Immigrants

Stolen from Squatlo

We are a nation of immigrants, but it seems like once we get here we don't want anyone else to come here. I have a cousin whose grandparents on his father's side (and probably on his mother's side too) were both immigrants and barely spoke English. As a kid he spoke a language other than English to speak with his grandfather and yet, now he is all about "English Only"!! He's also anti-illegal immigrant and when I would remind him his grandfather was an immigrant, he would reply that his grandfather came here legally. That may or may not be true, that was back in the early part of the last century and things were a lot looser then. There were many cases of multiple people using the same passport to come here and other ways people came here that would not be allowed today, but were ignored then. Because he is accepted as a "Murikin", he forgets he belongs to an ethnic group that was severely discriminated 100 years ago because they had to nerve to organize and fight for better working conditions.

This attitude isn't just about immigration between countries, it can also be about movement within the country. People will move somewhere, discover they really like the area and maybe they'll tell friends and relatives about it, but they don't want anyone else to move there. They'll actively work to keep others out. They all want to be the last troll to escape the Downer Peninsula or the last Californian to sneak into Oregon or Washington.