| S P E C I A L
F E AT U R E
On coming to
America The challenge facing America’s immigrants and their families
By Anna R. Dadlez, PhD
I
n his speech on immigration in June 2013, President Obama talked about diversity in the United States. According to Obama and many of his fellow Americans, this country is uniquely situated to take advantage of the multiplicity of people coming here from all parts of the world, people who can contribute their talents and labor to better their new home. Most Americans believe that newcomers and residents can benefit equally, and certainly most believe that the newcomers are better off. The United States gains a willing and loyal labor force, while newcomers obtain decent wages and security.
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PROFILES IN DIVERSITY JOURNAL
The Annie Moore Memorial, a statue of Annie Moore and her two Brothers in Cobh, Ireland (Annie was the first immigrant to the United States to pass through the Ellis Island facility in New York Harbor).
Are We Living in Dreamland?
These oversimplified and mistaken assumptions about immigrants, regardless of who they may be, are fueled by the assurances of unbounded gratitude and admiration for everything American that are expressed by some immi-
November/December 2013
grants and repeatedly reported in the popular press. Indeed, it is a wonder that the average American is not even more completely convinced of his or her superiority to immigrants and their cultures after being subjected to an unremitting and steady diet of those obsequious assurances.