On chain migration, birthright citizenship, and “shithole countries”

I am two generations removed from a poor, nobody-wanted-them-here immigrant family. A great-grandpa came, got settled, and then sent back for his wife and a half-dozen kids. He and his wife had my grandma a couple of years later.

A lot of you have something similar not too far back. It’s a great story — hard workers and war heroes, communities and businesses they built, grit and pride and making good.

So maybe, as products of chain migration and birthright citizenship, we could skip all the shouting about it now, huh?

To put a fine point on it, when I say they were nobody-wanted-them-here immigrants, I mean they came from the backwater of what was then considered a “shithole country.” Before he made the trip, it was my Uncle Ves’s job to sleep with the sheep and chase away the wolves with a stick. At, like, eight years old.

I knew this guy. He sold my dad my mom’s engagement ring. His son still operates the jewelry shop and sold me my wife’s. You’d’ve found Sylvester Cavarretta’s picture in the dictionary next to the definition of “upstanding local civic leader.” We should welcome people like him — not so they can be a model citizen but so they can share our abundance and promise.

It’s not some deep genealogical dig to get at these stories. They are as close as some old Christmas photos or that recipe for ravaioli. It’s a disservice to our own family histories to act like they didn’t happen.

We honor these stories by respecting today’s immigrants, welcoming them, and fighting the racism that’s implicit in statements about shithole countries, refugees, and travel bans. Pride is a gift these family members gave us. It doesn’t require denigrating people from other countries or pulling up the ladder now that we’re safely on board. In fact, it requires that we share the opportunity.