Translator: Daniel Balton Reviewer: Denise RQ
Americans have a very complex relationship with immigration.
Most every American recognizes
that the United States is a country that was built by immigrants,
and immigrants are often upheld
as one of the foundations that make this the unique nation
that it is today.
But some would argue that America is not just a unique nation;
America is the greatest nation in the world.
Those same immigrants whose stories people have romanticized
for the last 150 years or so, are often also vilified.
It's not uncommon for us to hear that immigrants are lazy,
they're dangerous,
they're coming to this country to steal jobs from hard-working Americans
while dragging down the economy and bringing diseases with them.
But such a negative assessment is nothing new,
because these are virtually the same things
that some Americans have been saying about immigrants and immigration
for the last 130 years.
When people are speaking about immigration in such a negative and hostile way,
there is usually some type of fear that is connected to that hatred.
In regards to immigration, I believe that that fear stems from this belief
that if too many immigrants come to this country,
Americans are going to lose their way of life.
And that's perfectly understandable.
It's one of the motives or one of the things
that drives this "English-only" mentality
and the many references to this being a Christian culture, a Christian nation.
But English is the de-facto language here, and Christianity is the dominant religion,
and that's not going to change at any point in the near future, if ever.
So why the extreme fear?
I believe the fear is directly connected to people's belief
that this is the greatest country in the world.
Think about it.
How often have you heard
that this is the greatest country in the world from somebody
that doesn't even own a passport, and has never visited another country?
Not even Canada.
Yet, the sense remains that everybody around the world
wants to come to the greatest country and live here permanently.
Last year, I stumbled across some polls from Gallup that caught my attention,
and to be honest with you, they kind of shocked me.
It seems that Gallup likes to ask people, on a yearly basis,
in 150 different countries,
if they would relocate permanently
from their current country of residence to move elsewhere.
I can imagine that it's very difficult
to ascertain exactly how many people in war-torn areas
want to leave those places,
but Gallup is a company that employs a lot of brilliant individuals,
so I'm going to assume their conclusions are fairly accurate.
And here's what Gallup found.
As recently as three years ago,
13% of the world's 7.3 billion residents said
that they would make the decision
to permanently relocate and live elsewhere.
The thing that shocked me
was that out of the 650 or so million individuals
that would relocate permanently,
only about a quarter of them actually listed the United States
as their desired destination.
I know what you're thinking; 140 million people is a lot of people,
and you're absolutely right.
But that's not the whole world, as many Americans like to think.
Also, it doesn't necessarily mean that all 140 million people
would have the means to come to this country.
I understand there's lot of limitations with these numbers and the conclusions,
but for me, they point towards something more significant,
and they lead me to ask two questions for myself.
The first question is:
what would it mean for us, as a country, to live with this idea?
How would our way of thinking and talking about immigration change or differ
if we didn't live under the idea
the whole world is clamoring to come and live in the United States?
The second question is:
how would our politicians and our lawmakers talk differently
about immigrants and immigration,
especially during a political year - we have an election coming up -
if we didn't have this mentality
that is based on fear and a lack of education?
As it was already stated, this is an issue that is personal to me.
At the age of six, I crossed the border illegally with my family,
and I lived in this country illegally until I was 14 years old.
Imagine being that young and going to school every single day;
and every single day, no matter what you do,
and no matter how hard you try to focus on your classes,
you have this little thought in the back of your mind,
and that thought is,
"Is my mother going to be home when I get off the bus this afternoon?
Because your mother is working illegally
in one of the many mushroom plants in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania,
where they have immigration raids on a regular basis,
and people get deported directly from their jobs.
Also imagine being that young, going to school,
and learning in American history about all the amazing things
that immigrants have brought to this country
and all the waves of immigration,
that they have welcomed and the Statue of Liberty,
and the land of the free, and this and that.
But you leave school, and you're constantly being reminded
that you're not welcome here;
that you need to go back to your country,
and that even when you learn the language
you're still not going to be fully accepted as an American.
As you can imagine,
that's quite a confusing place to be in when you're that young.
My whole life, I grew up listening to people
make disparaging comments about immigrants.
And often times,
the nastiness of those comments were directed towards my people; Mexicans.
Recently, presidential candidate, Donald Trump
called us all rapists, thieves, and drug smugglers.
And he was cheered by all of his followers.
Donald Trump was again, speaking about Mexican immigrants like myself,
but the thing that was most concerning for me
is that he was talking about people like my parents,
who are two of the most hard-working individuals I know,
and they are two of the most honest people
that I've ever had the privilege of interacting with in my life.
I can't help but wonder
would Donald Trump supporters continue to cheer him on
if they didn't believe that this was the greatest country in the world?
Would Donald Trump continue to make those comments
if people were more educated about immigration?
If as Americans, we get this confounding idea out of our heads
that this is the greatest country in the world,
and that everybody wants to come and live here permanently,
might we be able to change the way
that we think and talk about immigrants moving forward?
I want to leave you with one final thought today.
Just like Americans love their country,
so to do other citizens in other countries around the world; including Mexico.
I know that may surprise some of you, but we do love our country.
Mexico is an amazingly beautiful place, with incredible people living there.
We have traditions that date back to the pre-Hispanic era,
but you never hear about that in this country.
You hear about the drug cartels,
you hear about all the murders that are happening,
and you hear that Mexico is not safe.
But do you know what they hear in Mexico about the United States?
In Mexico, they hear about all the mass shootings
that are happening in this country;
in movie theaters, schools, and even in churches.
Gallup has another poll that they do,
and this poll measures the happiness in many countries around the world.
As recently as 2014, they polled 143 countries,
and they assigned each country a Positive Experience Index score.
What this score measures is how often people smile,
laugh, learn, or do something interesting that brings joy to their life.
The highest score any country received was an 89.
and the lowest score any country received was a 47.
Mexico's score came in at a 76, and the United States came in at a 79,
just three points higher than Mexico.
Perhaps if the Positive Experience Index score of the United States
was significantly higher,
then we would see this massive wave of Mexican immigrants
rushing to come to the United States and set up permanently.
But as it is, not that many do.
And relatively speaking to the rest of the world,
neither do that many other immigrants around the world.
I like to imagine what kind of world we could create
if we kept all of this information in the back of our minds moving forward.
I will say this -- Mr.Trump is absolutely right about one thing:
it is time to make America great.
But the only way we're going to accomplish that
is if we change up the lens that we are viewing immigration through,
and if we start to embrace the immigrants that are already in this country,
and the immigrants that will continue to come to this country;
and embrace all the diversity and all the different cultures
that they bring with them.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)