How do you spell
"America"?
by Lulu
Dilworth
To hear the anti-immigration crowd talk, you spell it "c-r-a-z-y." We’re crazy, those nay-sayers yell, to let so many people in, when all they’re going to do is either take jobs away from Good Amurcans or sponge off welfare. Even those on the other side, who favor a more-or-less open door policy, have ways of spelling "America" which on closer examination are not as accurate as they might first appear. Why do so many come? "F-r-e-e-d-o-m" of course is the first, ready, easy answer. And in some, perhaps many, cases it’s true. They come for freedom—religious, political, intellectual, entrepreneurial, gender freedom. But in many cases, if you get below the surface explanation, you encounter radically differing concepts of this "freedom." I spent several years working with the first waves of Southeast Asian refugees after the fall of Saigon in 1975. In the many refugee English classes I taught, I would at some point during the term, take a little poll. The question was: Do you think Americans have The first time I did the poll class, I just assumed everyone would share my opinion that we don’t have enough freedom. That class surprised me, as did all—note that: ALL—subsequent classes. Between 70 and 80% of the refugees very firmly believed that Americans have far too much freedom. A surprise indeed, coming from people who had experienced decades of war and oppression. "F-r-e-e-d-o-m"? Yes, but it may not be quite the free-for-all we have in mind when we use the word. Further questions revealed the three main areas where they think we have too much freedom: sex, drugs, and guns. Yet another way to spell "America," when speaking of immigration issues, is "e-d-u-c-a-t-i-o-n." Undergraduates and, especially, graduate students around the world come here to get an education (primarily technical or scientific) which they know they can’t get at home. The surprise here is that many, after they get the degrees, convert their I-20 student visas to permanent residency visas. They come for education. Why do they stay? Because, of course, another way to spell "America" is "m-o-n-e-y." And it’s true. Many stay for the money, as the anti-immigration contingent claims loudly, and as the pro-immigration folks admit. And they’re right. But both sides view what happens rather naively, being unaware of the trauma of forsaking one’s native language and culture for a new language and a new country. The money’s good, the freedom’s good (if possibly a bit excessive). But to come here is one thing. To stay is quite another thing. Even for the most highly qualified, the most linguistically gifted, it is never, never easy. Given the difficulties, why then do they do it? As years passed and the number of refugees and immigrants whom I taught mounted, I continued to puzzle over this question. I felt there was something, some hidden, deeper reason I was missing. Two stories that I got finally brought it home: 1. Lifang enrolled one fall in an advanced English class. He was about 40, with a calm, easy-going, self-assured air about him. It turned out he had been chief of cardiology at a Beijing hospital. What in the world, I thought, is he doing here? He left a career, a prestigious position, and a family to struggle for a new life here? 2. Chengsong placed into a beginning level class. His English was almost non-existent. He was 60. He, I learned, had been chief engineer at one of the largest fertilizer factories in Guangdong province. What was he doing here? In the course of several semesters, I got to know both these men fairly well, and eventually asked both to talk in private about why they had come. And both finally got to the word, the one concept, which explained what the usual terms (above) failed to explain. The word? Stability. They had come for stability. To go to sleep every night with confidence that the world in the morning would be the same. No war, no revolution (cultural or otherwise), no financial collapse. No people’s police knocking at the door during the night. All the other reasons—freedom, education, money—were important but secondary to this. So if you want to spell America, let’s at least get it right: s-t-a-b-i-I-i-t-y. |