American Identity and American Reality
I am a non-traditional student (i.e. old) who went back to school after being a stay-at-home mom, a coach, and then a substitute teacher. I found myself inspired by teenagers and their abilities and I felt as though I would be a good teacher. I am a Southern California native and my family and I moved to Idaho eight years ago. I have taken classes in several languages and I am looking forward to taking Spanish classes during the next school year.
Back in September, our first big writing assignment was an essay about migration in our own families. It was an excited paper to write because while I knew much of my family history, I found out details that I did not know before then. Over the course of the last twelve weeks, I have learned so much about migration that I can look back on my family history and realize that my family had it comparatively easy. While they certainly faced the typical hardships of the time period, my ancestors on my father’s side arrived in the American Colonies just twenty years after the establishment of the Puritans in Massachusetts and on my mother’s side, just twenty years after that. All but one of my ancestors arrived prior to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. They did not face war, famine, or persecution; they arrived as English speaking, voluntary immigrants. Over the course of this semester, which I began with a fairly realistic perspective on human migration, I have come to realize just how rare family stories such as mine truly are. My pre-existing notion of the American melting-pot as a national myth has become a truth, which I can now understand in a more tangible way. My rather liberal (according to the current political climate) view on bilingual education and Spanish speaking immigrants has become so much more liberal that some might define it as radical. While in general, I do not like to make statements of an absolute nature, I am becoming progressively more inclined to argue that for most migrants, immigration is an exceptionally difficult period in a person’s life and that the difficulty of this task and the impossible-to-meet demand for complete assimilation makes it incredibly difficult for immigrants to begin to feel or be seen as American, and that cultural assimilation and English monolingualism are not and never have been a universal fact of being American and should not be promoted as an unchanging part of American identity.
As I mentioned, my knowledge about the hardships of immigration do not and cannot come from my family legacy. I am, on one side of my family, a twelfth-generation American[1] and thirteenth on the other. My identity is American and as far back as the early seventeenth century, that is true of every member of my family. My ancestors arrived as Englishmen in an English colony and became American after the Declaration of Independence. With one possible exception none of my ancestors were ever forced to flee their homeland. We have never experienced speaking a minority language, our customs have always fallen in the realm of the Christian majority, we have automatically been able to fit in and easily become part of the community, and none of us have ever suffered living in poverty across generations. I would guess that very few Americans have such a lack of interesting immigration stories. What this means is that the entirety of my ability to understand what it means to be an immigrant is limited to my ability to connect with other people’s stories. In this class we have done that. From the stories of the slaves who fought to hold on to a sense of collective and individual identity in spite of the efforts of slavers, to the men and women applying for amnesty in 2000, this class has connected me to stories and occurrences that were not familiar to me.
Although I have long understood that migration is difficult, I had always separated migration from the concept of slavery, but I am coming to realize that there is no separation and that whether or not people migrate voluntarily, many immigrants are facing an incredibly difficult time in their lives. In this class, I heard for the first time the characterization of slavery as involuntary migration. The term makes sense but I had never made the connection that slavery is migration that is forced upon the enslaved. In the source we used to discuss the transportation of slaves, the term ‘forced migration’ occurs in the title; Many Middle Passages: Forced Migration and the Making of the Modern World. The authors Christopher, Pybus, and Rediker do not only discuss the slave trade; they go on to discuss labor exploitation. According to the authors, “although the decision to become a migrant may have been voluntary…the process could readily become as coercive, violent, and personally alienating as the most extreme form of forced labor.”[2] I knew about the realities that many migrants faced when they arrived in the United States, I just had not ever connected it to slavery and in our modern society, it can be easy to forget that slavery even exists.
Voluntary migration is less disruptive than being forced into the slave trade, but there are still many hardships associated with the change. Even if a person emigrates to a new country voluntarily and has social support and adequate financial resources, the immigrant must still learn new customs, currency, and transportation systems. If the language is not familiar, they are at a disadvantage; their inability to communicate with majority language speakers would be a social limitation in their new country until the new language is learned. They have left behind everything familiar and adjustment is still difficult. If the immigrant were to move with few or no resources, then there are more difficulties to face. Arriving in a new land where everyone is a stranger, not knowing the language, and lacking financial or social resources requires someone who is fairly isolated to figure out an entirely new world on their own. The realities of the difficulty of adjusting to a new culture are difficult for most Americans to understand; many of us have not done it and most of us never will. We live in a society where the possibility of ever needing to flee is inconceivable and very few of us have ever profoundly contemplated just exactly how difficult it would be.
Our class has discussed the universality of migration, from the historical migration to the American Colonies, the slave trade, the Chinese and Mexican laborers, and European migrations, we have discussed migration from every corner of the world. In our modern times, we see refugee crises from the Middle East and from Africa, and we still argue over Mexican immigration in spite of it being an ongoing part of the American narrative since The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Reading the stories of the Driven Out and of Chinese immigration was hard to understand because I had learned that racial persecution in California was historically uncommon and clearly that is not the case. The views of Samuel Huntington in his article “The Hispanic Challenge” were rather revolting and unfortunately they paint a picture of reality that, because it has been synthesized into a fifteen-page essay, makes it more difficult to ignore.[3] “Well-Founded Fear” was an interesting flashback to late-1990s technology and a difficult reminder of a crisis that has not ended has only changed countries of origin.[4] The men and women in the film were seeking asylum in the U.S. and their stories and the decisions made by Immigration and Naturalization Service interviewers are life altering for the applicants and their families. These stories have made an irreversible impact on my perspective of the American identity. We are a country of immigrants but we are also a country of competing identities all fighting for their own place in America.
The diverse stories that we have discussed during this class have led me to believe that the American vision of a melting pot that creates assimilation actually stands in the way of integration into American society. The melting pot creates a romantic image of people from all over the world coming together and creating an American society that has a shared identity, language, and culture. The reality is that while most immigrants learn English to some extent, many hang on to their heritage languages and often, older immigrants are unable to obtain any level of proficiency. Cultural practices have never been universally defined in this country; recipes, heirlooms, and family stories are passed down through the generations and create a sense of continuity and a sense of connection to our ancestors. Even many of the somewhat universal American traditions are based on traditions imported by immigrants. Christmas trees are a particularly relevant example this time of year and they were brought by German immigrants. Religious freedom alone has ensured that religious practices have not become truly standardized and in fact were not even standardized by the Puritans. The diversity of cultural cuisine in the U.S. has become part of the American identity. In other words, the American identity is itself founded in the diversity of the identities of Americans.
The topic of linguistic identity came up toward the end of class when we were discussing three different articles related to Hispanic communities within the United States as well as migration into the U.S.[5][6][7] During these discussions, the issue of language became of significant importance to me. My analytical essay was largely an argument against Samuel Huntington’s points but it was founded in my concern regarding bilingualism and bilingual education. According to a U.S. Census report’s study which took place between 2009 to 2013, there are over 350 languages spoken in the United States and just over sixty million people aged five and older speak a language other than English at home. Of those, thirty-seven million speak Spanish at home.[8] According to a 2015 New York Times article, as of July 1, 2013, approximately fifty-two million people in the United States speak Spanish, approximately seventeen percent of the population.[9] The only country in the world which has more Spanish speakers than the U.S. is Mexico and the percentage of Spanish speakers is likely to increase as more heritage-speakers preserve their Spanish and as more English speaking Americans learn the language.
In an analytical essay that I wrote, entitled “The Fears and Benefits of Multilingualism,” I included a discussion of the research regarding bilingualism. Rather than rewrite that information for this essay, I am going to include an excerpt of that section of my paper:
…research…suggests that there are benefits to bilingualism that could outweigh the perceived threat to American society. Marian and Shook report benefits of bilingualism including something called cognitive flexibility. Based on research reported by them and by an article by Ellen Bialystok which was published in 2011, the brain’s ability to switch back and forth between languages or to function in the use of both languages at the same time creates advantages across the lifespan. In infants as young as seven months, studies have “shown bilingualism to positively influence attention and conflict management.”[i] Based on Bialystok’s research, bilingualism “across the lifespan [allows] bilinguals to better cope with Alzheimer’s disease and postpone the appearance of its devastating symptoms.”[ii] These are at each end of the lifespan but “at every stage, individuals who spend their lives engaged in more than one language reveal differences from their monolingual counterparts in both brain organization and cognitive performance (Bialystok, 233).” These benefits do not just exist for those raised with two languages, “they are also seen in people who learn a second language later in life (Bialystok, 9).” Research heavily favors bilingualism as healthy for the brain and healthier brains ought to be considered to be of greater benefit to society than the threat Huntington seems to believe that Spanish is to society.
I cannot think of a better way to explain this than what I have already written. Spanish speakers are part of America as are speakers of hundreds of other languages, though Spanish is by far the most common. In addition, the benefits to being bilingual are such that bilingualism should perhaps be an expectation in the American educational system.
The most valuable realization that I have gained this semester is that the issue of migration is considerably larger than I thought and that understanding as much as I can about it is incredibly valuable to my future career as an educator. I will continue to follow current and future immigration issues and attempt to increase my understanding. The greatest impact that this semester has had on me is the value and necessity of realizing that my story is that of the most privileged in this country which limits my ability to truly understand what it means to be an immigrant. Knowing that gives me the ability to attempt to understand the situation as it exists for millions of immigrants and refugees. One of the greatest failings of those who are the beneficiaries of racial privilege is that we often fail to see the existence of that privilege. I hope that my increasing awareness will allow me to think more critically about what it means to be the “other” in our society and that I will be able to put my knowledge to good use as a facilitator for adolescents seeking their own identities.
Bibliography
Christopher, Emma, Cassandra Pybus, and Marcus Rediker. Many Middle Passages: Forced Migration and the Making of the Modern World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
Cohen, Jeffrey H., Bernardo Rios, and Lise Byars. “The Value, Costs, and Meaning of Transnational Migration in Rural Oaxaca, Mexico.” Migration Letters 6, no. 1 (April 2009): 15–25. Accessed October 12, 2016. http://www.tplondon.com/journal/index.php/ml/article/viewFile/222/204.
Bialystok, Ellen. “Reshaping the Mind: The Benefits of Bilingualism.” Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue Canadienne De Psychologie Expérimentale 65.4 (2011): 229–35. Web.
Croucher, Sheila. “Migrants of Privilege: The Political Transnationalism of Americans in Mexico.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 16, no. 4 (July/August 2009): 463–91. doi:10.1080/10702890903020984.
Huntington, Samuel P. “The Hispanic Challenge.” Foreign Policy, no. 141 (2004): 30–45. Accessed October 10, 2016. doi:10.2307/4147547.
Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook. “The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual.” Cerebrum: the Dana Forum on Brain Science 2012 (2012): 13. Print.
Perez, Chris. “US Has More Spanish Speakers than Spain.” New York Post, June 29, 2015. Accessed November 20, 2016.
Well-Founded Fear. Directed and Produced by Michael Camerini and Shari Robinson. United States: The Epidavros Project, 2000. DVD.
End Notes
[1] By American I am referring to generations who lived first in the American colonies and then in the United States.
[2] Marcus Rediker, Cassandra Pybus, and Emma Christopher, Many Middle Passages: Forced Migration and the Making of the Modern World, (Berkley, University of California Press, 2007) 8.
[3] Samuel P. Huntington, “The Hispanic Challenge,” Foreign Policy, no. 141 (2004): 30.
[4] Well-Founded Fear, dir. Michael Camerini and Shari Robinson (United States: The Epidavros Project, 2000), DVD.
[5] Jeffrey H. Cohen, Bernardo Rios, and Lise Byars, “The Value, Costs, and Meaning of Transnational Migration in Rural Oaxaca, Mexico,” Migration Letters 6, no. 1 (April 2009): , accessed October 12, 2016, http://www.tplondon.com/journal/index.php/ml/article/viewFile/222/204.
[6] https://s4.ad.brown.edu/projects/diversity/Data/Report/report03202013.pdf
[7] Sheila Croucher, “Migrants of Privilege: The Political Transnationalism of Americans in Mexico,” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 16, no. 4 (July/August 2009): , doi:10.1080/10702890903020984.
[8] http://www2.census.gov/library/data/tables/2008/demo/language-use/2009-2013-acs-lang-tables-nation.xls
[9] Chris Perez, “US Has More Spanish Speakers than Spain,” New York Post, June 29, 2015, accessed November 20, 2016.
[i] Marian, Viorica, and Anthony Shook. “The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual.” Cerebrum: the Dana Forum on Brain Science 2012 (2012): 13. Print.
[ii] Bialystok, Ellen. “Reshaping the Mind: The Benefits of Bilingualism.” Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue Canadienne De Psychologie Expérimentale 65.4 (2011): 229–35. Web.
