Immigration of Jews and Immigration of Mexicans: Comparing forms of American Nationalism

Sam Smith

Sunday, December 18, 2010

Jews in the Modern World

Immigration of Jews and Immigration of Mexicans:

Comparing forms of American Nationalism

            Throughout American history, Immigration has defined politics, policies and practices. It has shaped the melting pot or salad bowl that is the United States. This history, although complex and unique, has repeated itself generation after generation as struggles and triumphs for various peoples has sown themselves into the fabric of North American history. In this essay, I will compare the tremendous similarities between the migrations of Jews in the early 20^th century to the recent surge in Mexican-American immigration. Four key similarities between what both minorities faced and continue to face as immigrants paint this picture. Two of these similarities came as forms of prejudice- the questioning of each groups allegiance to the United States and the feeling that both posed a threat as dangerous aliens. And two of these similarities came as forms of discrimination- one on the right to buy property and on the right to attend school without being judged according to your nationality or religion. While the differences are perhaps equally stark, I hope to shed light on the similarities often forgotten between Jewish and Mexican immigrants.

PREJUDICAL CONCEPTIONS

            As the immigration of Jewish peoples surged throughout Eastern America at the turn of the century, prominent officials, politicians and businesspeople whose ancestors came from the Christian “heartland of Northwest Europe” (Sachar, 384) began to articulate exclusionary religious-based nationalism. This wave of nationalistic patriotism served to isolate Jews as un-American. America began exhibiting between those who followed their savior Jesus Christ and those who denied he was the messiah. Foreign Service officer Wibur Carr fabricated statistics in the late 1910s suggesting “ninety percent [of Jews] lack[ed] any conception of patriotic or national spirit, and the majority of this percentage is mentally incapable of acquiring it.” (Sachar, 384) Anti-Semites throughout New York, Chicago and Philadelphia began to deny Jews political power claiming they “could not demonstrate that they cared about their fellow countrymen, but only about themselves.” (Sachar, 402) This intolerance and preconception about Jews led to very successful movements to forbid a continuation of their increasing immigration into the U.S from a very unstable and unsafe Europe. Very similarly, Mexicans in the contemporary United States are seen as unpatriotic elements. Gustav Arellando, staff writer for Los Angeles’s “O.C Weekly” stated in an NPR interview, that Mexicans are “not patriotic about this country”, adding that they “are ungrateful and ignorant, contributing next to nothing as far as patriotic spirit goes.”

William Carr also spoke of the Jews much like the anti-Semitic American Christians who surrounded him. He described them as being “dangerous in their habits”. Much like immigrants attempting to escape lives of violence and poverty in 19^th and 20^th century Poland, Mexicans who have come to America expecting a better life have been consistently greeted with the same assumptions about their so called “violent inclinations” as ex-CNN anchor Lou Dobbs once charged them for having. A quick Google search of “illegal immigrants” lends you to dozens of nationalistic websites from usillegalaliens.com to deportthemall.com. The anti-immigration attitude that paints Mexicans especially as violent savages is not, however exclusive to radical online groups. In Nevada for instance, Sharron Angle, Republican challenger of Sen. Harry Reid aired an ad depicting immigrants as violent gang members who are “forcing families to live in fear.” In a televised interview, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer claimed she was leading a war against Mexicans, stating she was “out here on the battlefield getting the impact of all this illegal immigration, and all the crime that comes with it.” This statement, disregarding the fact that Arizona’s crime is far less than that of non-Border-states and that the majority of those found guilty of violent crime in Arizona are not Mexicans, mirrors the anti-Semitic falsehoods perpetrated against Jews who were perceived to pose a danger to the country. Both Sharron Angle and Jan Brewer argue that Mexicans steal jobs, heighten crime and threaten the fabric of America, much like anti-Semites argued that Jews stole power and had criminal inclinations. Both arguments, which ignore the possibility that an economy can be built upon immigrant labor and economic opportunities for non-Christian-whites also ignore the reality that crime is very little about race but, as top economists suggest, class. By highlighting the racial or religious differences present in the country at the time, the anti-Semites or anti-immigrant argument very cleverly blames problems on those who have very little impact on the country as a whole. They do this to gain support and distract the public from the bigger picture. This tactic achieves scape-goating, one of the of any nation’s political policies that incites fear of the ‘other’ in order to achieve unity for the majority.

INSTITUTIONALIZED DISCRIMINATION

While conceptions may hurt feelings, it has been the institutionalized discrimination against Jewish and Mexican immigrants that paints a truly disturbing picture of nationalistic America. Housing prejudice has defined this inequity for both minority groups. “In New York, in the last years before the war, immigrant Jews moving from ghetto neighborhoods into areas of “second settlement” found themselves blocked from renting apartments in the more desirable areas of Upper Manhattan.” Similarly, well-off Mexican-Americans have been subject to housing discrimination in wealthy suburbs of Phoenix as well as the outskirts of Atlanta and Houston. Even in a city like Los Angeles, often called a ‘safe-haven for illegals’ by conservative politicians, a study conducted by The State University of New Jersey found that Mexican Americans were more likely than Anglo Americans to be asked to pay a security deposit or application fee for apartment and home purchases throughout LA county.

In addition to home discrimination, restrictions against both Jewish and Mexican immigrants are prominent in schools. In 1926, Harvard capped how many Jews could be admitted into the college. At Yale, the same action was taken, as the admissions department was forbidden from enrolling a student body made up of more than 13% Jewish students. Although numerical percentage caps are forbidden by modern U.S law to be used against any minority group, a 2005 study by Princeton sociologists Thomas J. Espenshade and Chang Y. Chung compared the effects of affirmative action on racial and special groups at three highly selective private research universities. The study found that Hispanics, 82% of which identified as “Mexican American” were far more disadvantaged by college admissions departments than were self-identified “African-Americans”, so much so that schools were nearly three times more inclined to accept an equally qualified non-Mexican American than they were to accept somebody of partial Mexican descent.

In conclusion, while my intention in this paper is not to compare struggles solely for the purpose of generating sympathy for today’s victims of border nationalism, I feel history needs to repeat itself yet again so this bigotry can end. Something must be done to raise awareness and advance the struggles of Mexican immigrants much like it was or, as some might argue, still needs to be done for Jewish immigrants who faced the same fierce prejudice upon their entrance to the United States. In the words of Camden, New Jersey’s mayor Chris Patterson, “racism, like nationalism cannot be tolerated”. While patriotism serves to unite the nation, nationalism serves to divide it- into those who pledge allegiance to a society made up of people whose ancestors immigrated to America or a society made up of all immigrants. Nationalism, or a phobia of internal competition for external places, pits the Jew or the Mexican as the threat. The true threat is nationalism itself. For, as Chris Patterson argues, “nationalism breeds the belief that one race or group of people is entitled to more than the other”, that one group of people is better than the other. And this, weather it be anti-immigrant Nationalism or anti-Semitic nationalism, is just plain wrong.