immigrant Quotes

“Every American who ever lived, with the exception of one group, was either an immigrant himself or a descendant of immigrants.”

“But emotions of xenophobia – hatred of foreigners – and of nativism - the policy of keeping America ‘pure’ … continue to thrive”

“The interaction of disparate cultures, the vehemence of the ideals that led the immigrants here, the opportunity offered by a new life, all gave America a flavor and a character that make it as unmistakable and as remarkable to people today as it was to Alexis de Tocqueville in the early part of the nineteenth century.”

“Little is more extraordinary than the decision to migrate, little more extraordinary than the accumulation of emotions and thoughts which finally leads a family to say farewell to a community where it has lived for centuries, to abandon old ties and familiar landmarks, and to sail across dark seas to a strange land.”

“Immigration is by definition a gesture of faith in social mobility. It is the expression in action of a positive belief in the possibility of a better life. It has thus contributed greatly to developing the spirit of personal betterment in American society and to strengthening the national confidence in change and the future.”

“The forces that moved our forebears to their great decision—the decision to leave their homes and begin an adventure filled with incalculable uncertainly, risk and hardship—must have been of overpowering proportions.”

“Since 1607, when the first English settlers reached the New World, over 42 million people have migrated to the United States.”

“However, under the guise of warning people about the impact of illegal immigration, these anti-immigrant groups often invoke the same dehumanizing racist stereotypes as hate groups.”

“Today we are belatedly, but resolutely, engaged in ending this condition of national exclusion and share and abolishing forever the concept of second-class citizenship in the United States.”

“We have come to realize in modern times that the ‘melting pot’ need not mean the end of particular ethnic identities or traditions.”

“The struggle is inner: Chicano, indio, American Indian, mojado, mexicano, immigrant Latino, Anglo in power, working class Anglo, Black, Asian--our psyches resemble the bordertowns and are populated by the same people. The struggle has always been inner, and is played out in outer terrains.”

“The forces that moved our forebears to their great decision—the decision to leave their homes and begin an adventure filled with incalculable uncertainly, risk and hardship—must have been of overpowering proportions.”

“Once upon a time a man who had become invisible arrived in America.”

“When my grandparents moved to the United States, their first priority was to save enough money to buy this house . . . To them a house meant much more than shelter; it was a stake in their new country.”

“America allowed them to create a life they couldn’t have dreamed of in their home countries of Jamaica and Cuba.”

“America has nothing to fear from these newcomers, that they have come here for the same reason that families came here 150 years ago—all those who fled Europe’s famines and wars and unyielding hierarchies, all those who may not have had the right legal documents or connections or unique skills to offer but who carried with them a hope for a better life.”

″ If you are not careful in this country, your children will become what you don’t know. ”

“They would not understand why people like him, who were raised well fed and watered but mired in dissatisfaction, conditioned from birth to look towards somewhere else, eternally convinced that real lives happened in that somewhere else, were now resolved to do dangerous things . . . none of them starving . . . but merely hungry for choice and certainty.”

“The woman says: We have your son in Texas, but $1,200 is not enough. $1,700.”

“The Syrians and Lebanese are called ‘those foreigners’ even though most of them have acquired Antiguan citizenship.”

“There must have been some good people among you, but they stayed home. And that is the point. That is why they are good. They stayed home.”

“Her grandfather, an immigrant who arrived by boat to America himself, now carves the figureheads for sailing ships in his old age.”