CONSUL GENERAL SPEECHES

Cultural Diversity and Immigration:  A U.S. Perspective - Remarks at the Taste of Diversity, Club of Amsterdam, June 28, 2007

Good evening.  I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this dialogue on cultural diversity.  I have had a professional interest in this topic for several years and it has a direct bearing on my profession, not only as a career diplomat but in my current position in Amsterdam, and I am looking forward to an interesting discussion this evening.

Defining cultural diversity in the United States is a complex task.  It’s a vast country, where cultural differences abound not only as a result of the many people from countries all over the world that have chosen to call America home, but in a number of other ways.  There are pronounced generational divides.  Differences between rural and urban cultures.  Conspicuous regional distinctions.  The so-called “red and blue states.”  And yes, even language differences.  Some would say that within the English language – or American English – there are marked language barriers.  Add to these elements the unique cultures that African Americans, Ukrainian Americans, Irish Americans, Mexican Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Native Americans and a host of others have brought to us and you begin to understand the diverse aspects of American diversity.

Tonight I would like to focus on the connection between immigration and diversity as an essential underpinning of the American experience.  Over the last 231 years since the United States declared its independence, 70 million immigrants have made the U.S. their home.  Countless among them faced real hardship, discrimination, trouble supporting themselves and their families, and homesickness.  Yet, in spite of adversity, they stayed to weave the threads of their own ethnicity and cultural background into the multicultural fabric of the United States.

The success of America as an immigrant nation stems in large measure from the social, political and economic integration of large numbers of immigrants even as they maintain a strong ethnic identity.  We recognize that immigrants have a dramatic effect on the American landscape, and value the contributions to they make to our ethnic and cultural diversity.  There’s no question that immigrants have been among the driving forces behind our economic success, as they have contributed their diverse talents, their ambition and their initiative in an environment that welcomes these attributes.

This is not to say that the immigration debate in the U.S. is not a contentious one, or that Americans are always accepting of newcomers.  Nor are contentious views about immigration anything new to the public dialogue in the U.S.  In 1882 the U.S. Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act which barred Chinese from the U.S.  Commenting at once on both assimilation and discrimination, in 1890 a Danish journalist wrote about the phenomenon of each generation of immigrants looking down on the generation that followed, writing:  “The once unwelcome Irishman has been followed in his turn by the Italian, the Russian Jew, and the Chinaman.”  Bitter arguments raged from the late – 1800’s through the early part of this century, as nearly 16 million immigrants passed through New York’s Ellis Island.  Some of the arguments are the same we hear today:  that immigrants would seek economic advantage in the U.S. and depress wages, that they would not adhere to the principles of freedom and democracy as “natives” would, that they would resist learning English, and that they would overwhelm public services.

Today we still have demons to fight in the shape of racism, xenophobia and discrimination.  And in addition to these baser instincts, the current dialogue on immigration reform is spurred in part by an extraordinary increase in immigration over the last twenty to thirty years.  During the last ten years alone, legal immigrants totaled over 10 million and various sources place the number of undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S. at an estimated 12 million people.  As one American columnist put it recently, opponents of immigration have their “reasons as well as prejudices.”

Yet at the heart of the American republic is the knowledge that immigration renews and strengthens.  In Amsterdam, as at other U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, we interact with immigrants at the beginning of their journey by evaluating their qualifications for an immigrant visa based on a family relationship to someone in the U.S., or an employment opportunity.  We also administer what I think must be a unique program – the Diversity Visa Program – which makes available 50,000 permanent resident visas each year to applicants chosen at random from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S.  The objective is to broaden the already diverse character of the United States further – to nationalities that historically have not had as much opportunity as others.  And interestingly, people from The Netherlands are eligible to participate, and do.

Studies show that people who have more interaction with immigrants are more positively disposed toward immigration.  I have certainly found that to be the case.  I’ve also found that Americans are keen to honor the cultural origins of their immigrant family members and friends.  For example, I worked in Russua and one of the things I was involved in was helping American citizens to bring adopted Russian orphans to the United States.  I was amazed to see that the parents would often take Russian language courses or take the time to learn something about Russia before adopting a child – even an infant.  And we often heard that these families would organize reunions years after they had returned to the States in an effort to maintain for their children their birth culture.

I’d like to share with you one other experience I had before moving to Amsterdam that had a profound impact on me, and I think helps illustrate the prevailing attitude of both the U.S. and the immigrants we welcome toward diversity and immigration.

In April 2005 I attended a naturalization ceremony in Miami Beach, Florida.  That is the official moment when U.S. legal residents become U.S. citizens.  It was two ceremonies, actually, one held in the morning and the other in the afternoon on the same day at the Miami Beach Convention Center.  The morning event included 3,000 people as well as their families and friends, who literally filled the spectator seats in the convention center.  That afternoon’s ceremony included another 3,000 people and their families.

The judge presiding over the ceremonies did so in a unique way, asking people to stand to take the oath of allegiance as he announced each of the hundred different countries represented on that day.  The judge called out country after country until the entire stadium was on its feet.  As more and more people stood, a terrific sense of inclusion and excitement grew.  By the end of each ceremony, 3,000 people were on their feet to recite the few lines of our oath in unison.  To see so many people who had come so far – both literally and figuratively – choosing an admittedly arduous path to join our American community – was a very moving experience.

I’ve often reflected on that day and have been struck by two separate impressions.  From the U.S. side, I think it is tremendous that we celebrate the days we inaugurate new citizens with great pomp and circumstance.  This is the farthest thing possible from a dry, civil procedure.  And it was also profoundly moving to participate in a ritual in which people from all over the world gravely accepted both the rights and responsibilities that come with U.S. citizenship.  As the keynote speaker put it,

“Today you join a community that is as much an idea, an
  aspiration, a dream, as it is a common nationality.  Yet, the
  dream of America is made real by the commitment each … 
  of you makes today.”

These words from that day have also stayed with me:

“America has always been strengthened and enriched
 By those who came in search of new opportunities. 
  We love the raucous energy of America – our nation
  Of nations.  We borrow from each culture here the
  customs that have helped our country to become so
  much greater than the sum of its parts.”

Thank you for your attention and I look forward to the discussion.