A Day Without Immigrants, A Lifetime Without Raspberries
“Not knowing one’s history is like being a leaf not knowing it belongs to a tree.”
Today I found out that my name, Mellina, means raspberry in Russian ‘малина’ It can also be used in Russian slang to mean secret hiding place for criminals (but that’s a different story). When people ask me if I speak Russian I politely nod, say Privet and say a couple lines of greetings but never more. The thing is my grandmother spoke Russian fluently and my father, Michael Silver spoke as well when he was a little boy however I was never taught Russian. Although I’m not to familiar with the language, this piece of culture has always remained dear to my heart.
My particular experience with immigration begins with a little boy named Michael Silver. Michael was only 4 years old when he immigrated to the United States from Moscow, Russia. Below you will find the naturalization papers for my grandmother when her, my father, and my grandfather arrived at Ellis Island. I remember hearing the stories when I was a little girl about the long journey it took for them to come to America. When they arrived, they had to change their name from Silbersky to Silver for social acceptance and to make adjusting to a new life easier.
Immigrants play such a vital role within the country, it is strange to even consider them a different group or class of people when we all are apart of the United States. My father graduated high school and went on to start a successful business. Had it not been for the fearless efforts and perseverance of my grandmother to come to the United States, my father wouldn’t have had the opportunities he did.
Consequentially neither would I. That leads one to think about, what would the makeup of a city or town look like without immigrants? Due to recent events, the whole nation was able to see what that looks like..
In the New York region and around the country, many cooks, carpenters, plumbers and grocery store owners decided to answer it and not work on Thursday as part of a national “day without immigrants” in protest of the Trump administration’s policies toward them.
When I was reading the New York Times article, “ On a ‘Day Without Immigrants,’ Workers Show Their Presence by Staying Home” I was overjoyed because I was glad to see that people were beginning to see what dangerous rhetoric can look like in a very tangible way. Many basic goods and services are provided by hardworking immigrants, many of which have been in America for years if not decades.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/nyregion/day-without-immigrants-boycott-trump-policy.html?_r=1
Primarily, I am glad that there is a online platform for an issue like this to gain so much exposure. This is indicative of the power of social media and in many ways showcases the amount of traction this discussion can generate in a short amount of time. What was especially effective within this piece was the focus of a universal story told through very personal stories. Furthermore, this New York Times article is particularly persuasive because of the personal narratives spoken of all around the country. Overall, immigration is a pretty divisive issue at the moment. However, I am optimistic that by demonstrating the human aspect of immigration we can make progress by having people learn to have empathy and an understanding for one another.
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