The Endangered Future of the American Dream
Through the lenses of a child of immigrants, Selena describes her observations and thoughts regarding the current protectionist, anti-immigration situation in the United States.
The American dream is as much a part of the US as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. It is not just a gold standard, but something that generations of immigrants have worked themselves to the bone to achieve. It is the idea that there are opportunities for everyone regardless of their background and is strongly based on the belief (famously written in the Declaration of Independence) that all people are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the very core of what America was intended to be.
I know this because I am the byproduct of the American dream. My mother immigrated to the United States when she was 17. My father is a third generation immigrant of Irish and Danish origins. I grew up a biracial child with hard-working parents who embodied what I have always believed to be the essence of the American dream.
Everywhere I looked, I saw the American Dream with intense clarity. My best friends growing up were the children of Chinese, Mexican and Iranian immigrants. I had tried Tacos al Pastor, Dim Sum and Kebabs long before I ever ate Grits or Deep Dish Pizza. I listened to my grandmother speak fondly of when she came to America and the home she was able to create. I personally witnessed how hard-working immigrants enriched the cities they settled in. People who wanted to provide for their families, put food on the table and ensure that their children would be able to get a full education surrounded me. I was privileged to observe innovation and ideas brought from every corner of the world by brilliant minds to be implemented within American society.
What I did not see, was a threat to domestic jobs and a danger to national security. Nor did I see an influx of violent crime and drugs brought by ‘bad hombres’ as Trump so eloquently stated in a speech in 2016. I make no claims to being an expert on immigration, but I have seen the American dream first hand and I know that the digressive policies that are being taken towards immigration are wrong.
Overlooking the economic implications, immigration plays an influential part in the United States’ growth and prosperity. By closing borders and deporting busloads of people, the American dream is starting to experience a slow and painful death. Although it was never perfect, the hope and ambition the American Dream provided has served as a beacon of hope and a symbol of opportunity.
As someone who grew up believing wholeheartedly in the possibilities created by the American Dream, I fear that eliminating it will amount to a bleak and uncertain future from which nothing good will come out of.
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