Obama shares his story, now it's your turn to celebrate Immigrant Heritage Month

EARLIER THIS MONTH, President Barack Obama related how growing up among the diverse people of that island state helped shape the person he is today. 

"I think of growing up in Hawaii," he said in his weekly address, "a place enriched by people of different backgrounds -- native Hawaiians, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and just about everything else."

Growing up in that vibrant mix helped shape the person I am today." Obama urged Americans to go to The New Americans Project website to tell their stories.

"We are a nation of immigrants. It's a source of strength and something we can take pride in," he said.The president also said, "We can't just celebrate this heritage, we have to defend it by fixing our broken immigration system."

Obama said Democrats and Republicans in the Senate did that two years ago when they passed "a common sense bill" that included a pathway to citizenship.

However, he said Republican leaders in the House of Representatives for nearly two years "have refused to even allow a vote on it." 

"In the meantime, I'm going to keep doing everything I can to make our immigration system more just and more fair," Obama said. "It's the right thing to do. And it will make America stronger."

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This June marks the second annual U.S. Immigrant Heritage Month, meant to honor the accomplishments and role of immigrants in shaping U.S. history and culture.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2013 American Community Survey, the nation's immigrant population was more than 41 million, or 13 percent of the total populatio

Mexican-born immigrants are still the majority, comprising 28 percent of the 41 million total immigrant populations.

However in recent years, immigrant groups from India and China, including Hong Kong, but not Taiwan, each account for about 5 percent of the United States' total immigrant population; many moving to the country to work, study or join family members already here.

The Philippines has the fourth highest number of immigrants living in the United States at 4 percent, while residents from Vietnam, El Salvador, Cuba and Korea each make up 3 percent of the immigrant total.

Up until the mid-1960s, immigration restrictions in the United States favored the entry of people from Europe.

RELATED: 1965 immigration act changing the face of America

However, with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act – a law that made it so people would be admitted based on their occupational skills rather than their country of origin – the makeup of most immigrants also changed from Europe to Latin America and Asia.

In 1960, Europeans made up nearly 75 percent of the U.S. immigrant population, but by 2013 that number dwindled to just 11.6 percent. During the same period, immigrants from South and Central America increased from 19-to-54 percent.n of 316 million.

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In 1965, the Immigration & Nationality Act was passed; 5 decades later, it continues to change the face of America

As numbers increase Asian/Americans drawing the attention of bigots

"We are America."

ON OCTOBER 3, 1965, the Hart-Celler Immigration Act, became the law of the land and America was never the same.

Basically, the bill - also known as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 - created for the U.S. a more fair immigration policy that gave immigrants from all countries an equal opportunity to immigrate to the United States. Prior to 1965, the immigration policies in place favored and encouraged immigration from Europe.

"The (1965) bipartisan law ended an unfair quota system, prohibited discrimination based on country of origin, and officially recognized our immigration system's role in reuniting families and attracting skilled workers, all of whom help fuel our economy." said President Obama in a statement on the anniversary of the Immigration Act. 

Fifty years after Hart-Celler, more immigrants are coming from Mexico, China, India and the Philippines. The United States' immigration population has doubled, from 5% of the pre-1965 population to today's 14%, hardly the "flood" nativists claim is "overwhelming" America.

By 2065, no racial or ethnic group will hold a majority in the U.S. Whites will be 46% of the population, Latinos at 24%, Asians at 14% and blacks at 13%. Currently, the country is 62% white, 18% Hispanic, 12% black and 6% Asian. 

If present trends continue and barring any major geo-political events that might skew the predictions, Asians will be the largest immigrant group by 2065 according to estimates in a new study by the Pew Research Center released last month.
 

In 50 years, the percentage of foreign-born, mostly Asian and Latino, is expected to jump to 18% of the United States' projected 441 million. That will be a record, higher than the nearly 15% during the late 19th century and early 20th century wave of immigration from Europe.

Much of the United States' population growth is due to immigration, according to the Pew report. Between 1965 and 2015, new immigrants, their children and their grandchildren accounted for 55% of U.S. population growth. They added 72 million people to the nation’s population as it grew from 193 million in 1965 to 324 million in 2015.

This demographic shift caused by immigration and the number of U.S. births from the same ethnic and racial groups potentially could result with a "good news/bad news" impact.

Good news: As in the past, America will continue to benefit from the influx of immigrants, most of whom are the most adventurous, the risk-takers, the most educated, most innovative and the most optimistic and driven foreign-born. They will become our neighbors.

Democrats and Republicans passed the 1965 immigration reform because, "they understood that immigration contributes to our economic growth by allowing hard-working, entrepreneurial individuals from around the world to pursue the American dream" said President Obama.

Bad news: Expect the xenophobia from current Americans to grow and the likelihood of a backlash increases such as calling for further limits on immigration, calls for "taking back our country," and a return to the "good old days" when Euro-Americans and their descendants dominated the political, social and economic realms.

Esther Cepeda, a columnist for Washington Post, warns, "Once they (Asians) become even more of a media sensation they’ll have to endure any number of silly, poorly worded, stereotype-laden articles that will present facts about them as though they are all brand-new visitors from a far-away land."

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And if Asians become the largest immigrant group, you can expect more incidents of good, old racism directed at Asian/Americans such as the anti-Chinese graffiti that's popped up in San Francisco even though that city has a reputation of being Asian-friendly, and the beatings and slaying of immigrants - including those of us who look like immigrants - in Los Angeles, Oakland, New York, Chicago and elsewhere.

There will also be attempts to divide the immigrant/ethnic groups and pit us against each other, such as Asian/Americans vs. Latino/Americans or Asians vs. African/Americans. We see this already in play in the GOP presidential campaign when Donald Trump and Jeb Bush in their "anchor baby" remarks drawing attention to the Chinese mothers on tourist visas giving birth in America thus giving their babies' automatic U.S. citizenship. Again, those who wish to stir things up don't distinguish between regular immigrants and those mothers and their infants, who almost always return to to their home countries.

Has anyone noticed whenever Trump mentions the "Chinese" or "China," - which is pretty often - he almost spits out the words, with a hard emphasis on the first vowel, such as "Ch-iii-na."

We see the anti-Asian sentiment rising in school admissions. In some cases, there are attempts to limit Asian enrollment by the institutions themselves; in other cases, we see a new "white flight" by those parents who don't want their children attending schools where there are a great number of Asian students.

The model-minority myth doesn't do us any favors among other ethnic groups who are looked upon less favorably by the dominant power group raising the question, "Why can't you be more like the Asians?" or "Asians work hard, study hard, so why can't you?" Is that a divide-and-conquer strategy?

Generally, Americans have a negative view of immigrants. Pew asked Americans surveyed for one word to describe immigrants in the US today. Twelve per cent said “illegal”; “overpopulation” was at 5%; “legality (other than illegal)” at 4%; and “jobs”, “deportation”, “Americans” and “work ethic” at 3% each.

Forty-nine percent offered general descriptions, and of those, only 12% were positive, 11% negative and 26% neutral, according to the report. That doesn't bode well for Asian immigrants and Asian/Americans.

Despite the increase in Asian immigrants, Latinos will still make up a larger number inside the United States. Latino/Americans' birth rate will be the main reason for that growth, said Mark Hugo Lopez, Pew’s director of Hispanic research. “It is really U.S. births that are now the driver of Hispanic population growth, and that’s a recent change from what we saw in the 80s and 90s.” 

“We have a diverse group of immigrants coming from Asian countries that are at different points of readiness to contribute to this country," said Mee Moua, the executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, told the recent National Immigration Forum.  "They’re more highly educated, they come with ready skill sets and they’re coming prepared and ready to contribute to the progress of this country. And isn’t that the whole point of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965?”