Library Research Notes #42
Immigration and Collective Forgetting
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Hello again and Happy Autumn! Although it is still in the high 80s here, we are getting near the really good weather so things are looking up. Middle Tennessee (and Northern Alabama) has the most beautiful Autumn season, so the next 3 months are truly the best time to be here, for the weather. Now human rights, on the other hand... I think you know enough about that from my previous posts.
Vote
I’m still going to stress, though, in case you didn’t read previous newsletters, the trigger ban that went into effect in August, in Tennessee, is a full ban on abortion, from fertilization, with ZERO exceptions. Republicans are trying to spin the affirmative defense as an ‘exception for the life of the mother (read: pregnant person)” but they are incorrect. If a doctor saves a patient’s life, who is having a pregnancy that is not viable or, even worse, life-threatening, they will be arrested and then have to defend their case in court. The fact that they probably won’t be convicted of the crime does not erase the fear that doctors are facing when making the choice between saving the life of a patient and potentially being arrested and losing their license to practice medicine. But this is how the conservatives do business, right? Strike fear in the hearts of those who are trying to do good in the world so that they will fall in line behind the authoritarian state that republicans apparently want to see in the United States.
So, yeah - you already know most of this, but I’m going to write about it every chance I get so as not to lose sight of what is happening in our supposedly free country. Please please please vote in November. I cannot stress enough how important this mid-term election is and if you aren’t registered or aren’t sure if you are, please check here (Democracy Works) to see what you can do to ensure that you will be able to vote in the general election.
Iran
Also - heads up - there is a revolution in Iran, triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who perished from wounds inflicted by the morality police, simply because she was not wearing a hijab properly. As a woman in the United States, fighting for my own bodily autonomy rights, I would be remiss if I did not highlight this fight for bodily autonomy in Iran. Twitter has the most information, as per usual, so please follow #OpIran and/or #MahsaAmini for the latest updates. And boost what you can, since our national news media isn’t quite as on top of this story as they should be. Anonymous is ON IT as far as hacking the network so that the Iranian people will have access to tell their stories to the world, but we can do a small part to get the word out as well.
Meanwhile, the Iranian President declined a scheduled interview with Christiane Amanpour after she refused to wear a hijab (cnn.com). Just remember, these men are no different from the fundamentalist “Christians” who are trying to remove the separation of church and state and gain full control of the United States government. Fundamentalism is the bane of any organized religion and it always creates a patriarchal hierarchy that oppresses the majority of people, including men without power. If we don’t pull together, we will all lose.
Puerto Rico
Climate change is real. If no other proof is available, the fact that hurricanes keep getting more and more deadly each year is a pretty good indicator. This time around, it was Hurricane Fiona that hit Puerto Rico just two days before the 1 year anniversary of Hurricane Maria. Here is a good resource for how to help with disaster relief, from PBS News Hour (pbs.org). Unless we do something really tangible, worldwide, to reverse the effects of climate change, these disasters are going to continue to occur and become more dangerous with each passing year. Please give, if you can, and keep the people of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Islands in your thoughts as we continue through the hurricane season.
Collective forgetting
Continuing from the last newsletter, an event occurred last week that was troubling and sad but fits perfectly into the series discussing historical memory and collective forgetting.
Background
On 14 September 2022, a group of migrants were flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. The Governor of Florida, Ronald Dion Desantis, took credit for this stunt, claiming that it was “part of the state's relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations” (reuters.com). I would think that anyone with the tiniest bit of empathy and/or humanity would see that this was disgusting. The governor is a horrible person and I hope that he loses his seat to Charlie Crist in November (please VOTE Floridians!)
The people of Martha’s Vineyard, although surprised to see the migrants land as they were given no notice (unsuprisingly), banded together to assist with food, water, shelter, and a plan to get the migrants to where they needed to be. People seeking asylum in the United States go through a different process than refugees, but they come to the US for similar reasons.
According to the uscis.gov site:
Under United States law, a refugee is someone who:
Is located outside of the United States
Is of special humanitarian concern to the United States
Demonstrates that they were persecuted or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group
Is not firmly resettled in another country
Is admissible to the United States
A refugee does not include anyone who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
Asylum seekers, on the other hand:
Every year people come to the United States seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution due to:
Race
Religion
Nationality
Membership in a particular social group
Political opinion
You may only file this application if you are physically present in the United States, and you are not a U.S. citizen.
The basic difference between the two is that refugees are not already in the United States and asylum seekers come here first and then seek asylum. They flee their home countries for the same reasons. Just as people did in the early 20th century from many European countries. This is extremely relevant considering Ron DESANTIS was the person responsible for sending these asylum seekers somewhere else in the country as a political stunt. This practice of Republican Governors sending migrants to sanctuary cities to ‘own the libs’ is heartless nonsense and only proves to make the Governors look bad, as evidenced by a similar stunt pulled in the summer of 2002 by Governor Abbott (Texas) (northjersey.com).
Italy
So - with a name like Desantis, you would think that at least ONE of his great grandparents, maybe even grandparents or parents came here from Italy. Whether that was willingly or because they were fleeing persecution in their home country, Ron wouldn’t exist if they had not come here. After reading a compelling medium article written in 2018 by Megan Smolenyak, titled Meet Your Great-Great-Grandmother, Ron Desantis (medium.com) I can say that Ron should be the very LAST person discussing asylum seekers, let alone sending them across the country as a political prop.
To summarize, all of Ron’s great-great-grandparents were from Italy, but one in particular, Luigia Colucci, came here with her two daughters (one 18 and one 16) in 1917. They showed up with no paperwork, at Ellis Island, and after a medical check and a week in quarantine, they were allowed to travel by train to Pennsylvania to be reunited with Ron’s great-great-grandfather, Salvadore. They made it here, just before a 1917 immigration law went into effect that restricted Asian, Mexican, and Mediterranean immigrants from entering the United States.
So, then why, as Smolenyak mentions in her article, has Ron stated, on numerous occasions, that his Italian immigrant ancestors came to the United States legally? At the time they traveled, there were no laws barring them. They did not come here with visas, they just showed up at a port of entry and asked to be let in. This practice, by today’s standards, would be considered asylum seeking and this is what the Republicans, in 2018, criminalized (washingtonpost.com). Desantis can claim that they came in legally only because a law did not yet exist to exclude them and that last great-great-grandmother made it in right under the wire, but should that not give him empathy for those coming here now? After all, Luigia and her daughters were fleeing a country at war. This, similarly, is the reason for most refugees and asylum seekers to travel treacherous terrain to reach the United States.
Forgetting
The urge to forget, collectively, is so strong that in the United States today we have many Italian-Americans who are anti-immigration. They don’t think about the fact that they wouldn’t exist in this country if it wasn’t for immigration. And, in fact, the majority of people that live in the United States have at least one ancestor who came here from somewhere else. Unless all of your ancestors are indigenous, you are a product of immigration. This is true for many of us, but it feels much more present for Italian-Americans, considering our ancestors mostly traveled here at the turn of the 20th century.
Our timelines span less than 150 years on the North American continent, but some of us have the audacity to slam the door to the United States shut when people from other parts of the world, often fleeing violence, seek asylum or refuge. It is a travesty and we should know better, but the process of collective forgetting is powerful. It goes hand in hand with patriotism, making the United States a place where immigrants who have been here for a couple of generations can feel like they have more claim to ‘being American’ than those arriving now.
Of course, if you were born here, you certainly have the advantage of being a citizen already, but that doesn’t erase the hard work and long, arduous travel of your ancestors, many of whom didn’t even know if they would be able to stay here once they arrived. Honoring those ancestors requires us to treat all of the current asylum and refuge seekers with care and compassion. It certainly does not mean using these human beings as pawns in a political stunt. Shame on Ron Desantis and Greg Abbott for playing this game with people’s lives.
Thankfully, the residents of Martha’s Vineyard, New York City, or any other sanctuary city that the migrants end up in, will take care of them and see that they have what they need to move forward with the process of settling here. There are still good people in this country, they just aren’t the Governors of Florida or Texas. The answer to that is, of course, to get out the vote in November and elect Charlie Crist in Florida and Beto O’Rourke in Texas, and show these Republicans that their horrible ways are no longer what the constituents of these two States seek in their leaders. We will be trying for the same here in Tennessee by electing Dr. Jason Martin to unseat Governor Bill Lee. Everything truly does come back around to the vote.
More stats
If you are looking for some statistics on current and historical immigration to the United States, check out this article on migrationpolicy.org that details some of these stats from the 2022 US Census.
Pewresearch.org also has a great article discussing some key findings pertaining to US immigration.
Good News from the Stacks
You made it to the good news! Thank you for reading this far…
Here’s Why I’m Celebrating Banned Books Week by President Barack Obama (barackobama.medium.com)
How independent bookstores help in the fight against book banning and why it matters (npr.org)
Larger-than-life banned books march through Doylestown, and other ways Bucks County is honoring Banned Books Week 2022 (whyy.org)
It's Banned Books Week, And Chances Are, Your Favorite Book Is On This List Of Books That Have Been Banned For Absolutely Absurd Reasons (buzzfeed.com)
Something humorous
This guy is the absolute EPITOME of “try hard”. ick. Vote Crist for Florida 2022!
Meanwhile - on the Crist site…
Thank you for reading the Library Research Notes Newsletter! Now it’s YOUR turn. Please share your thoughts along with any other questions or suggestions for future research, in the comments. I look forward to lively discourse.