Is it accurate to call the United States “a nation of immigrants”?
First of all, it is not true that the United States has always called itself a nation of immigrants. The phrase was not used until the 1880s and it came into popular usage only 60 years ago, when the numbers and proportions of immigrants had reached their lowest point in U.S. history. The problem with the phrase is that many Americans don’t think of themselves as descendents of immigrants. Many African Americans don’t, because their ancestors did not choose to come here. Native Americans clearly do not think of themselves as immigrants. Many Hispanics of the Southwest don’t think of themselves as immigrants, because the United States conquered that territory. They didn’t cross the border; the border crossed them. Many of the Americans descended from the English who arrived in the 1600s and 1700s don’t think of their forefathers as immigrants either. So, calling the United States a nation of immigrants is a very recent development. We have to be aware of who is included and who is exclu
