MILES PARKS, HOST:
Earlier on today's show, we heard about the influential force of Turning Point USA in conservative politics today. Vice President Vance actually attended one of the organization's events in October, and he made a very specific claim about immigration that pops up a lot on the political right these days.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JD VANCE: If you go back to the 1920s, the United States passed an Immigration Reform Act that effectively cut down immigration to close to zero for 40 years in this country. And what happened over those 40 years? The many, many people who had come from many different foreign countries and different foreign cultures, they assimilated into American culture.
PARKS: We wanted to dig into this idea that immigrants used to want to assimilate more than they do now and that Americans used to welcome immigrants more because of that. Is any of that true?
To learn more, we called Nancy Foner. Her new book, "Immigration: How The Past Shapes The Present," is coming out next year. Professor Foner, welcome to the show.
NANCY FONER: Thank you for having me.
PARKS: So let's just start there. How did immigrants assimilate 100 years ago, and, in turn, how did Americans welcome those immigrants?
FONER: Well, initially, I should say, we're talking about the immigrants who came at the turn of the 20th century, and they were overwhelmingly from Europe and from Southern and Eastern Europe. And many of them were Jewish immigrants and Italian immigrants. And initially, they were not welcomed, and, in fact, they were viewed in very negative ways. They were seen as racially inferior whites who were never going to assimilate, that they were polluting America's racial stock.
PARKS: Well, it's so interesting. I feel like there's this other claim that I see popping up a lot, especially I - when I'm not hosting this program, I cover voting in elections, and this comes up a lot when you talk about the idea of noncitizens voting in American elections, that - basically the idea is that when immigration mostly came from European countries, that the assimilation was easier. And what are your thoughts on that idea?
FONER: Well, I mean, there's this myth about immigrants in the past, you know, learning English right away, which was not true. Today, immigrants are actually more, not less, likely to speak English. Another popular myth is this rags to riches that, you know, immigrants in the past and Ellis Island immigrants came with nothing, they quickly and vastly improved their progress. And just like today, they didn't make great leaps forward. They made, you know, incremental steps up the occupational ladder.
Like my grandfather - I always say, a good example - who came to New York. He lugged seltzer bottles up on the Lower East Side. He eventually co-owned a garage in Brooklyn. But it wasn't until the next generation, the second generation, that his four sons all went to college and moved into professional jobs, and we see the same thing today. We have, you know, something like 35% of immigrants in the U.S. today over 25 have a bachelor's degree or higher.
PARKS: So then why do these myths persist then?
FONER: Well, I think that - well, there are political reasons. You know, this nativism is appealing to - certainly, when we hear it from JD Vance, immigration has been a big part of their political outreach, so to say, to their base of non-college-educated and evangelical whites and who are very concerned about the population change in the U.S. So there's a lot of racial resentment. And also the economic changes in America, where they're not doing well. There's been, you know, a decline in manufacturing jobs, and well, in the past, in post-World-War-II period in America, America was, you know, very prosperous at that time. The people who are unhappy now were growing up and moving into the workforce in a better economic time, and they're blaming immigrants. And this has been a successful ploy of the Republican Party.
PARKS: Can I ask - big picture, I guess, as somebody who studies immigration - how much of the current moment you do just feel deja vu every time you read a headline?
FONER: Well, we do feel deja vu. There are a lot of continuities with the past and similarities between then and now. And certainly, we've had Nativist movements. There were the Know Nothings. There was the anti-Mexicans. There was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and Asians were excluded basically for a very long time in American society. So it is not that we have welcomed with open arms immigrants. We have had this in the past.
But I think the pressures are going to be for - in continued immigration for demographic reasons. I mean, the United States is aging, and the baby boomers, as of 2030, will all be 65 and older. And so the question is, who's going to do their jobs? We're going to need workers. Employers are going to be pushing for immigrants to come in for that reason and are likely to, I think, lead to continued levels of fairly high immigration.
PARKS: That's Professor Nancy Foner. Thank you so much for talking with us.
FONER: Oh, well, thank you for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
