Nearly all of us have seen or heard of the issue of immigration in the twenty-first century. For nearly four hundred years now, the immigration debate has been present and alive in the hearts and minds of Americans. For some it provided a fire kindled by hopes and dreams that have for so long been disenfranchised. For others, it provided a shard of glass that pierced through their hearts, mutilating any hopes or dreams of a better life. For others still, it provided a sense of security and reassurance, and for a few, it provided a sensation of such determination, vigor, and need to put things right, that it would not be unlike that possessed by Madame Defarge at the Bastille in A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens 252). For many years hitherto, only two opinions have been listened to, that of the American who wishes to stop the spread of immigration and that of the American who wishes to welcome immigration. In the war between these two Americans, people have forgotten that there exists a third opinion, one that has been very rarely listened to. In order to fully comprehend the issue of immigration and thus adequately solve it, we must hear all three opinions.

            The first opinion is that of those who encourage the spread of immigration, such as President Barack Obama. President Obama expressed that opinion in his 2014 Immigration Speech, when he said, “Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger – we were strangers once, too. My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.”(Obama) This quote expresses a belief that today’s immigrants are no different than the Scottish, Irish, Dutch, and British immigrants who first settled in the United States four hundred years ago. In “The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations,” a similar statement was established when Dekanawidah said, “When a member of an alien nation comes to the territory of the Five Nations and seeks refuge and permanent residence, the Lords of the Nation to which he comes shall extend hospitality and make him a member of the nation. Then he shall be accorded equal rights and privileges in all matters except as after mentioned.” Dekanawidah expresses his opinion that all foreign peoples who wish to call the Americas their home, should not meet any hindrance in doing so, and that the leaders of the nation should welcome those immigrants with open arms. Once again, the claim is made that the land is free for all, regardless of a person’s nationality.

            The second opinion is that of those who wish to prohibit the spread of immigration, or rather staunch the flow of immigration which has so drastically increased with the rise of the twenty-first century. Here, I implore the reader to study another quote made by Dekanawidah in The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations, where he states, “When any nation or individual is admitted into the Five Nations the admission shall be understood only to be a temporary one. Should the person or nation create loss, do wrong or cause suffering of any kind to  endanger the peace of the Confederacy, the Confederate Lords shall order one of their war chiefs to reprimand him or them and if a similar offence is again committed the offending party or parties shall be expelled from the territory of the Five United Nations.” As is obvious, Dekanawidah sets his rules for immigration, if very basic ones. It is clear that any leader who now opposes immigration opposes not the concept itself but rather fears that the immigrant in question would “create loss, do wrong or cause suffering of any kind to endanger the peace.” With that in mind, the only question regarding immigration that remains to be pondered is how to determine whether or not the immigrant would commit the actions mentioned above. Now that we have ventured into the minds of those who advocate immigration as well as the minds of those who seek to resist immigration, all that remains is to venture into the hearts of the immigrants themselves.

            The third opinion is that of the immigrant. The true immigrant seeks no more than a better life. Whether the immigrant has escaped from Germany during the Nazi regime, as Albert Einstein did; or fled from Iraq during dictator Saddam Hussein’s reign; or even travelled from England on a long journey to reach California, as Robert Louis Stevenson did, all those immigrants shared and still share one goal which is to find “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” (Jefferson 192) To deny immigrants such rights would make Americans no different than King George III who, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, “endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither; and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.” (Jefferson 194) In Let America Be America Again, we see the immigrant’s point of view in the seventh stanza, “O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas/In search of what I meant to be my home-/For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,/And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,/And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came/To build a “homeland of the free.”/The free?” (Hughes 55) Poet Langston Hughes seeks to help Americans understand what it means to be an immigrant as well as what the immigrants are pursuing in their dreams of the United States, and how those dreams contrast with what they truly find. To further strengthen this cause, countless characters have been portrayed in literature to symbolize today’s immigrants, whether they are nonfictional success stories such as that of Naomi Shihab Nye or fictional young heroes such as Rick Riordan’s Samirah Al-Abbas, these characters have provided consolation and compassion for young immigrants in the United States. However, they did not present a solution to the issue of immigration. They did not provide current immigrants with an answer to the ongoing question of “Why?” This answer they so fervently sought was given by Morrie Shcwartz in Tuesdays with Morrie when he stated, “The problem, Mitch, is that we don’t believe we are as much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own.” (Albom 156)

            In conclusion, in the midst of all the “propaganda” caused by immigration in our modern age, it is prudent that we, as citizens of the world, listen to each opinion before reaching a decision. It does not do for a leader to decide to cut off all immigration for fear that the immigrants would “endanger the peace” of the country. (Dekanawidah The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations) Furthermore, it is no more acceptable for a leader to allow immigrants to live in the country without being constrained under the same laws as any American-born citizen. Last but not least, it is by no means appropriate for the government to tolerate immigrants who wish to make their livings in the United States through various methods of crime and theft. We must analyze each side’s argument before reaching a common decision which, as Schwartz so adequately phrased it, is reached by establishing a “one big human family.” Only then can leaders truly feel the oppression, misery, and pain that lie deep in the hearts of the immigrants, and only then can the immigrants feel the leaders’ sense of responsibility for the safety of their citizens and their country.

– Ayah Gouda

Works Cited:

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Dalmatian Press, 2007.

Albom, Mitch. tuesdays with Morrie. BDWY, 2017.

Hughes, Langston. “Let America Be America Again.” A Patriot’s Handbook. Ed. Caroline Kennedy. Hyperion, 2003. 54-55.

Jefferson, Thomas. “The Declaration of Independence.” A Patriot’s Handbook. Ed. Caroline Kennedy. Hyperion, 2003. 192-196

Obama, Barack. Immigration Speech, 2014. Tanya Somander, 20 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2019.

The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations: The Great Law of Peace