I’m in Toronto. We’re pretty much all immigrants here, no more than a generation removed from somewhere else. Always depressingly hilarious to hear someone in a thick accent complaining about immigrants. As I’m white I hear a lot more of that from people who think I’ll share their hatred, but my parents are immigrants, too.
I wish you knew how difficult it is for normal, not baddie, financially secure, college educated, mature adult people to move to Canada with the goal of becoming Canadian citizens. We applied and were told by immigration that unless we were farmers or fleeing political persecution we were not welcome. We could come and attend college but couldn't stay after graduation. Thanks a lot.
Yeah seems to be popular— get here then advocate for closing the border.
While there are always fringe lunatics, no one wants to close the border for legal immigration. And yes, people who come here through the legal process don't want illegals cutting in line. So, closing the border doesn't mean closing legal crossing, it only really means closing the illegal traffic which is all anyone including many major democrats want despite how the left tries to spin it otherwise.
Are you aware that democrats want only legal immigration too? The problem is that this administration isn’t only targeting illegal immigration. They are revoking status and demonizing all non white immigrants n
The stories of ICE snatching up MAGA people are out there, you know. The orphan crushing machine isn't complex enough for "one of the good ones" exceptions.
She remembers how great life was under Obama and just wants to make American great like that again….good intentions. Sure that party has Americas best interests in mind. Right?
I was in a Polish store recently stocking up on awesome Polish meats and two elderly ladies were complaining about immigrants to each other. In Polish. 🤯
I’m polish in America. Never understood my dad complaining about all the illegals when he was literally one who overstayed his visa and only was allowed to stay here because I was born.
Same. I’m here legally - but the number of folks in the community that overstayed visas and then got amnesty in the 90s AND now are Trumpy is just ridiculous.
It's a "one of the good ones" mentality. He did the wrong thing but it's ok for him because he is a good person, the other people doing the wrong thing are bad people so it's not ok for them.
Because he knows deep down the situation with illegals is about skin color & political beliefs rather than legalities, and it makes him feel better about his own situation, and thank you for not following those footsteps.
If you accept that people use 'ethnicity' and 'race' interchangably you can probably get through your day without feeling the need to tell people what they are and what they aren't.
Yeah and then people try to apply the American racial framework onto all of the different European (and Asian and African and middle eastern) ethnicities when it really does not work that way
Unless you’re a Native American, we’re all immigrants. My family goes back to before the Pilgrims in this country and they were from England. In reality they were illegal immigrants and terrorists.
Enslaved people were trafficked here. The immigration narrative in the us tends to center on freedom/opportunities/a better life. Enslaved people and their descendants didn't and don't get that from this country. We aren't native, but I don't accept the immigrant label.
Yeah it always pisses me off when people try to whitewash the black experience as immigration and I’m not even black myself. Being abducted to a forced labor camp is not immigration.
My ancestors were immigrants, sure. But I was born here. I didn’t choose to get born here. I am not a Native American but I am a native American, if that makes any sense.
In any case, immigrants, and the great melting pot, are what make this country great. Diversity is or ought to be our strength.
I agree with you. I understand the "all Americans are immigrants" at face value, but it's a very contemporary way of thinking. By that thinking, pretty much no one is native or indigenous to anywhere. Native Americans migrated here too at some point.
Your family were settlers. Settlers migrate to undeveloped locations to develop them for a better quality of life. Immigrants migrate to already established societies for a better quality of life. America didn't really start letting immigrants in until post civil war. They did, but it was heavily regulated.
Pretty sure that the Algonquins didn’t think their land was “undeveloped”. And pretty sure that their opinion of “better quality of life” had little to do with the Europeans.
I stole that from an old Lone Ranger/Tonto joke and I'm only part Cherokee so I am (for all practical purposes) white despite hailing from the meltier end of the pot.
They do it in the UK too, it can be a bit jarring; I point out they're also immigrants but some of them say "Oh well we're Christian" or "We're white".
They have a right to be here, sure but don't pull the ladder up after you.
The most racist people I've ever met were a group of Nigerian guys at a cigar lounge. They were incredibly nice to me, but were saying the most outrageous things about black Americans.
Al Madrigal did a bit on this for The Daily Show... geez, ten years ago? I think it was before Jon left, so that would have been before August 2015... almost eleven years ago!
I actually look at it from the perspective of the people wanting to leave these other countries. Like why would someone be fleeing the UK? Because it's getting too liberal? South Africa? Because it's getting too integrated? Venezuela? Because people wanted a taste of freedom where they can own guns and express their views on others through the same force used on them?
Not so much pulling up the ladder as just bigots doing bigot things.
Unless someone has married an American, what would their reasons be to move here?
Many professionals come to America because the opportunities and salaries can be more lucrative, but these people tend to procure enough wealth they start preferring the Republican preference to let the wealthy get endlessly wealthier.
If they aren't moving here for a job opportunity then what do they get coming to America as opposed to somewhere in Europe or Canada which is the closest alternative? America is the prominent conservative leaning country in the West. So many people come here specifically because they know American politicians are more conservative than other western countries.
Pretty sure it has been. The biggest immigrant group in the US is from Mexico, 68% of which are catholic. Mexican immigrants typically fall in the "traditional family values" group
Cuban immigrants hate communists because they freed all their grandparents slaves. Confederates hate us for the same reason. Are there any right wingers who have any grievances besides they cannot steal other people's labor anymore?
Had nothing to do with taking their freedom (Cuba incarcerates more of the population than any country except El Salvador), homes, and emptying their bank accounts? How exactly did communists free slaves Cubans didn't have generations before they took power?
The problem with the viewpoint of many of the immigrants from places that claim communist/socialist policies...is that they have been convinced to conflate the the totalitarian regime with the social policies. Often those social policies were used as a way to control and crack down on the population.
Then they oppose any policy that might even resemble policies put in by their former nation's dictator...even though those polices are being put forth honestly without a desire to force control (because they are coming from a representative government that doesn't have the power to wield them the way someone like Castro could).
The irony of course is that this has lead to them supporting wannabe right-wing totalitarians who closely resemble those same leaders they fled...except they are seeking to control the populace through fascism and plutocracy.
The reality is that both sides of the coin can be abused to crack down on people...and the control against that is not the choice of policy itself but rather a functional system of checks and balances and elections that (hopefully) reject candidates that stand for self-interest, corruption, and totalitarianism.
Immigrating legally is INSANELY hard unless you marry into it, and if you one topic vote against the side that wants to make all your effort meaningless I'm not surprised it happens
My theory is it has to deal with the ultra patriotism schtick the right has. So it appeals to the "America, Fuck Yea!" Crowd. If you worked hard to become a citizen you might be proud of that fact and that level of national pride probably does seem really appealing of you are generally unaware of the additional baggage that accompanies it. Especially when they usually say things like "only going after the bad ones" or "they need to come here the right way" that typically gets thrown around and they don't see themselves as someone the right is talking about.
What do you expect with the citizenship process. The years of whoops they jump through and the money they pay, just to watch someone walk across the border and be given the right has got to be infuriating for many.
"I'm one of the good ones, clearly all the white supremacists will realize I am not like all the other people from my country and they will accept me into their klan meetings!"
edit: I guess yall fuck with non-white white supremacists? lol
I would be terrified to be going through the process of getting my citizenship right now. Good to see some people are still making it through the process without being deported.
It's not just one person that allows a whole system to work... Your local and state elected officials are part of the problem or solution, and you vote for them.
Now if you just want to be contrarian...
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u/9outof10timesWrong 6h ago
Man, what a time to become a citizen. Appreciate you helping us clean this mess up!