In Praise of Refugees and Immigrants
To quote Lin-Manuel Miranda in Hamilton, “immigrants, we get the job done.”
For the last twenty years, I worked closely with extraordinary refugees and immigrants. We have had Muslims and Jews, Buddhists and Hindus, Catholics, evangelicals and agnostics. We have had people from Korea and Japan, India and Pakistan, China and Vietnam, Mexico and El Salvador, Iran, Israel, Eritrea, South Africa and Kenya. We have had people who fled Vietnam by boat across the South China Sea encountering storms and pirates, people who fled on foot across the deserts, forests and mountains dodging lions, hostile armies and bandits. People escaping political and religious oppression, escaping violent civil wars made their ways to these shores and our country. Entry for them was never easy, and acceptance by their peers was not always readily forthcoming. Others came from families who came on student visas and found work and reward. Others were adopted.
They are the American dream, and we lose their incredible contributions to our rich tapestry at our peril. Let us hope that wisdom and justice will be done by the courts of this nation ‘lest we alienate our best future.
Lucien Wulsin
February 7, 2017