Panel discusses national identity

By nature, a discussion on immigration looks not only within but also beyond a country’s borders.

At a panel discussion Thursday at the FedEx Global Education Center, four immigration experts focused on the assimilation of immigrants and explored what it means to be “American.”

“It’s not who we should let in, but rather, what we should do with those who are already here,” said panelist Noah Pickus, director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.

“The problem is that assimilation and integration are linked. While in tension, they’re linked.”

The public discussion, titled “Immigration and National Identity,” was organized by the UNC Parr Center for Ethics as an opportunity to discuss immigration, assimilation and national identity.

Pickus said immigrants are the glue for American communities that are becoming increasingly individualistic because of technology and other societal forces.

“You can run a store in New York, you can run a store in the Dominican Republic, and you can do it all by cell phone,” he said. “The sense of community is increasingly fractured, and that’s where immigrants come in.”

Pickus said Americans used to do activities together, such as bowling or going to PTA meetings, but now do things alone, such as watching television.

Sociology professor Margarita Mooney said Americans are both nostalgic and troubled by the topic of immigration.

“Most Americans are willing to accept that we are a nation of immigrants,” she said. “But Americans are troubled about immigration because they feel a social and economic change due to immigration, which leads to a hard time knowing who we are.”

UNC African and Afro-American Studies professor Timothy McMillan said the 2008 election of President Barack Obama has not ushered in a new era of racial attitudes that could affect American views on immigration.

“Many people think the election of Obama marked the post-racial period, but I think we have entered one of the most racial periods in American history,” he said.

Niklaus Steiner, director of the UNC Center for Global Initiatives, offered his personal experience of emigrating from Switzerland at the age of 5. He said the naturalization test he had to take involved questions on the Constitution and U.S. history — subjects he said he finds unnecessary to become a U.S. citizen.

“We, as citizens, want others to function well in our society, so they need to know what an ATM is, what an iPod is,” he said.

Lance Westerlund, an organizer of the event, said he predicted the health insurance reform bill would have passed sooner and would have made immigration a more widely discussed issue than it is today.

He added that people’s personal experiences shape discussions on immigration policy.

“There is an undercurrent of how we define ourselves as Americans,” Westerlund said.

Graduate student Matthew Green shared his observations from his days teaching international students.

“They have allegiances in multiple places,” he said.



Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.