George J. Borjas (ed.), Mexican Immigration To The United States

摘要

As the world's leading receiver nation of immigrants, the United States has remained ambivalent at best and openly hostile at worst to its newcomers for all of its history. One of the most vocal of the early nativists was Benjamin Franklin. He opposed the importation of 'blacks and tawneys' because they undermined the more 'lovely whites and reds'. At the same time, he fretted about the growing German population of Pennsylvania 'who will never adopt our language or customs any more than they can acquire our complexion' (Jon Gjerde, Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History, Boston, 1998, pp. 72-3). These feelings expressed by one of the most beloved founding fathers resound through the continuing national debate regarding Mexican immigration to the United States.