than in any other parts of the world.
4. Immigrants in general, from all around the world, if given the choice would rather come to the United States than any other industrialized country.
It reminds of this quote from Condoleezza Rice
Remember, I am not saying that we don’t continue to have problems, or that we are somehow perfect when it comes to immigration, certainly not. My only point here is that we are better than anybody else at doing it.
You don’t have to look any further than Germany and how Germany treats the Turks that live in the country (who are responsible for a great deal of Germany’s rebuilding and who many of them have lived in Germany for generations) to see how radically different the rest of the world is with immigration. Even adding in the current anti-immigrant climate and anti-immigrant legislation, the United States is still “100 percent ahead of any place else in the world in issues of” immigration.