We pluck the quintessential daisy in anticipation- loves me...loves me not, as the answer fades farther and farther into uncertainty and the petals continue to fall desolately to the floor. No, this picture is not the fanciful ideals of a fairy tale. It is reality, as true as the declaration of our love for this country and the millions who signed it. The label American should be both a privilege and a right to those seeking a better life. Why is this status something immigrants must tirelessly work to justify? And more importantly, what will it take for the immigrants who have been and continue to be a part of American history to be “American” enough?
Let us begin with an example of a people who seem like the token citizen today, Italian Americans. When they first arrived in the 1900s, they created cultural alcoves in Northern cities. Many Italian immigrants supported the large workforce needed for factories, mines, and railroads. They undoubtedly left their mark on the nation and its infrastructure. And to this, America replied with more labels and solidified their alien status. According to the media, they were “racially suspect, swarthy” among other epithets. As immigrants, they were described as “links in a descending chain of evolution”. And yet, it took none other than a politicized myth to alter these convictions. In 1965, during the campaigning against immigration exclusion restrictions, this story played a large part for Italian Americans and its leverage was undeniable. The lofty illusion that Columbus was the first immigrant who discovered America provided Italian Americans a mode of building a place in our country’s timeline in the past and years to come. It was a path to our country’s heart. Now, our nation looks upon Italian Americans in a new light- not only for this story, but much more. It truly is love at second sight.
But this country’s heart is fickle. It preaches patriotism and the American Dream, but what reality often reveals is an unreasonable double standard for immigrants. Our nation’s tides have risen and fallen, with influence from wartime and political pressures. To maintain their status as Americans, immigrants have had to find various ways to keep themselves afloat amongst changes that emerge beyond their control. When Chinese immigrants arrived in the 1860s, they brought with them skill in various industries. They became involved in work from farming to leather manufacturing and developed successful businesses.