Chapter 10 reflections

Chapter 10’s coverage of Nativism was illuminating and has a lot of contemporary parallels that I think are beneficial to understand. The biggest lesson that I think can be learned are the tendencies of societies that help Nativism prevail. When Americans are in a good place and in an optimistic frame of mind they are more likely to be welcoming to immigrants. When they are more pessimistic about their future Americans become less willing to tolerate immigrants. The book states it this way, “successful nativist movements have almost always been linked to more general fears or uneasiness in American society. When most Americans are generally united and feel confident about their future, they seem to be more willing to share that future with foreigners; conversely, when they are divided and lack confidence in the future, nativism is more likely to triumph”. In our current climate of extreme hostility towards immigrants it is obvious where we stand as a country. I never thought about how the mood of the country might affect our attitudes towards those who wish to immigrate here. The notion that if you are happy you wish to share that happiness makes sense, but that the notion could apply to the nation as a whole and immigration in particular is not a connection I would have made. It also makes me wonder that given the age of the text are we not now currently living in a new phase of Nativism. This trend towards causing Nativism helps explain why citizens of Middle Eastern decent and Hispanics are the cause of such ire. The attacks on September 11^th were extremely traumatic to the psyche of the country. As such it lead to many citizens fearing for their future and cultivated a fear of people from the Middle East. Also, the economic recession started in 2008 has forced many American’s to question the viability of their economic future. The open-ended nature of the answer helps explain why so many people are adamantly opposed to Hispanic immigration. I think it is interesting to note that both of these responses are inherently internal to the individual. In other words, the need to exclude immigrants has more to do with American Citizens and little to do with the immigrants themselves. This is a contingency I never thought of and makes me wonder what steps could be taken to help combat the rising tide of resentment directed at immigrants. If the problem were predicated on ignorance it could be solved by simply educating people. However, the reading suggests the problem might be more deeply rooted in circumstances that are much harder to control. Ultimately, I believe that the process of Nativism is a truly destructive force and can be majorly detrimental to the functioning of society if left unchecked. The simple fact is that immigrants will always be a part of this country and as such we have to work on solutions that help them integrate into our society instead of excluding them.