I am an immigrant, not by choice, but because my parents, seeking freedom, left our country to come to the USA. Both were professionals, but they had a limited knowledge of English.
My father, who was an accountant, was fortunate enough to get employed by the same insurance company he had worked for in Cuba. But he still delivered papers before work, so he could earn enough to support his family. My mother, who had a law degree, ended up working in a factory doing manual labor.
During our first winter in New York, we had no money to buy appropriate winter clothing. Catholic Charities supplied us with essentials: sweaters, hats and winter coats. I stood out in high school because my clothes were not in style. But it did not matter much; my few friends were also immigrants. And it was in this unwelcoming high school where I was an outsider that I developed a key value that would guide the rest of my life: the importance of education.
My story is very similar to that of most immigrants. I am grateful to this country for all the opportunities it has provided me, from my education at one of the best universities in the nation to the leadership positions I held during my work life. The investment this country made in my future fully paid off. I became a professional, earned a good income, helped my parents, and contribute to my community to this day. I served in leadership positions and supported nonprofits efforts to alleviate problems and advance progress in every way possible.
I have been able to help because I was helped.
This country was settled by immigrants who came from different nations and whose pioneer spirit led them to risk everything in search of a better future. It is not a decision that was made lightly for any of them. Those who came by force underwent even more treacherous experiences and have struggled for centuries to reach the equality they deserve — as have the original inhabitants of the Americas when their natural right to belong was violently stripped from them.
What needs to be emphasized in our days for current immigrants is the fact that they also possess the same aspirational and pioneering spirit of the earlier comers from Europe. They leave behind country, family, social connections, known language, settings and circumstances in search of freedom and economic wellbeing. They work just as hard now as my parents did and as the European migrants did in the more distant past.
I see migrants today providing services and support in health care facilities. I see them in churches attending to the needs of parishioners. I see them in the neurosurgeon who operated on my husband. I see them in construction, building houses and repairing roofs. I see them advancing knowledge and becoming leaders in every field. I see them in a college president who opened the college tutoring center seven days a week for students who are working during the day, so they can get help with their academics. I see them in the many restaurants creating wonderful enrichments to our palates. I see them in every essential profession, working at every level, contributing to the stability and wellbeing of our society.
I agree with the need to have rules that guide the immigration process. But we also need to acknowledge that our ancestors (except for Native Americans and the atrocious blemish of slavery in our national history) came voluntarily from somewhere else. The notion that immigrants today are detrimental to the life of this country should be dispelled once and for all. More than any other in world history, this country has benefitted from their presence.
Juan Gozalez reminds us in his book Harvest of the Empire that immigrants are here in most cases “in search of survival, for inclusion on an equal basis, nothing more. It is a search grounded in the belief that, five hundred years after the experiment began, we are all Americans of the New World, and our most dangerous enemies are not each other but the great wall of ignorance between us.”
My friend Rick Porth wrote some years ago about the immigrant experience of his family:
“On St. Patrick’s Day we celebrate our Irish heritage. While we show our pride in being Irish, it’s good to remember our forebears -–the original ‘huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ When we remember this, it might be easier to identify with America’s poor people and its new immigrants, people from Latin America and the Caribbean, people from Asia and Africa and other seekers of freedom and opportunity. If we can put ourselves in their shoes, maybe it will be easier to stand with them and work through the church or charitable organizations or by supporting government policies and programs to lift them out of poverty and open access to opportunity. When we do this, we honor our Irish ancestors by remembering what life was really like for many of the earlier immigrants.”
We are here together because our ancestors decided to seek opportunities in a new land. Those who arrive today should not live in fear of rejection. They bring the richness of experiences, the splendor of cultures that shape the beautiful tapestry that is this country. They bring their dreams, their commitment, and their inventive spirit to expand the horizons of experiences in our country. They bring the willingness to work harder than anyone, as my parents did, to ensure a better future.
Estela Lopez, PhD, of Manchester. retired from the CT State Colleges and Universities System where she served as senior vice president. She is the former vice chancellor of academic affairs of the Connecticut State University System and served on the Connecticut State Board of Education.