Our Immigration Nation–Past and Present
Reported By: Sophia Lumsdaine
Photo Courtesy: The Washington Post
“The United States has had a higher number of immigrants than any other nation in the history of the world,” said George Fox University (GFU) professor Ryan Dearinger. “Millions […] have come to America to seek religious freedom, political asylum, family reunification, and economic opportunity … [playing] a substantial role in enriching American culture and fueling economic growth.”
We are now experiencing the most recent wave in a long line of immigration surges that have occurred throughout the nation’s history. In 2022, the US Border Patrol reported that 2.2 million people had attempted to cross the United States-Mexico border without papers. In 2023 the number was 1.6 million. In December, 225,000 individuals were encountered crossing the border, a monthly volume of migrants that had not been reached since the year 2000.
As the number of individuals on the Mexican side of the border builds, and states in the U.S. express concern over their ability to accommodate the influx of incoming immigrants, Americans find themselves in a heated debate over the implications of this crisis. The recent battle between Texas and the federal government over control of the southern border, as well as a tragic drowning of an immigrant woman and her two young children, has only increased the intensity of the situation.
Occurring at a timely moment, Dearinger’s Immigration Nation class this semester provides historical context for current debates over immigration, national identity, and national belonging. “[W]hile many Americans opine about immigration, few, I believe, truly understand its history,” Dearinger stated.
“Without immigration and immigrants, America would not exist,” Dearinger said in a written comment. “One cannot pretend to understand American history without the knowledge of how immigration has shaped that history.”
When considering the current controversies surrounding immigration, Dearinger points to historical research and analysis. Although the number of immigrants arriving each year is higher now than in previous moments in American history, Dearinger stated that the rate of immigration between 1840-1860 was much higher than it is now in relation to the US population. At that time most immigrants were coming from Western Europe.
Oftentimes in the current immigration debate, strong distinctions are made between “legal” and “illegal” immigration. Dearinger notes that “for most of American history, all that an immigrant had to do in order to come to America,‘legal’ or not, was to show up at the border.”
Dearinger also discussed the economic arguments surrounding immigration. It has “long been revealed that immigration has been responsible for American prosperity and cultural vibrancy.” Throughout American history, immigrants have served as the worker base powering US industry. From textile mills, to the transcontinental railroad, to large-scale agriculture, immigrants have fueled economic growth and modernization in every era. “They physically built the country and have sustained it ever since,” Dearinger said.
“Economists studying labor and immigration have pointed out, over six decades, that recent immigrants do displace workers in nearly every manual occupation,” he stated. “They displace the previous group of immigrants. They do not displace ‘white workers.’”
As articulated by Dearinger, the Immigration Nation course at GFU “grapples with a question older than America itself: can a large and growing democratic-republic accept a diversity of peoples brought within its borders?” How we understand and interact with the question of what it means to be a nation of immigrants is a challenge that extends far beyond the classroom and is relevant for all citizens and non-citizens of the United States of America.