Sun. Nov 24th, 2024

A citizenship and naturalization ceremony was held Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, at the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse in Charleston, W.Va. At the ceremony, 55 new U.S. citizens from 34 countries took the Oath of Allegiance. (Christopher Millette | Charleston Gazette-Mail)

Legal proceedings are amazing things. The Frederick P. Stamp, Jr. Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Wheeling, West Virginia, where the 1907 Beaux Arts Classicism architecture flows into the 2004 glass-curtained annex, is an unsubtle reminder of not only the importance and power of the law but of the march of time and history. Thirty-seven individuals walked past that combination of historic and modern to assemble in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia on Nov. 15. After singing, speeches, paperwork and an Oath of Allegiance, 37 newly minted United States citizens filed out into the country that legally was now theirs. 

Americans who were not two minutes before, now endowed with all the same rights as any other citizen in the 248 years the republic has stood. But these folks also being newly minted West Virginians, they now get to sing our song and have extra meaning vocalizing about the home those country roads brought them to. Citizens who are equal — as U.S. Senator Joe Manchin remarked to the gathering and President Joe Biden pointed out via a video — to that of every other American, including the President of the United States of America. A proud day for the naturalized citizens, their families and their fellow Americans. A small legality that is essential to keeping America the great country it is.

Both men know of what they speak. President Biden frequently touts his Irish immigrant family history, even visiting his ancestral home place during his presidency. Joe Manchin, whose stints as governor and an influential U.S. Senator makes him one of the national faces of the current generation of West Virginians, and has a family lineage of Italian and Czechoslovakian immigrants coming to the mountains in the early 20th century. His grandfather Guiseppe Mancina and father John Manchin served as mayors of Farmington, and his flamboyant uncle A. James preceded Joe the third into statewide office, forming a unique political dynasty. Joe Manchin’s family story is amplified, but still mirrors many West Virginia immigrant families that came from somewhere else but became integral threads to the fabric of the state.  

Statistically, however, West Virginia sees shockingly little of immigrants these days, or new U.S. citizens. Or immigrants of any type. Or, for that matter, much population growth of any kind. While illegal immigration and undocumented people remain the hottest of hot button issues, the Mountain State is far behind the rest of the country in legal immigration. The Department of Homeland Security reports West Virginia ranks 50th out the 50 states and four territories in naturalizations, 51 in lawful permanent residents, 50th in new arrivals, 52nd in nonimmigrant arrivals, 51st in those granted or legally pursing asylum and 51st in “adjustment of status” lawful permanent residents

Those rankings stand out for a state that was the only one in the latest census to lose population. Births are trailing deaths in West Virginia, which has the third highest average age of citizen, by just under 34,000 in the three year census period. There is some good news in that the net migration of folks coming and going has creeped to the positive by a bit, but every little bit helps. 

Still, the reality is the Mountain State doesn’t have enough people and faces having even less with each passing year. Declining population has obvious downsides, like the loss of a congressional district and that representation and voting power in Washington, D. C. and in the economic impact of not having businesses or the workers to run them. But the ripple effect of the population loss is the undercurrent to most of the major issues in West Virginia like the constant consolidation of schools, fights over funding public services and PEIA, and the balance of funding and servicing an electorate that contributes less and less revenue from fewer and fewer citizens. 

While the answers to West Virginia’s population woes should be “all of the above” to try and solve the people problem, immigration and naturalized citizens is a good place to start. Any scheme to increase the birth rate by its very nature is a generational plan that will take decades to show improvement. Aligning that birth rate closer to the death rate in an aging state with perpetual financial troubles is a big ask of the state government. Advertising, recruiting and making the state inviting for the diaspora of folks born and raised in West Virginia but who ventured elsewhere for whatever reason to return home should be a priority. But becoming more friendly and inviting to legal immigration and turning new Americans into lifelong West Virginians is an immediately attainable goal. 

West Virginia will probably never be top of the legal immigration table with the New Yorks, New Jerseys, Californias and Floridas of the country. But with the difference in birth rate and death rate being less than 34,000, just getting West Virginia’s immigration rankings up into the 40s might be enough to get the state out of the population red. Such a shift would need to be based in pro-legal immigration policy and efforts at all levels of state government. But also, such a change requires a positive attitude from the population of the entire state in a time where too much of the discourse over immigration tends towards the ugly and outrage that leaves the legal immigrants that are doing the right things the right way overlooked, underserved, and terribly underappreciated. 

Historically, the major immigration waves that made West Virginia what it is today were folks that came for many reasons from many places, but found a place in the mountains when they had nowhere else to go. There is an entire world full of billions of humans who would jump at the chance to become Americans. A good number of them — if given the opportunity — surely would find “Mountaineers are always free” to be something worth building a new life upon as generations have before. A fraction of a fraction of those billions coming to the Mountain State could change the demographic fortunes of West Virginia for generations to come. Which could be the catalyst to turn around the economic fortunes of a state which needs some kind, any kind of catalyst to change the slow decline of the status quo.

If West Virginians are to avoid becoming an endangered species of Americans, we need some new Americans who are also committed to becoming new West Virginians. The economy of the state needs it. The future of the state needs it. People yearning for a fair chance and a fresh start in one of the most special places on earth in the greatest country on earth need it. Then, at future legal proceedings when legal residents file into a courtroom, hear some speeches, say an Oath of Allegiance, and do some paperwork, freshly minted Americans can also become lifelong West Virginians starting their own stories of how their families found a home among the hills. 

If the stats and math do not move you, just think of how good our song will sound with even more of us singing it. Most of the world knows the words; we just have to explain how it means that much more when you call here home, and welcome them in.

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