History Repeating Itself

As planners we deal with numerous social issues. Homelessness, overcrowded housing, lack of adequate employment opportunities, etc. Often we find ourselves on the frontlines on these issues or even in the crossfire. Whether it is the changes in Arizona’s laws as they relate to undocumented aliens, the case about the college student or various factory raids that have occurred, we can find precedent for these actions in our nation’s history. Economically hard times seem to increase these tensions.

The immigrant groups that historically have drawn the most attention have been those that arrived in the deepest levels of poverty. Whether it is the Irish of the Potato Famine, Asian boat people, or the present influx of Hispanics from South and Central America.

It is interesting when one reads a historical piece about some of these groups, their habits are all generally the same, and the reaction of U.S. society is pretty much the same. For instance, the following items illustrate almost a name your large immigrant population list:

• “Upon arrival in America, the ____ found the going to be quite tough.”
• “With no one to help them, they immediately settled into the lowest rung of society and waged a daily battle for survival.”
• “…their city was undergoing nothing short of an unwanted "social revolution"….”
• “______ took any unskilled jobs they could find such as cleaning….”
• “…they fell victim to unscrupulous landlords….”
• “There were only a limited number of unskilled jobs available. Intense rivalry quickly developed between the _____ and working class [American]________ over these jobs.”
• “Their resentment, combined with growing anti-_____ and anti-[religious]_________ sentiment among all classes in ______ led to 'No ______ Need Apply' signs being posted in shop windows, factory gates and workshop doors throughout the city.”
• “Wherever they settled, the ______ kept to themselves to the exclusion of everyone else, and thus were slow to assimilate.”
• “Militant anti-[immigrant]___________ formed a third political party nicknamed the '______' seeking to curtail _______ immigration and keep them from becoming naturalized Americans in order to prevent them from ever gaining any political power.”
• “Throughout America, anti-_____ sentiment was becoming fashionable.”

This history truly could apply to just about any major immigration group. These immigrants all took on the menial jobs many others would not touch. Today it seems fine to many to take advantage of immigrants by giving them temporary H2B visas to allow them to work in motels and restaurants cleaning toilets and such. But, it seems society does not want to provide these immigrants with any opportunities to advance themselves.

As planners we see both sides of this equation. With any affordable housing or public transportation project we hear the “we do not want those types in our community." We find ourselves having to fight the mentality that affordable housing or public transportation breeds crime.

From where I sit, I fear the current economic and political climate is throwing us back and causing us to lose almost a hundred and fifty years of progress and understanding.

By the way, all the passages above came from a piece about the Irish, the Potato Famine and societies reaction to the arrival of Irish into our communities. Did you read them and place some other immigrant group into the blanks?