In support of immigrants.
I've seen a number of heartening posts on DU of late in support of immigrants, I suspect precisely because of the hate filled xenophobic atmosphere of these elections. I just wish to add my own post to the mix, even though I'm not American I'm sure most here will be able to relate, and yes I know I'm preaching to the choir but I still think it's important that we let it be known that immigrants are welcomed by most of us, because even during calmer times they can easily feel intimidated and unwelcome.
I myself am a product of immigration, partially. My mother is Chinese via Malaysia, my father native Canadian. I look about 90% Caucasian however culturally I've embraced my Asian 1/2 more than many mixed kids. My parents met and married in Toronto and I was born 2 years later. I lived throughout Asia from the age of 2 to the age of 6, and despite being very young at the time those years left an indelible mark on me. I still have a great love for south east Asia in particular.
As someone who has lived abroad and always in multicultural cities even here in Canada, I've always found the xenophobic mind set to be simply baffling. As a young child my friends were naturally of multiple racial backgrounds, Caucasian, African (Kenyan specifically for one friend), South American, and multiple Asian nationalities. It never even occurred to me till later in life that these differences could be the source of fear. Which isn't to say that I was prejudice free as a child, even I and my friends were subject to racial biases of certain types, which just goes to show how pervasive and sinister it is, although in our cases we were more prone to stereotyping out of youthful ignorance than from any other more malevolent perspective. And also usually these were more playful joking instances.
As I matured I became more self aware of my surroundings, of my fellow man, and of myself. I also cultivated an interest in history and so of course I came to factually understand the reasons behind racial discrimination and hatred. But my growing emotional self awareness only deepened the sense of alienation I had with the concept of racial hatred.
My almost universal experience with immigrants from all walks of life has been almost nothing but glowingly positive. Certainly not 100%, there are ass holes in all walks of life, and actually given the struggle that is the immigrant experience it's startling that I have not had more unpleasant experiences. I'm sure some will read what I'm writing and think, yeah sure, so what else is new *rolls eyes*, you are just regurgitating the same progressive liberal stereotype of immigrants. Certainly there is nothing new in what I'm saying, but I think in these dark times of global rising racial profiling and the rise of the extreme right it's critically important that we do remember these truths.
I've worked in retail the past 10+ years of my life and my experiences there are almost universally that the hardest working people I have ever known have been immigrants. Willing to work long hours, and working hard! And usually proud of their work. Sadly our society takes advantage of this by paying them almost criminally low pay (sometimes actually criminally low if they are paid under the table, not something I've had personal experience with but I know it happens). And breaking labour laws, asking them to work overtime without pay, forcing them to work excess hours etc. And not only is the idea that "they are taking our jobs" not the answer, what you have heard about them doing the jobs that "white people" don't want to do is in my experience very true. If you want to see who are taking your jobs see the big corporations who have shipped all the jobs overseas. It's not the immigrants who have stolen your jobs its the CEOs who have shipped them overseas. When I worked in management in Retail I actually learned to be cautious about hiring "white people", which you may think is discrimination in its own right and perhaps it is but it was not without reason. I had several examples of hiring a native born Caucasian employee (though they tended to be among the minority of applicants to begin with) only to find that they were not willing to actually work hard at the job, didn't want to get their hands dirty. And I'm not talking about exploitative labour, I'm just talking about putting in a good 40 odd hours a week of hard but reasonable retail work (cleaning, serving, stocking, lifting, sweeping, moping, ordering, selling, and more etc it's exhausting work). Again none of this is to discriminate, I know there are PLENTY of native born citizens who are more than willing to work very hard I am one of them, but just to fight the obviously false image of the "lazy" immigrant taking our jobs. My experience is the very opposite.
And besides all of that many of the nicest people I have met my entire life have been immigrants. You the know the type of person who always has a smile on their face and somehow manages to see the glass 1/2 full even when the ship is sinking? I kind of hate that type because I'm not that lol 
But in all seriousness I have met more of these types among my fellow immigrant friends than I have almost anywhere else consistently.
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I have often been called an Immigrant by those who think because I am Asian, I must be fresh off the boat. The thing is, though part of my family is indeed Japanese (who gave us three generations in Hawaii) the other part of me is Hawaiian Native, and that goes back... well hundreds of years, considering that my ancestors were Pacific Islanders who came to and settled in Hawaii. Pacific Islanders are not Native Americans, but Hawaiians, who became apart of the United States when Americans took it over (Jan. 17, 1893), and made it a State (August 21, 1959) were there long, long before the European explorer, Captain Cook showed up. I was born in San Francisco, so yeah, I am not quite fresh off the boat.
Filipinos were the earliest Asians to cross the Pacific Ocean for North America with the Manila Galleon Trade, which prospered between Mexico and the Philippines from 1565 to 1815. During the eighteenth century, sailors, stowaways, and domestic workers jumped ship in New Orleans, Louisiana, settling there and migrating westward to settle in territory now occupied by the states of California, Texas, and New Mexico.
I have said this before as well. Chinese looking for gold in the great California gold Rush in 1849. Later were snatched up from China to help build the Railroads. If you consider the generations from that time period, in the 1800's that's an awfully long time.
Okay, they Didn't come on the Mayflower, but its been (2016-1849= )157 years and several generations since they were considered FOBs and yet, so many white Americans still think most Asians are, Fresh off the boat. I am not even sure why that is.
There is also this consideration. The Inuit, (aka Eskimo) are of Asian decent. Just look at their faces!
Tell me she is NOT of Asian decent!! Their ancestors made the long trip from (probably) Mongolia across the Ancient Land bridge to what is present day Alaska. There is the belief that some American Indian tribes also may have made that crossing from Asia to the American territory. If that's true, are you going to call them Fresh off the Boat as well? Certainly not.
Its true it did take longer, for other Asian groups to come to America, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Koreans, Malaysians, Indonesians, Singaporeans, Thai people, Hmong,
Mongolians, people of Myanmar, Pakistanis, Indians, Tibetans, Taiwanese, Cambodians, and many, many more. (http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&zid=3ac4b32c444028ca622a1c88bb370c70&p=UHIC%3AWHIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ2131700030&source=Bookmark&u=rock77357&jsid=6cb153ae61a881b6a7a09c9d8dea14ec)
But not everyone is a recent Immigrant, and I wish people would not stereotype Asians as always recent visitors to the United States.
