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[Music]
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what words come to your mind when you
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see or hear the word immigrant when I
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ask this question in my workshops on
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immigrant history and contributions the
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answers are always revealing illegal is
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a common response as our refugee foreign
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poor and desperate sometimes someone
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will say family community freedom
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borders or even languages but the
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answers are mostly negative and this
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negativity it's not unique to the United
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States the migration observatory at the
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University of Oxford studied the
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coverage of immigrants in the British
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press from 2006 to 2015
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they found that illegal was the most
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common word used to describe immigrants
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it's really notable that there are no
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words like smart creative pioneering
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enterprising brave words that could be
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used to describe doctor Elizabeth
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Blackwell who was the first female
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doctor in the United States or
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environmentalist John Muir whose ideas
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helped create our national parks or
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composer Irving Berlin who wrote god
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Bless America
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Elizabeth Blackwell came from England
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John Muir from Scotland and Irving
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Berlin came from Russia they all came as
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children when it was impossible to know
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their skin or their potential and yet
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they did go ahead and shape the United
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States of America now these same
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positive words could be used to describe
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first-generation immigrants today
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immigrants like Sergey Brin co-founder
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of Google who came from Russia at the
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age of six at the height of the Cold War
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when we distrusted
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anything Russian or Jerry yang
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co-founder of Yahoo who came from Taiwan
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at the age of 10 the only English word
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he knew when he came here was the word
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shoe or Elon Musk founder of SpaceX
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co-founder of XCOM which became PayPal
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CEO of Tesla associated with so many
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other ventures he came from South Africa
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via Canada to the United States as an
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undergraduate student
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now these visionary immigrants they use
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their abilities and the opportunities
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they had here to create companies that
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shape not just the United States but the
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whole world now we call ourselves a land
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of immigrants Native Americans came here
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tens of thousands of years ago in the
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1500s they were first the French in the
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Spanish followed by the British the
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Scots the Dutch the Germans and then
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people from many other countries most
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Europeans came here as free people but
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some were indentured servants for
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centuries we also bought and transported
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Africans to the United States as slaves
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they surely did not have any choice and
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when the United States annexed the
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northern part of Mexico after the
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us-mexico war the people who lived in
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lands that later became California
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Arizona New Mexico Utah Colorado and
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Nevada they became Americans not by
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crossing the border but because the
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border crossed them all these people and
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their descendants they did shape the
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United States but as they did that they
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took land away from the original
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inhabitants the Native Americans cost
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their numbers to shrink and they did
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change their way of life forever today a
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million people come to the United States
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legally every year immigrants are 14% of
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the population which amounts to about 43
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million people we still are a land of
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immigrants
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yet we do treat immigrants as the other
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now I myself came to the United States
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as a chemical engineering graduate
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student international students like me
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are recruited even today to fill the
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extreme shortage of American students in
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STEM fields for the most part I've had
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really positive experiences yet like
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many immigrants I have had experiences
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that remind me of my other nests I have
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seen the hatred towards immigrants
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escalate steadily after 9/11 and that
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drumbeat increasing in peak and
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intensity over the last few years many
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immigrants face taunts of go back home
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some are attacked and some have even
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been killed immigrants are detained
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deported denied entrance even as
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discussions of immigration reform have
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been filling our news media now these
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reactions towards immigrants this so
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visceral as if people don't know our
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history of immigration or the
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contribution of immigrants why this
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negativity are we just a generation of
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haters now if we look at history we find
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that this tussle of hating immigrants
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but still wanting them to be here
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because we need them this is not new in
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fact it is something as American as
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apple pie
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in 1751 inventor and later founding
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father Ben Franklin did not want the
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Germans coming to the English colony of
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Pennsylvania he said the most stupid
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sort of people were migrating to this
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country but he said the Germans do have
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some virtues they're hard workers
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they're frugal they're good farmers we
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do need them to grow the country Ben
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Franklin also worried about the swarthy
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complexion of the Germans the Swedes
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Italians the French the Russians he said
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they would just make the country less
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white they were not as white as the
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anglo-saxons then Franklin also worried
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that Germans would come in such large
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numbers they would German eyes the
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country instead of getting anglicized
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themselves now did Ben Franklin's fears
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come true well the first kindergarten
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was started in 1856 by a German
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immigrant a first-generation German
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immigrant German immigrants championed
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universal education and they shaped the
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public school system that we have today
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German immigrants gave us that Christmas
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tree they gave us Santa Claus and they
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also gave us the Easter Bunny
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how about jeans it was a first
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generation German immigrant Levi Strauss
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along with an immigrant from Latvia
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Jacob Davis who created these jeans for
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miners during the gold rush and how
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about course past Miller and Heiser Bush
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all these companies were started by
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first-generation German immigrants not
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their descendants but people who had
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come from Germany and then started all
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these enterprises that live here today
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German immigrants were also the ones who
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thought that the weekend should be for
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recreation not just for rest and
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relaxation and in fact one of the
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caricatures that people had was about
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Germans drinking beer on a weekend now
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Ben Franklin and to be fair to him a lot
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of people held his views his fears did
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come true but for many of us today we
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feel that the German experience is
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really now the American experience they
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are virtually indistinguishable how did
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other groups fare the Irish when they
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came were disliked for being poor and
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Catholic and people worried that the
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Pope would soon be influencing the
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United States
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the Irish have the distinction that the
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first anti-immigrant party was formed to
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get rid of them the American party or
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the know-nothing party was formed on an
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anti-immigrant anti-catholic platform
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they elected governors had hundreds of
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legislative seats ran a presidential
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candidate and also managed to deport
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hundreds of Irishmen from the country
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now the Irish and the Germans they did
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gain acceptance as Americans when people
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began to arrive from Central Southern
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and Eastern Europe and horror of Horrors
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when Asians began to arrive from China
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and India now the Chinese they first
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came here during the gold rush but later
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agents went all the way to China to
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recruit them for projects like the
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Transcontinental Railroad and other work
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Asians faced intense hatred they were
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attacked murdered the arson lynching
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mass evacuations were all things they
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experienced and as the diversity of
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immigrants grew and the percentages went
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very high to about 15% xenophobia in the
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country peaked hatred became the new
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normal and our laws were changed to
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reflect this the Chinese Exclusion Act
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in 1882 it did not allow Chinese
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laborers to enter the country for the
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next ten years more alien labor laws
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were passed followed by a literacy test
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for any immigrants over 16 finally in
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1924 a law was passed which really
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focused on national quotas to increase
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immigration from Western Europe all
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immigration from Asia was banned the
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period after this the country did
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experience quite a bit of labor
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shortages and one way that we worked
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around it was to have a guest worker
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program with Mexico where we
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intermittently got workers from Mexico
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it took 40 years to correct this
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discrimination on national origins but
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in 1965 we did pass the immigration act
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where people from all countries could
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come in based on skill or on family
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reunification one thing that was
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discontinued at that time was the guest
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worker program that we had with Mexico
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so now the doors are open
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immigrants are back in and today we are
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back to the 14% that very high number
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which is very similar to the percentages
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we had in the 1890s when xenophobia had
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peaked
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so hatred is back in the United States
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the issues are the same that people
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can't handle the diversity of immigrants
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the issues are also same that we do
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still need immigrants but the players
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are different in 1890 immigrants mainly
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came from Europe and the five countries
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that they came mostly from they were
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Germany Ireland England and Canada and
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Sweden today we have immigrants mainly
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from Latin America and Asia and
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immigrants come in from Mexico China
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India Philippines and Vietnam these are
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the top five countries that they are
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coming from so we do have all that
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hatred today but immigration still
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remains a two-way street
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we need the immigrants and immigrants
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need us so what do we do now we do have
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a choice are we going to be the first
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generation that is going to break this
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continuum of hate towards immigrants
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that has lasted since the colonies are
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we going to be the generation that
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accepts immigrants not just tolerates
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them because they have certain skills or
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because they are going to revitalize our
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towns or you know replace our aging
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workforce are we going to be the
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generation that stops shutting
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bail out because they're poor or they're
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stupid or maybe they're just from the
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wrong countries well if we had done that
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in the past we might have missed out
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Andrew Carnegie who was just a poor kid
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from Scotland we might have missed out
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on Nikola Tesla who came from Serbia we
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might have missed out on Secretary of
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State Madeleine Albright who was a
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refugee from Czechoslovakia or singer
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Gloria Estefan who was a refugee from
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Cuba not to mention we might have missed
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out on a whole bunch of Nobel laureates
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a large percentage of them are born
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abroad we also might have missed out on
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all American experiences of baseball
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beer and hot dogs all of which were
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created by first-generation immigrants
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going to Zumba listening to hip-hop
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eating Chobani yogurt or Kraft cheese
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shopping at t.j.maxx or Kohl's forever
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21 or Nautica going to Panda Express or
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sweet frog the list goes on and on and
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on now let me ask you that same question
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again what words come to your mind now
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when you see or hear the word immigrant
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when I ask this question at the end of
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my workshops on immigration history and
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contribution the answers are again
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revealing smart creative pioneering
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risk-takers recruited Nobel laureates
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professors students teachers farmers
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construction workers taxi drivers the
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words are many revealing both the
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complexity of immigration and the
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multifaceted humanity of immigrants now
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the attendees and the workshops are
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beginning to see immigrants with fresh
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eyes admiring both their resilience and
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their contribution to the American
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experience we all of us will need those
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fresh eyes in the days ahead
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to ensure that hatred is not the new
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normal again in the United States of
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America we will also need those fresh
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eyes again as individuals in all our
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communities to accept immigrants truly
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embrace them and welcome them no matter
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which country they come from to this
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land of immigrants the United States of
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America thank you
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[Applause]
