Is no more dangerous and disruptive than any previous waves of immigrants. We can handle it.
We tend to forget about those previous waves, because America had such a strict immigration policy from the 1920s through the 1960s. But nothing is being said against Latinos or Muslims today, that was not said against the Irish, the Germans, the Italians, the Poles, the Jews or the Chinese in the 19th Century. The Irish were innately stupid and violent and alcoholic, and their women were whores (which they were -- a product of the Irish migration wave, spurred by the potato famine, being a matter of atomized individuals without family support networks). The Germans were alcoholic. The Italians were natural criminals. The Irish, the (Catholic) Germans and the Italians were part of a Vatican plot to Catholicize a Protestant country -- the period equivalent of "replacement theory." The Chinese were just too different, too alien, to assimilate to American society, and threatened to overwhelm it by sheer numbers if not contained to China (much like what is said about Muslims today). The Poles were stupid (an attitude rooted in the Germans having got here first -- Germans have always looked down on Poles). And the Jews were, well, Jews.
And let's not get started on those dumbass Midwestern Scandahoovians.
In all cases, the language barrier was overcome, the cultural barriers were managed, and the immigrants' kids grew up as American as any Social Register WASP.
We tend to forget about those previous waves, because America had such a strict immigration policy from the 1920s through the 1960s. But nothing is being said against Latinos or Muslims today, that was not said against the Irish, the Germans, the Italians, the Poles, the Jews or the Chinese in the 19th Century. The Irish were innately stupid and violent and alcoholic, and their women were whores (which they were -- a product of the Irish migration wave, spurred by the potato famine, being a matter of atomized individuals without family support networks). The Germans were alcoholic. The Italians were natural criminals. The Irish, the (Catholic) Germans and the Italians were part of a Vatican plot to Catholicize a Protestant country -- the period equivalent of "replacement theory." The Chinese were just too different, too alien, to assimilate to American society, and threatened to overwhelm it by sheer numbers if not contained to China (much like what is said about Muslims today). The Poles were stupid (an attitude rooted in the Germans having got here first -- Germans have always looked down on Poles). And the Jews were, well, Jews.
And let's not get started on those dumbass Midwestern Scandahoovians.
In all cases, the language barrier was overcome, the cultural barriers were managed, and the immigrants' kids grew up as American as any Social Register WASP.
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