EP 436 Is America Really a Welcoming Place for Immigrants?

  America tells itself a lot of stories about its ethos that turn out to be misleading, or worse yet false, when put to true historical scrutiny.  Waves of immigrants have made their way here thinking that their lot would be so much better when they reach our shores, only to find many roadblocks and impediments toward assimiliation placed in their path. In the last four years, America essentially put up a ‘do not enter’ sign and reinforced it with a wall, just to make sure the message got through.  If concepts like reparations, migration taxes and taking compensatory actions to reimburse poorer countries for the wealth that immigrants have transfered to wealthier nations are beyond anything you’ve been exposed to on this issue, then you’ve come to the right place for a transformative education.  Suketu Mehta, himself an immigrant to America, is the author of an eye-opening book, ‘This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto’. Much of the injustice in the process of immigration owes its origins to colonialism.  Just imagine this one fact: forty percent of the world’s borders were established by two former colonial powers: Britain and France.  We’ll start there. And we will discuss the current crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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