And Where are YOU From?

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the fourth Friday this past June, two events happened simultaneously – one of those mysterious moments of synchronicity.

President Obama issued an Executive Order giving young adults brought to this country as children a chance to temporarily remain here. Technically these young adults are classified as undocumented immigrants and are subject to deportation because they do not fulfill the prerequisites for permanent visas. The stipulations of the Executive Order are: no criminal record, a high school diploma or in school, service in the armed forces, and under age 30. Young adults who qualify now can obtain temporary work permits. Obama’s action surprised most of Washington, a city not noted for keeping secrets.

On the same day, Time magazine’s cover story, titled “We Are Americans,” was published. It was a story that had been researched for a year. It detailed stories of the nation’s undocumented immigrants who had come here as children. Jose Antonio Vargas, author of the article, is a 31 year old who has worked as a journalist for over a decade, including a staff position with the Washington Post. He was sent to this country from the Philippines when he was twelve to live with his grandparents. He is the only one of his large extended family who does not have papers.

Tired of hiding his personal history, skirting the edges, and worrying daily about being deported, he chose to come out in a very public way in an essay in Atlantic a year ago. Since then, he has traveled across much of the country speaking publicly and collecting stories from other young adults who live as shadow Americans. The article in Time is powerful – and well worth reading.

All of this discussion of the complex issues of immigration has caused me to reflect on my own history as the granddaughter of immigrants. And on several life-transforming experiences that changed the course of my life.

I grew up in an isolated Midwestern rural community among Catholic and Protestant Scandinavian or German descendents. There were no Asians living in my town. No African-Americans – or Africans. No Jewish people. And no atheists, at least no one who declared themselves as such. When I graduated from college, a place with similar demographics, I moved half-way across the country to Washington DC to work at the National Institutes of Health. My cultural immersion in this international city began there.

Then I moved back to the Midwest with the intention of being the best traditional wife I could be. But I did the math and realized I would be in my mid-forties when my second child left home. What was I then to do with the other half of my adult life? I applied and was accepted into graduate school in one of the biochemistry departments at the University of Minnesota - pretty oblivious to the emerging women’s movement that was challenging traditional women’s roles.

But I had changed during the five years I was at home as that stay-at-home Mom with two small children. I discovered I was more interested in my fellow graduate students’ different cultural backgrounds than in the research I was doing in the lab. My particular lab had persons from South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. I sorted out my fascination with their lives and realized what it said about me. I transferred into the psychology department, where I completed my doctorate – and spend the next 35 years as a therapist in private practice. No more lipid research for me!

The third set transformational experiences in my life were twenty-five years of international travel. Growing up, I never expected to travel anywhere. Moving to Washington DC meant exploration  up and down the East coast. Later, with our children and camping gear, we ranged across much of the United States and Canada. But going beyond those trips to visit foreign places still seemed unimaginable.

My first trip “across the pond” to England and Scotland opened a wide doorway in my life. I ranged further – and for the first time saw my country through the eyes of non-Americans. Why we Americans are envied and admired – and hated. I explored places I once thought of as exotic, conversed with people, ate their food, and visited in their homes. When I returned home after every journey, I returned as a different person.

My own immigrant ancestors? My grandfather, Pedar, immigrated in his mid-twenties from Denmark and settled in northern Minnesota in the midst of other Danish immigrants. There he met my grandmother, Bodil Christine, who had come from Denmark at about the same time as he did – the teen-age daughter of Danish farmers. And I have no idea about their status in this country – as permanent residents or citizens.

I know little about the background of my maternal family – other than having a Scots-Irish great-grandmother who came to the United States as a teenager. Her lineage meant that her ancestors had been induced or coerced to move from Protestant Scotland to the northern part of Ireland, to wrest it away from Catholicism. A part of the historical roots of the Troubles, twentieth century Ireland’s bloody warring.

My husband’s family were all German – with qualifications. His maternal ancestors left Germany to escape religious persecution and settled in White Russia for several generations. We have wondered if that makes my husband half-Russian – a fact we would prefer the issuers of visas to some foreign countries never discover, especially since he has traveled twice to Russia.

All of this history has left me wondering where have I come from. Aren’t we all immigrants? If you believe our ancestors were Adam and Eve, human history started in a particular place from which the entire world eventually was populated. Or if you believe we evolved from humanoids, ape-like creatures, who learned to walk upright somewhere in Africa, the conclusion is the same.

Aren’t we all immigrants? And what would this world be if such immigration never occurred and we remained huddled in a small area in Africa? And the rest of the Earth remained people –free.

Now  ~  Where are YOU from?