Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration

By Andy Urban, PhD candidate in History at the University of Minnesota. IHRC Affiliated Faculty

It often seems that this blog dedicates much of its space and time to trying to debunk popular perceptions surrounding threats associated with immigration and immigrants. Seemingly every week some politician or group espouses malicious rhetoric about closing the Mexican-United States border or how in 2050 English will cease to exist as the language of the United States. It is essential to engage these voices on an intellectual terrain. There is no doubt in my mind that an important function this blog serves is to try to make sense of news’ stories pertaining to immigration, which can lack historical context and perspective.

That said…I thought it would be nice to write about immigration in a more pleasant light. Since it is the holiday season, why not celebrate immigration, ethnicity, and the multicultural urban area we find ourselves living in. Below are some suggestions on how residents of the Twin Cities might take advantage of the season to delve into the rich culture of immigration and ethnicity that thrives around them.

Places to Go

“Open House: If These Walls Could Talk” [http://www.mnhs.org/exhibits/openhouse/exhibit.htm] opened at the Minnesota History Center in January 2006, and looks at the history of a single duplex in St. Paul’s Railroad Island neighborhood. The exhibit allows visitors to trace the different histories of the immigrant families who called this particular dwelling home. Beginning with the German family that originally built the duplex, visitors learn about the Italian, African American, and Hmong families who have since lived there. Like most Minnesota History Center exhibits, “Open House” is designed to captivate visitors on multiple levels. There is plenty of interpretive text but also numerous opportunities for younger visitors to have an interactive experience, whether it is seeing how sausage was hand-ground, or partaking in backyard games from the 1940s.

You have probably driven by the stately mansion at 26th Street and Park Avenue flying the Swedish flag in the Philips neighborhood of Minneapolis many times, and wondered what exactly it was. The Swan Turnblad mansion is now home to the American Swedish Institute (ASI) [http://www.americanswedishinst.org/], and is open to the public for normal tours as well as special events throughout the holiday season. Turnblad published the Twin Cities’ main Swedish language newspaper and was an influential member of the Swedish community in Minneapolis during the early-twentieth century. In addition to learning about Turnblad’s history, visitors to the ASI can learn about the Swedish communities in neighborhoods like Cedar-Riverside and Swede’s Hollow in St. Paul. Special events for the holiday season include “Sagostund” (story time) where children get to hear Swedish tales every Saturday, and an exhibit titled “A Nordic Christmas.”

Places to Eat and Drink

When most Americans eat Indian food, they are usually encountering a regional cuisine – more often than not the representative region is the northwestern province of Punjab, with its rich sauces and meat dishes. For a change of pace, in Columbia Heights, immediately north of Minneapolis, one has the opportunity to experience southern Indian cooking at the Udupi Café [www.udupicafemn.com]. The Udupi Café is entirely vegetarian and the dishes are much more dry then the traditional meals found in the North. It offers a wide selection of dishes that resemble nothing you would find at an Uptown lunch buffet. If you are inspired, on the way back stop at the Indian grocery stores that surround Central Avenue near 18th Street in Northeast Minneapolis. Pick up some cashew nuts, spice them up with curry and cumin, and watch a Bollywood flick.

Downtown Minneapolis boasts The Local and Kiernan’s, but there is nothing really Irish about fighting with a bunch of investment bankers and consultants for a seat at the bar. My nomination for the best Irish bar in the Twin Cities is the Dubliner [http://www.dublinerpubmn.com/index.html], located in St. Paul on University Avenue, right near the Minneapolis border. They have free popcorn, which is always a plus, and pour a good pint of Guinness. Take a bus there on a quiet Sunday afternoon, bring a book, and spend an afternoon relaxing.

On New Year’s Day, if you are too hungover to venture out, or if the weather is less than enticing, why not stay at home and cook? As migrants to the North, African Americans brought with them Southern cooking and Southern traditions. In many parts of the South, New Year’s Day is welcomed with the traditional meal of “Hoppin’ John,” a mixture of black eyed peas, rice, and vegetables. Dash a little hot sauce on top and you are good to go.

Things to Read

Ole Rølvaag’s Boat of Longing [http://www.amazon.com/Boat-Longing-Borealis-Books/dp/0873511840] offers a stark portrait of Norwegian immigrants trying to make it in Minnesota. Whereas his more famous Giants of the Earth looks at immigrant life on the prairie, Boat of Longing is set primarily in Minneapolis. The settings of “Snooze Boulevard” (Cedar Avenue) and the neighborhood of Bohemian Flats, which is now the empty area adjacent to Mississippi River below the University of Minnesota’s West Bank campus, makes for an interesting literary and historical tour.

For the dedicated history person, the Minnesota Historical Society’s They Choose Minnesota: A Survey of the State’s Ethnic Groups [http://shop.mnhs.org/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=245&bhcp=1] offers an interesting overview of the different immigrant groups that have come to the state.

Gifts to Give

The website www.ancestry.com is an easy way to do genealogical research from the comforts of one’s home. For a moderate fee, subscribers have access to census information, ship manifests, and birth and death certificates, just to name a few of the available resources.
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Andy Urban is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Minnesota, and a member of the IHRC Advisory Council. His research focuses on Irish and Chinese domestic servants in the late-nineteenth century United States.
Contact Information: urba0090@umn.edu

Visit us on the Web: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu
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Posted by Sylvie Thao at 04:07 PM | Permalink

By Donna R. Gabaccia, Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota

The main immigration story last week was a string of “raids” on Swift meat-packing plants that employ foreigners working who lack proper documentation. It’s a rare occasion when staid New York Times reporters and radical bloggers agree about anything. Yet most everyone writing about these events agreed they were “raids.”

The word “raids” packs plenty of emotion. So did much of the commentary these “raids” inspired.

Raids are surprise attacks or forcible entry by a small armed force or the police, in this case by the I.C.E. (agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Swift & Company officials and undocumented workers undoubtedly were surprised by this federal show of force. But did federal immigration agents really have to force their way into factories where the arrests were made? Of course not. There was no armed resistance in the meat-packing plants. No blood was shed.

Still, commentators agreed on the military metaphor. For a federal administration that has been under criticism for months for its failures to “defend” U.S. borders, public acceptance of the recent action as decisive and forceful, must have been satisfying. The administration that introduced Americans to “shock and awe” in the Middle East has now done the same in the Middle West.

“Raids” are undertaken either to destroy property or to steal it. Think of air raids. Or of a popular bug killer. The vicious commentary on last week’s raids suggests that some Americans would welcome the death of those characterized as “illegal aliens.” Fortunately, no one died in the I.C.E. raids.

In a corporate setting, raids have special, but equally emotional, meaning. They are attempts to seize control of a company by acquiring a majority of its stock. Or they are predatory operations aimed to lure competitors’ workers or drive down their stock prices. No corporation wants to the object of a raid.

Swift & Company certainly felt under attack last week. Company representatives complained of difficulties in complying with federal law. They suggested their rights as producers—which include the right to purchase the labor of workers on a free market—were under attack. And they hinted at consequences for American consumers in the form of higher prices for meat.

Privately they also wondered, I suspect, why their company had been singled out for raids. Why had I.C.E. agents not raided construction sites, where foreigners without documents also work by the thousands? Why not hotels? Why not restaurant kitchens? Why not the hundreds of thousands of American homes where immigrant women, also without proper documentation, work as cleaners and nannies? Buying “illegal” labor and the goods that “illegal” labor produces has become as ubiquitously American as apple pie. Why should the meat-packing industry alone suffer the loss of its workers?

Raids by government agents have historically also targeted illicit substances—alcohol raids during prohibition or on college campuses; drug raids in American cites or along the border. Between 1918 and 1921 the so-called “Palmer Raids” (named after Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer) also targeted immigrants--by breaking up the offices of the radical organizations they supported—and then deporting them.

Such raids have also targeted the producers or retailers of the illicit substances or ideas, rather than their consumers (or readers). It’s useful to ponder the illicit substance sought during last week’s raids and to identify those producing, selling, and buying it.

I.C.E. agents claimed the illicit substance was fake documents, representing the identities of hundreds of Americans, on whose behalf the I.C.E. acted. Unfortunately, few newspapers reported the numbers of foreign workers actually found in possession of such documents. I searched in vain for reports about Swift & Company workers who had stolen American identities or produced false documents.

What I learned was that most had purchased the documents. Here in Minnesota, reporters noted, and even visited and photographed, the places where false IDs, or “micas” were on sale: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/12/13/fakedocs
I.C.E. had not raided those markets. It had not targeted the producers or the thieves themselves. Apparently, it had not deported them.

Instead, coverage of the raids focused on the fat that that hundreds of Swift & Company workers were in the country illegally and soon would be deported. Apparently, the workers and their labor-- not the documents or the stolen identities themselves-- were the illicit substances that most mattered to I.C.E. agents. They were the substance being “raided” in meat-packing plants last week.

If the purchase of illicit substances justifies raids such as those last week and if those illicit substances include human labor, then I.C.E. agents might not stop with raids at Swift & Company. Perhaps American consumers—and not just purchasers of Swift meat products--should expect a visit from the I.C.E. in the near future.
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Posted by Sylvie Thao at 12:23 PM | Permalink

By Andy Urban, PhD candidate in History at the University of Minnesota. IHRC Affiliated Faculty

A recent article in the Star Tribune “A freeze in the nursing pipeline” discusses how the pool of 50,000 special visas set aside for foreign nurses and their families has been fully utilized, and how the United States Congress will be considering whether to pass an act allotting additional visas of this sort. The primary recipients of these nursing visas are Filipina women, who take classes that are modeled on the education they would receive if they did their training in American schools, and then are recruited by American hospital and private care representatives abroad.

The article seems a bit bare in its analysis on a couple of accounts. It would be interesting if the author put this into context with the larger debate surrounding immigration; it is simply implied that these nurses are essential workers (perhaps because they ensure the health of the American population) and therefore they should be allowed to enter the country without impediment. While this is certainly true, why are the agricultural workers who harvest American crops not afforded a similar privilege? In addition, as the former University of Minnesota professor Cathy Choy illustrates in her book Empire of Care, the reason Filipina nurses have been such an integral part of the American healthcare system is because of the unique colonial relationship that existed between the United States and the Philippines. After the American government occupied the Philippines, one of its first measures was to send a cadre of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals there to teach the “uncivilized” Filipinos how to engage in proper health practices. This influx of American nursing schools in the Philippines eventually led to a surplus in nurses, who went to the United States to find work; a trend that has continued into the present.
On the theme of health, an article in the Los Angeles Times [“Immigrants' health assessed in Rand study”] addresses a recent report published by the Rand Corporation, which finds that the children of Asian immigrants are on the whole more healthy then the children of Latino immigrants. Although income disparities between the two groups in part accounts for this – affluent children, regardless of their race, exercise more, have better access to health care, and eat more healthy – he article notes that even when in comparable economic groups Asian Americans tended to have healthier habits then Latinos. What does this mean? To start, it means that racial categorizations play an important role in the way individuals’ health are measured by the government and by experts who produce knowledge in this field. The article (and perhaps the report as well), not surprisingly, does not mention children who come from mixed backgrounds and lumps Latinos and Asians all together, without making any distinction to nationality. Nonetheless, the report does show how race is a real social force in the sense that it impacts facets of social life like human health. If Latinos for example, have fewer opportunities than whites to find work that offers benefits, their race can indirectly inform life expectancy and other elements of their well-being.
Finally, addressing health in a less abstract sense, an article from CNN.com [“Driver guilty in deadly human smuggling case”] covers the recent guilty verdict against Tyrone Williams, the driver of the truck in which 19 undocumented immigrants suffocated to death in the truck’s trailer while being smuggled into the United States in May 2003. Although Williams deserves to be punished for his role in this – and he certainly will as an individual scapegoat – doesn’t this tragedy speak to a larger collective guilt over the way the border is currently policed? Human smuggling is an extremely dangerous business for the same reason that many people die each year selling drugs. Its illegality makes it profitable.

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Andy Urban is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Minnesota, and a member of the IHRC Advisory Council. His research focuses on Irish and Chinese domestic servants in the late-nineteenth century United States.
Contact Information: urba0090@umn.edu

Visit us on the Web: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu
To receive email notices about events at the IHRC: http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/about/e-notice.htm

Posted by Sylvie Thao at 10:32 AM | Permalink

By Donna R. Gabaccia, Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota

Americans have long associated immigration with the images that Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus” affixed to the pedestal supporting the Statue of Liberty—images of the “tired” and of the “poor” and of “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Historians now dispute whether the immigrants of the past were either tired or particularly poor. Most were working age people, full of energy, and in possession of sufficient cash to pay their own passages, as the truly poor of their times were not. Today, those images of huddled masses seem even less appropriate than they did a century ago.

For the past decade, scholars have noted what they call “bi-modal” patterns among the foreign-born of the United States. Foreigners cluster disproportionately at both the bottom and at the top of the U.S. job hierarchy. Large proportions have far less educations than natives but the proportions with post-graduate degrees also surpass that of Americans. Precisely because recent debates have focused so much attention on the poor of Mexico and Central America--who often enter the United States without proper visas in order to work low-wage, low-skill jobs--it’s important to pause occasionally and to acknowledge those immigrants who are decidedly not today’s “huddled masses.”

There are many of them, as even a quick survey of a holiday week’s news suggests. For the reader who looks, information about the large and growing numbers of well-educated, high-income immigrants is everywhere to be found. Could attention to these immigrants change the terms of the current debates?

A recent Washington Post article focuses on one group of prosperous migrants from India and their quick move into the American mainstream. Eighty percent have college degrees and 70 percent work in professional and managerial positions; their incomes are higher than the American median, making it possible for them to purchase homes quickly, even in the high-price Washington area. Although we don’t usually debate about the desirability of immigrants like these, some of these immigrants, too, have overstayed their visas and have become “illegal” immigrants. Most, however, have entered the country as students or workers or have received visas as relatives of earlier immigrants who have become resident aliens and U.S. citizens.
Out of India, En Masse and on the Way Up

Many newspapers and services picked up AP business reporter Michael Liedtke’s article on foreigners as entrepreneurs. Although they make up only 12 percent of the American population, immigrants start up 20 percent of all new businesses in the country. It’s particularly appropriate that yahoo.com carried this story: Yahoo’s Jerry Yang arrived in the U.S. from Taiwan thirty years ago. In fact, Silicon Valley is to a considerable degree a product of immigrant business success stories.
Venture capitalists betting on immigrant

Even those conservatives who generally argue for immigration restriction do sometimes acknowledge the reality of middle-class migration—a phenomenon that is increasingly obvious even in Mexico (see, for example, Middle Class Mexicans Also Emigrating). The author of this article points to the complexity of wealthier migrants’ motives: many middle-class Mexican migrants are fully employed at home. He even sympathizes with their desire to earn more money in the U.S. But ultimately he insists that the only solution to the current immigration “problem” is stricter controls at the border.

In short: don’t expect attention to wealthier, better educated immigrants to end the hot debates about how many immigrants the U.S. should welcome. It’s not just the huddled masses that many debaters seek to exclude.

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Donna R. Gabaccia Rudolph J. Vecoli Professor of Immigration History
Research and Director Immigration History Research Center
311 Elmer L. Andersen Library
222-21st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612-625-5573
612 625-4800
FAX: 612-626-0018
Email: drg@umn.edu

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Posted by Sylvie Thao at 09:09 AM | Permalink