Debunking The Myths Americans Believe About Immigration — And Themselves

Odds are your great grandparents did not come here “legally”

“Print shows a one panel, three scene cartoon showing, in the first scene, an Irish man with the head of Uncle Sam in his mouth and a Chinese man with the feet of Uncle Sam in his mouth, in the second scene they consume Uncle Sam, and in the third the Chinese man consumes the Irish man; on the landscape in the distant background are many railroads.” Source: Library of Congress, (dated between 1860 and 1869)

When high school students complain about the pointlessness of history classes, adults typically tell them that studying history matters because we can learn from our past mistakes. This, though, assumes that the history we’re learning is somehow objective, infinitely accurate, and written by a kind of omnipotent narrator.

As we read and react to stories about the United States government’s immigration policies and treatment of immigrant families, it has become increasingly clear that many American citizens do not, in fact, possess a clear understanding of how they got here, how they became citizens, and what the reality of citizenship entails.

This is troubling, because these myths and false narratives shape our decisions. Without a clear, nuanced, and unified understanding of our collective history, it’s impossible to even talk about these issues and the potential solutions.

As long as we believe in fundamentally different truths, we’re having multiple conversations at once.

First myth: The United States is better than this