The greatest magnet that attracts talented immigrants

Wednesday, August 28th, 2024. By B. Kumaravadivelu

Recently, within about a week, we were treated to two diametrically opposite views about America.

On July 17th, Senator?J. D. Vance delivered his speech?accepting the Republican Party’s vice-presidential nomination.

“You know, one of the things that you hear people say sometimes is that America is an idea,” he declared rather innocuously.

“And to be clear,” he continued, “America was indeed founded on brilliant ideas, like the rule of law and religious liberty. Things written into the fabric of our Constitution and our nation. But America is not just an idea. It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. It is, in short, a nation.”

Hidden behind these innocent-sounding words are pure nativist sentiments.

At least two phrases betray the sentiments: “religious liberty” and “shared history.”

Religious freedom is a constitutionally guaranteed right of the citizen to practice any religion without any interference from the government. This right requires that the government ensure a veritable separation of church and state, a separation enshrined in the Constitution.

Such a laudable principle has been narrowly interpreted by a segment of right-wing Christian nationalists who rechristened (no pun intended) “religious freedom” as “religious liberty.” Under the guise of religious liberty they have been attempting to refashion civil laws to certain religious groups and practices favored by them, and to trample upon the religious and cultural identities of certain other groups that they do not favor.

To ensure their version of religious liberty, conservatives often invoke history, not any history but “shared history.”

By “shared history,” they largely refer to religious and cultural events and experiences from which emerged America’s historical narratives. For them, shared history does not include a diverse range of experiences but is restricted to life experiences of mainly White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) the essence of which constituted nativism of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The right, at least a prominent and powerful segment of it, has been fixated on a nativist vision of America that is premised upon race and religion, blood and soil. This view is clearly antithetical to the very idea of America that the Founding Fathers envisioned and enacted.

Intrinsic to the right’s narrow vision is an unequal society that valorizes the mainstream community and demonizes the Other. The question of ethnic diversity, then, is anathema to their agenda.

Their idea is to construct and to consolidate a homogeneous America that has no place for racial, religious or cultural differences.

Of course, they do allow newcomers. After all, they know the country needs scientific, academic and artistic talents from abroad as well.

“But when we allow newcomers into our American family,” Vance made it very clear, “we allow them on our terms.”

Our terms: they must accept our version of religious liberty and our version of shared history.

I doubt very much whether many of the highly qualified immigrants — scientists, engineers, doctors, educators — come to America accepting the narrowly defined terms espoused by Vance and others of his type.

Many of them come here drawn to the magnetic appeal of something bigger.

President Joe Biden articulated it in his July 24th address?from the Oval Office when he explained why he dropped out the presidential race.

“America is an idea,” he said emphatically. “An idea that is stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant.”

And he continued: “It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world. That idea is that we hold these truths to be self-evident. We’re all created equal, endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.”

He wasn’t boastful. He admitted: “We’ve never fully lived up to it, to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either, and I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.”

Former President Barak Obama, in his speech at the Democratic Convention, echoed a similar sentiment: “No nation, no society has ever tried to build a democracy as big and as diverse as ours before. One that includes people that, over decades, have come from every corner of the globe. One where our allegiances and our community are defined not by race or blood but by a common creed.”

It’s not just Democratic presidents who extoll the virtues of the idea of America.

President Ronald Reagan, a conservative president admired by most Republicans, said in the last speech he gave as President: “Other countries may seek to compete with us, but in one vital area, as a beacon of freedom and opportunity that draws the people of the world, no country on earth comes close. This, I believe, is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people, our strength, from every country and every corner of the world, and by doing so, we continuously renew and enrich our nation.”

Yes, the newcomers “continuously renew and enrich our nation.”

Yes, ideas matter. Great ideas make great people. Great people make great nations.

But people may come; people may go. Ideas that transcend time and space remain forever, inspiring ordinary men and women do extraordinary things.

**********

?