A Grateful Immigrant

Recently a funeral took place for a woman who had immigrated to the United States from Russia in the early 1990s. Irina (not her real name) was an engineer in Russia and her husband started a small business that achieved some success. That success led the government to forcefully take over the business after threatening the family. They fled to the United States with their son.

Irina was only able to find work cleaning apartments of elderly immigrants supported by charitable organizations. Her husband worked as a taxi driver. She was glad to be free of the bureaucratic pressures and corruption she left behind, and was happy to be able to offer her son a better life. America offered her family a sense of hope.

Irina experienced freedom in America that she did not have in Russia. Irina was not blind to the imperfections in American democracy. To a great extent, the country’s aspirations remain unfulfilled after 246 years. Opportunity is not equal in education, employment, criminal justice, housing, social mobility, healthcare, and even voting, that most basic of rights.

Yet America’s attraction to immigrants is as old as the country, and much of that owes to its founding principles. The principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence offer immigrants hope for a future better than what they lived in their countries of origin.

When a large sector of the native-born American population views government institutions as illegitimate, and political discourse is no longer civil, rational, or truthful, political polarization makes addressing inequality difficult. Social and economic equality require commitment by all parties to the country’s core principles. The alternative is a gradual loss of freedom and security until America is indistinguishable from those countries from which the migrants fled.

May the gratefulness of the immigrant restore our faith in our system of governance.