Mar 17, 2019 5 min read

Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts.

”People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.” – Edmund Burke

I recently read a timely article reviewing a history of the forced emigration of thousands of Scottish people from their homeland (“The Scottish Clearance: A History of the Dispossessed 1600-1900, by T.M. Devine”). Wealthy English landowners needed more space to graze their livestock, principally sheep. Entire villages, first in the Scottish Lowlands, later in the Highlands, were given the option of starving to death or embarking on boats for America, Canada and Australia.

A well-read English periodical in 1739, the Gentlemen’s Magazine, gave the following justification for the forced emptying out of Scotland:

“Being destitute of all means of knowledge, and without any schools to educate their children, [they] are entirely ignorant of the principles of religion and virtue, live in idleness and poverty, have no notion of industry, or sense of liberty, are subject to the will and command of their popish disaffected chieftains, who have always opposed the propagating of Christian knowledge, and the English tongue, that they might with less difficulty keep their miserable vassals in a slavish dependence.”

The ancestors of Scottish Americans were summarily exported from their homeland, not unlike the bales of wool that replaced them. The number of Americans of Scottish descent today is estimated to be 20 million to 25 million (up to 8.3 percent of the total U.S. population), and Scotch-Irish 27 million to 30 million (up to 10 percent of the total U.S. population). The Scotch-Irish immigrated to Ireland before coming to America.

This article gave me pause to consider the views of any American supporting the Trump policies on legal immigration, who happens to be of Scottish heritage. How is it possible to deny the same opportunity to others, an opportunity that literally saved the lives of their ancestors and made a path for their forbearers to thrive and contribute to the American dream?

Other immigration histories tell a similar story. Approximately 84 percent of Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy and Sicily, which was still largely rural and agricultural. Much of the populace had been impoverished by centuries of foreign misrule, and an oppressive taxation system. In 1870, there were less than 25,000 Italian immigrants in America. Shortly thereafter about 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the United States and Italians are now the fourth largest group of Europeans in the country.

The Irish constituted an even bigger mass migration. About 33 million Americans, 10.5 percent of the total population, reported Irish ancestry in 2013. This compares with a population of 6.7 million on the island of Ireland. A significant factor was the Irish famine. During the mid-19th century, Ireland experienced the worst social and economic disaster a nation could suffer. A quarter of the island’s population starved to death or emigrated to escape truly appalling conditions. England did little to help and was more than happy to see their Catholic neighbors seek greener pastures.

Closer to home, my Quaker ancestors immigrated much earlier, in the late 1600s. But the reasons were no less severe. English religious persecution made life unbearable in the homeland.

Lastly, almost all Jewish Americans can trace their journey to America through European and Russian pogroms or the rise of fascism.

The point is that other than African Americans, brought to America against their will and forced to endure the unthinkable, we are all here, and our American family stories were permitted to take root because of persecution, hate or starvation in our ancestral homelands. No nation is as diverse as America. Other than Native Americans, no ethnic group can lay claim to owning the historical foundation story of America. We were all once unwanted, unwashed, penniless, facing certain death and/or considered undesirable.

Attempts to label America “a Christian nation” in order to exclude those of other faiths is a false narrative. The very reason for our national formation was to cobble together a nation built on religious freedom. Moreover, those masses of people at our southern border, attempting to immigrate legally from Latin America, are often more dedicated Christians than those who seek to block their path.

This commentary is not about illegal immigration. There is no hiding behind the claim: “my ancestors immigrated legally, and I only oppose illegal immigration.” The discussion point is much less complicated. Given the opportunities that were afforded our ancestors, how can any of us support the Trump administration’s assault on legal immigration?

The second part of this commentary will review Trump policies on legal immigration, the response of the legal community and the courts, and why this matters to all of us.

Gary Stout is a Washington attorney.