Ugly Americans
I've been thinking a lot about this immigration issue. In my work I have many illegal aliens and many non-english speaking patients. I hear so many people complain about their tax dollars being wasted on non-Americans. Well, I have a news flash for them...your tax dollars are being wasted on "Americans" too! (But that is a whole other discussion). Many times the ones who are "non-American" are more motivated to make a better life than those who have been born and raised in this country. I'd rather pay my tax dollars to those who are motivated to make their lives and the lives of their children better any day.
Its easy to speak negatively about a whole group of people. It gets harder when you start to get to know them as individuals. My hispanic patients make up the bulk of my foreign patients and I have found them to be friendly, caring, family centered people who are doing their best to become a part of this country, yet still not lose the good parts of being hispanic. Does that make them poor citizen material? I think not.
And this whole business of language gripes me too. I have found that my Hispanic clients are just as nervous about trying out their limited english as I am about trying my limited spanish, but I've found that they will try harder when I try even a little. They want to learn english. I don't understand the resistance Americans have to learning spanish. Will knowing more than one language make us less American? Are we afraid that the spanish language will become the new "American" language? I think we will see that it will probably go the same way as Italian, German, French, etc, went with earlier waves of immigration. As generations pass, English will remain the primary language, with knowledge of other languages being a plus.
I think we who are American citizens owe it to our country and our world to set the example of how a free country treats all people. We talk freedom and individual rights for all people but when we draw the circle of inclusion, it frequently extends only a little past ourselves, thereby excluding anyone we find too "foreign" (AKA anyone not like us). I guess it all boils down to fear and the only way to combat that is to get to know the individuals in the groups that you fear and distrust.
Until we get over our fear, I'm afraid we will continue to appear at times to be "Ugly Americans".
Its easy to speak negatively about a whole group of people. It gets harder when you start to get to know them as individuals. My hispanic patients make up the bulk of my foreign patients and I have found them to be friendly, caring, family centered people who are doing their best to become a part of this country, yet still not lose the good parts of being hispanic. Does that make them poor citizen material? I think not.
And this whole business of language gripes me too. I have found that my Hispanic clients are just as nervous about trying out their limited english as I am about trying my limited spanish, but I've found that they will try harder when I try even a little. They want to learn english. I don't understand the resistance Americans have to learning spanish. Will knowing more than one language make us less American? Are we afraid that the spanish language will become the new "American" language? I think we will see that it will probably go the same way as Italian, German, French, etc, went with earlier waves of immigration. As generations pass, English will remain the primary language, with knowledge of other languages being a plus.
I think we who are American citizens owe it to our country and our world to set the example of how a free country treats all people. We talk freedom and individual rights for all people but when we draw the circle of inclusion, it frequently extends only a little past ourselves, thereby excluding anyone we find too "foreign" (AKA anyone not like us). I guess it all boils down to fear and the only way to combat that is to get to know the individuals in the groups that you fear and distrust.
Until we get over our fear, I'm afraid we will continue to appear at times to be "Ugly Americans".
posted by Lori | 9:54 AM
1 Comments:
Good blog Lori. I encounter the same thing in my job, and I am tired of "old Americans" descriminating against "new Americans". Mexicans and other immigrant groups often perform jobs that Americans don't want to take and for wages which enable us to have many goods and services at much more reasonable prices. They are often mistreated and mistrusted. But then, so were the Irish, the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians and many, many other immigrant groups in US history.
I really admire immigrants who make such a huge change in their lives and give up all they have known to try to have a better life. And I'm tired of listening to my co-workers treat these people so badly simply because they were born someplace else.
Thanks for writing about this issue. It's nice to hear someone else thinking the same way. And I'm glad you treat them kindly. I do as well. In my case, the people I see are here legally and they have a legal right to the services they receive. They deserve the same respect and courtesy as anyone else.
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