Thread: Raleigh N&O hugs IAs: We were all once foreigners

We were all once foreigners
Rob Christensen, Staff Writer
Dec 09, 2007

In the 1750s, Ben Franklin thought the country was being overrun by Germans.
"Why should the Palatine Boors [Germans] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements and, by herding together, establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours?" asked the inventor and statesman. "Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us, instead of our Anglifying them?"

Franklin was talking about my mother's people.

Who knew that the hard-working, God-fearing, thrifty German farmers in Pennsylvania -- some of whom made their way to North Carolina down the Great Wagon Road -- would be such a threat to the national character?

My mother's people, in fact, are different. They eat ethnic foods -- such as shoo-fly pie, scrapple, pork and sauerkraut. Some Mennonite relatives paint their chrome bumpers so as not to show a sinful pride.

My father's people arrived here much later -- a great-grandfather from Scotland, a great-grandmother from Ireland and a grandfather from Norway, who spoke with a thick accent.

I have an immigrant name far more exotic than any Jose. Although I have been called Rob my whole life, my formal first name is the Norwegian Helmer.

My ancestors were neither legal nor illegal immigrants: Before the 1920s, America had an open-door policy.

As in the 1920s, immigration has become the new third rail of politics.

Which is why last week, all five of North Carolina's major gubernatorial candidates denounced a decision by the state community college system that would allow illegal immigrants to enroll as out-of-state students.

Only lame-duck Gov. Mike Easley had the courage to say it was the right thing to do.

The voices that dominate the debate tend to be the angry ones.

But my sense is that most voters have a more nuanced approach.

In talking to voters, I find they tend to think the immigration system is badly broken and needs to be fixed. They tend to think that the border needs to be beefed up and that there needs to be more control on who comes and stays here.

But there is also an understanding that if Hispanic immigrants -- legal or illegal -- left tomorrow, houses would not get built, chickens would not be plucked, and crops would not get picked.

Immigration has been a political issue in North Carolina before.

Sen. Furnifold Simmons in 1906 pushed a national voting literacy test aimed at what he called "the scum" immigrating to the U.S. from Southern and Eastern Europe.

Sen. Bob Reynolds in 1939 set up a group called the Vindicators Association, whose goal was to end all immigration for 10 years and deport all alien criminals and undesirables.

The Vindicators had a program for boys ages 10 to 18, called the Border Patrol, in which they could earn a badge and a $20 reward for catching "alien crooks."

As Harry Truman said, "The only thing new in this world is the history you don't know."

rob.christensen@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4532
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/ch ... 19312.html

In the 1750s, Ben Franklin thought the country was being overrun by Germans.

Were they sneaking in or coming in legitimately to BECOME AMERICANS? Were they shouting take-over and getting hand-outs or working hard like the rest of us for what they got? Were they demanding or quietly minding their own business? People like this guy think their 'opinions' can change the facts? Tiny minds draw the blinds.