Paved With Lies, Not Gold

How the American Immigrant Story is a testament to survivorship bias

Over the past decade, there hasn’t been a hot-button issue quite like the issue of immigration. Debates and arguments over this issue have escalated greatly since Trump regained control over the White House. His overcompensation in policy has, in turn, resulted in widespread riots and protests that now rage across the nation. At the center of the opposition to Trump is the narrative of the immigrant story. This almost mythological tale in the American consciousness describes the tale of someone who came to the US with nothing and carved out a success story through hard work and dedication. It’s a shame that such a tale is largely embellished. In this article, I will dive into the true history of immigration in America. A story of brutal working conditions and exploitation. A history that is still going on to this day.

We’ve all heard the tale; it’s as old as the country itself. The self-made immigrant coming over with nothing but a pocket full of change and the clothes on their back to make a better life in the USA. But how often was this the case? History tells us, not often. Outside a few select instances where immigrant arrivals came from well-off origins, most immigrants lived unremarkable but hard lives. Starting with the large waves of Irish immigrants coming as a result of the potato famine, many immigrants arrived impoverished and desperate. During this period, many Irish immigrants found work building the canals, railroads, and working in mines. In doing so, they were disproportionately more likely to die or be crippled on the job. The Erie Canal, for example, is believed to have cost one life for every 6 ft of canal. In a time before unions, OSHA, and basic labor regulations or documentation, immigrant workers were functionally invisible to the law. And those who spoke out were often punished.

We like to think this wave of nativist sentiments is a product of the Trump era, but it’s been a fact of life in America since the beginning. The ironic truth is that American immigration today is the most inclusive it’s ever been. Before the 1950s, the US government enforced racial and ethnic quotas to keep the US ethnically homogenous despite immigration. Non-Anglo immigrants were given limited spots of entry, and arrival didn’t guarantee residency. These quotas were designed to ensure that America remained a predominantly Anglo-Protestant nation. For example, Italians were restricted to 100k entries a year; this same number represented the permitted immigrants for all Asian arrivals. You heard that right, all Asians. Meaning all of Korea, Japan, and the Philippines were fighting over these same slots. Except for the Chinese, who in 1879 were barred from immigrating entirely after large waves went to California for the gold rush. These Chinese immigrants would slave away to build much of the early infrastructure on the West Coast. Suffering much the same way as the Irish did.

Another industry where countless immigrants lost their lives was mining. Thousands of immigrants perished in coal and iron mines feeding the Industrial Revolution. Most will never be known by name. They worked for less than native born Americans did. Lived in poorer conditions, and were often the victim of extortionist practices like “company stores” where employees would be paid in money only redeemable at stores owned by their employer. This kept them trapped in perpetual servitude to their employer without any hope of freedom. Debt slavery in everything but name. Some of these practices continued even into the 20th century. We can see the ghosts of this exploitation throughout every ghost town in Appalachia. Entire communities trapped in servitude to the coal industry. This wasn’t an accident, it was wholly by design of the coal companies. Today, it’s not coal miners. It’s farmhands and construction workers. Both are told they are one phone call away from immigration if they step out of line. And so they work until they break because they have no other choice.

As the 19th century marched on, the rural immigrant became the urban immigrant. These immigrants are the ones who built places like Little Italy. These urban immigrants didn’t arrive at golden streets and welcome opportunity. They arrived in impoverished ghettos and no minimum wage protections. Many of you might be familiar with the works of Upton Sinclair. The people you see in the slums captured in The Jungle are of whom I speak. These people lived destitute lives in slums, cramped sometimes up to 12 people in one room. They had some of the highest rates of mortality in the developed world at the time. Poverty, disease, and violence dominated their daily lives. Ethnic ghettos aren’t new in America. So we shouldn’t be disappointed that they exist. We should be disappointed that we haven’t created a way to stop them yet.

It would take decades, if not centuries, for many of these ethnic groups to get the recognition and acceptance they deserved. Even as JFK took office as president, people were saying there was no room in America for an Irish Catholic in the Oval Office. But even becoming an established immigrant community wasn’t a guarantee of safety. Germans, for example, were considered de facto WASPs for almost a century. In the Midwest, they made up a dominant portion of the population and held massive influence. But the consequences of both world wars saw the German identity completely crushed in America. Whole ethnic enclaves where people were native German speakers up until the 20th century disappeared in a matter of two decades. In this way, it’s not so different from the Latino communities today that are coming under increasing pressure due to illegal immigration. Or across the pond in Britain, where Indian and Pakistani families who have been in the UK since before either country gained its independence, coming under fire because of the misbehavior of the new arrivals.

As we wrap up this brief article, you might be asking, “What was the point of this article?” What I am trying to achieve with this article is to show that immigration in America isn’t this glorious tale of opportunity and prosperity. It’s a story of exploitation and poverty, of struggle and pain. And the real tragedy is that we blame the immigrants for it. But the immigrants don’t spin this lie. The lie was created by those in power. Those who run our country, those who own the businesses. Because just like the Robber Barons of the past, these individuals benefit financially from exploiting gullible immigrants. They hold up the immigrant story like a carrot on a stick, so people risk it all to come here. Then they arrive here to work jobs so demeaning for wages so low that Americans don’t want to do them. All so they can live in moderately passable living conditions that are still far below what the average American lives in. And when the Americans complain because it hurts the job market, they use the immigrants as scapegoats. That they are victims of racism. They are not. They are slaves by another name.

I am not against immigration because I want a white, English-speaking America. I am against immigration because it is used to exploit and hurt workers, both foreign and domestic. We should call this mass migration scheme what it is. Flooding the market with cheap labor. The liberal would beg us to keep those who are here, legal or not. But doing so would only serve to be a slap on the wrist to those who proliferate these practices for their own benefit. As harsh as it seems, and hard as it is to watch. The system must come to a complete stop. We cannot fix it without first completely dismantling it from the beginning. Immigration is good when we are choosy and take only the best and brightest. It is not good when it becomes an avenue for billionaires to sideline hard-working Americans in favor of cheap foreign labor who can’t afford to complain. Do I think Trump is going about it wrong? Yes. But the problem has been allowed to proliferate too long. So drastic times call for drastic measures. I pray for the immigrants because I know they have been lied to. The lie being that they had a place in the American Dream. They never did; their blood and sweat are merely the fuel for someone else’s dream.