Damn, We Like Canada and Hate Iran!

In an era of immigration battles and descending economics, it is interesting to note that our strongest positive and negative feelings, as reflected in Gallup annual World Affairs poll reported on February 11^th, haven’t changed much over the 11 years Gallup has conducted the survey. Sure North Korea and Iran have been jockeying back and forth for the bottom spot, but we have always loved Canadians! Not that Canadians have always loved us – there’s this Canadian expression that when America sneezes, Canada gets pneumonia! Except recently, with new oil shale finds in Alberta and the fact that Canadian banks never bought into the “over-borrowing is good” syndrome makes their currency look solid, and notwithstanding their long-standing “job-killing” national healthcare, their unemployment numbers have generally been 20% lower than ours in this financial crisis.

Fact is that we are a nation of extreme heterogeneity, our overall strength – we have until recently taken the best and the brightest from all over the world to build our once rosy future – and our embarrassing weakness. Slavery, civil rights riots and racially-tinged presses for immigration reform are mixed with ethnic/racial gang wars and crime syndicates to create the dark side of our “lettuce bowl” mix. But at the bottom of all this turmoil is the fact that we actually like people, even folks who are different from us, and while there is clearly prejudice here and there, we mean well and constantly fight to eliminate such unseemly bias. The other basic fact is that except for a few Native Americans, the rest of us are all products of immigration. So hating immigrants can make you squirm unless you can trace your roots to an indigenous people.

The ethnic enclaves around this country are fascinating. Los Angeles, my home, is probably the most ethnically diverse city in the nation. Not only do we have a sizable Latino community – reflecting our proximity to the border – but we have such features as a 300 square block Korea Town that is home to 120,000. We have massive Thai, Armenian, Japanese, Iranian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian and Indian communities as well, and we are easily one of the ten largest Canadian cities in North America. Los Angeles (note the ethnic name) is clearly not an ethnic-majority European ancestry city.

What does all this mean? It means we are a mutt, a mix that has literally built this nation into the most powerful on earth. Strange what our perceptions tell us, but when you dig into the numbers you discover such gems as the fact that on a per capita earnings basis, Americans who can trace their ancestry to India are the most successful ethnic group in the country! America simply doesn’t produce enough engineers, mathematicians and scientists to fill its current and anticipated needs. Picture what would happen to our Web-connected, telecommunications, bio-tech-researched and financially-driven economy if we pulled ethnic east Indians out of this country… exactly how many days would pass before we simply ground to a halt?

It means that that when we chant for immigration reform, we also have to acknowledge that we need fresh blood, new ideas, and driven workers. We need immigrants like the ones have created over a quarter of the new jobs in this country over the last decades with entrepreneurial zest. Look at the ethnic names behind Google, Intel, Yahoo, Hotmail, Sun Microsystems, YouTube, A 123 (large batteries), Black and Decker, Transtar Industries (the largest seller of transmission parts in the world) and EBay. This list could run enough to fill a large book, but the message is very clear. As you consider immigration reform, just remember that old “baby/bathwater” paradigm. One of my friends, a U.S. patent attorney named Armin Azod who emigrated from “most hated” Iran, just might be the person who loves America more than any other person I have ever met; he walks around, head held high, with such pride at being an American citizen who truly appreciates the wonder of our dynamic and all-encompassing democracy. We could use a whole lot more Americans like him!

I’m Peter Dekom, and loving who we are and what we can be – believing in our freedom and our future – is the best part of being an American.