This Land Is Our Land

by Suketu Mehta

  “What’s so wrong with wanting to put up a fence”: Andrew Kaczynski, “Carl Higbie, Who Works at Pro-Trump Group, Says Racist Comments Were ‘Statistical Observation,’ ‘Out of Context.’” CNN (May 2, 2018). https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/politics/kfile-carl-higbie-says-comments-out-of-context/index.html.

  In February 2018, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) removed the phrase “nation of immigrants” from its mission statement: Richard Gonzales, “America No Longer a ‘Nation of Immigrants,’ USCIS Says.” NPR (February 22, 2018). https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/22/588097749/america-no-longer-a-nation-of-immigrants-uscis-says.

  Two Indian engineers were having beers on the porch: John Eligon, Alan Blinder, and Nida Najar, “Hate Crime Is Feared as 2 Indian Engineers Are Shot in Kansas.” New York Times (February 24, 2017). https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/world/asia/kansas-attack-possible-hate-crime-srinivas-kuchibhotla.html?module=inline.

  “A majority of the 2017 murders were committed by right-wing extremists”: Anti-Defamation League, “ADL Report: White Supremacist Murders More Than Doubled in 2017” (January 17, 2018). https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-report-white-supremacist-murders-more-than-doubled-in-2017.

  calculated the ancestries of all 422 people charged with terrorism in America since 2001: Lyman Stone, “I Calculated Ethnic Groups’ Rates of U.S. Terrorism. Here Are the Results.” Federalist (November 15, 2017). http://thefederalist.com/2017/11/15/calculated-ethnic-groups-rates-u-s-terrorism-results/.

  13. THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE MOB AND CAPITAL

  In the last three decades, there was zero income growth in the bottom 50 percent: Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, “World Inequality Report 2018—Executive Summary.” World Inequality Lab (December 14, 2017), p. 12. https://wir2018.wid.world/files/download/wir2018-summary-english.pdf. See also Howard R. Gold, “Never Mind the 1 Percent. Let’s Talk About the 0.01%.” Chicago Booth Review (2017). http://review.chicagobooth.edu/economics/2017/article/never-mind-1-percent-lets-talk-about-001-percent.

  The bottom 40 percent of Americans not only don’t have any wealth to speak of: Christopher Ingraham, “The Richest 1 Percent Now Owns More of the Country’s Wealth Than at Any Time in the Past 50 Years.” Washington Post (December 6, 2017). https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/06/the-richest-1-percent-now-owns-more-of-the-countrys-wealth-than-at-any-time-in-the-past-50-years/.

  Warren housed 15,000 souls in 1940 and is now down to 9,478: All figures on population, poverty, and demographics from the United States Census Bureau, “Community Facts. Warren City, Pennsylvania.” https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/cf/1.0/en/place/Warren city, Pennsylvania/POVERTY.

  Warren County went for Trump en masse: Pennsylvania Department of State, “2016 Election Returns by County” (last accessed December 5, 2018). https://www.electionreturns.pa.gov/General/CountyResults?countyName=WARREN&ElectionID=54&ElectionType=G&IsActive=0.

  the eight richest individuals on earth, all men, own more than does half the planet: Deborah Hardoon, “An Economy for the 99%.” Oxfam (January 2017). https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/bp-economy-for-99-percent-160117-en.pdf.

  There are 1,542 billionaires today, whose fortunes rose by a fifth in 2017: Rupert Neate, “World’s Witnessing a New Gilded Age as Billionaires’ Wealth Swells to $6tn.” Guardian (October 26, 2017). https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/26/worlds-witnessing-a-new-gilded-age-as-billionaires-wealth-swells-to-6tn.

  Only 20 to 30 percent of the children of the poorest 10 percent go to college: Gregor Aisch, Larry Buchanan, Amanda Cox, and Kevin Quealy, “Some Colleges Have More Students from the Top 1 Percent Than the Bottom 60. Find Yours.” New York Times (January 18, 2017). https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html.

  460 people will bequeath $2.1 trillion to their heirs over the next twenty years: UBS/PWS, Are Billionaires Feeling the Pressure? Billionaires Report 2016 (last accessed December 5, 2018). https://www.ubs.com/global/en/wealth-management/uhnw/billionaires-report/new-value/feeling-the-pressure.html.

  “alliance between mob and capital”: Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (Berlin: Schocken Books, 1951), p. 147.

  14. THE REFUGEE AS PARIAH

  After an epic journey, a Congolese mother and her six-year-old daughter: Editorial Board, “Gratuitous Cruelty by Homeland Security: Separating a 7-Year-Old from Her Mother.” Washington Post (March 4, 2018). https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/gratuitous-cruelty-by-homeland-security-separating-a-7-year-old-from-her-mother/2018/03/04/98fae4f0-1bff-11e8-ae5a-16e60e4605f3_story.html.

  “screaming and crying, pleading with guards not to take her away”: Merrit Kennedy, “ACLU Sues ICE for Allegedly Separating ‘Hundreds’ of Migrant Families.” NPR (March 9, 2018). https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/09/592374637/aclu-sues-ice-for-allegedly-separating-hundreds-of-migrant-families.

  The refugee … brings with him the specter of chaos and lawlessness: Brad Evans and Zygmunt Bauman, “The Refugee Crisis Is Humanity’s Crisis.” New York Times (May 2, 2016). https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/opinion/the-refugee-crisis-is-humanitys-crisis.html.

  today, 10 million people are officially stateless: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Ending Statelessness.” UNHCR Refugee Agency (last accessed December 5, 2018). https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/stateless-people.html.

  It was only in the early twentieth century that the modern, convoluted superstructure of passports: Giulia Pines, “The Contentious History of the Passport.” National Geographic (May 16, 2017). https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/features/a-history-of-the-passport/.

  The Orbán government was urging its citizens to vote in a referendum: Patrick Kingsley, “Hungary’s Refugee Referendum Not Valid After Voters Stay Away.” Guardian (October 2, 2016). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/02/hungarian-vote-on-refugees-will-not-take-place-suggest-first-poll-results.

  “All the terrorists are basically migrants”: Matthew Kaminski, “‘All the Terrorists Are Migrants.’ Viktor Orbán on How to Protect Europe from Terror, Save Schengen, and Get Along with Putin’s Russia.” Politico (November 23, 2015). https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-interview-terrorists-migrants-eu-russia-putin-borders-schengen/.

  “Every single migrant poses a public security and terror risk”: Cynthia Kroet, “Viktor Orbán: Migrants Are ‘a Poison.’” Politico (July 27, 2016). https://www.politico.eu/article/viktor-orban-migrants-are-a-poison-hungarian-prime-minister-europe-refugee-crisis/.

  Denmark has gone one step further: Madeleine Ngo, “‘No Ghettos in 2030’: Denmark’s Controversial Plan to Get Rid of Immigrant Neighborhoods.” Vox (July 3, 2018). https://www.vox.com/world/2018/7/3/17525960/denmark-children-immigrant-muslim-danish-ghetto.

  The initiative includes twenty-two separate measures: Ellen Barry and Martin Selsoe Sorensen, “In Denmark, Harsh New Laws for Immigrant ‘Ghettos.’” New York Times (July 1, 2018). https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/01/world/europe/denmark-immigrant-ghettos.html.

  what the Danes call a “meatball war”: Dan Bilefsky, “Denmark’s New Front in Debate over Immigrants: Children’s Lunches.” New York Times (January 20, 2016). https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/world/europe/randers-denmark-pork.html.

  “a danger to all of us”: Martin Selsoe Sorensen, “Denmark Minister Calls Fasting Muslims ‘a Danger’ in Ramadan.” New York Times (May 22, 2018). https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/world/europe/denmark-muslims-ramadan.html.

  Danish parliament passed a law under which newly arrived refugees: Emma Henderson, “Refugee Crisis: Denmark Government Defends Plan to Strip Refugees’ Valuables ‘to Pay for Their Stay.’” Independent (December 22, 2015). https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-crisis-denmark-government-defends-plan-to-strip-refugees-valuables-to-pay-for-their-stay-a6782916.htm
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  In 2006, the Dutch government tried to make itself unattractive: “Film Exposes Immigrants to Dutch Liberalism.” Associated Press (March 16, 2006). http://www.nbcnews.com/id/11842116/ns/world_news-europe/t/film-exposes-immigrants-dutch-liberalism.

  Gatineau, Quebec, published a “statement of values”: Ingrid Peritz, “Gatineau’s Values Guide for Immigrants Stirs Controversy.” Globe and Mail (December 4, 2011). https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/gatineaus-values-guide-for-immigrants-stirs-controversy/article4236425/.

  “We have never believed him [the black man] to be the equal of the white man”: Bob Herbert, “The Blight That Is Still with Us.” New York Times (January 22, 2008). https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/opinion/22herbert.html.

  by 2015, the year Sweden took in a record number of asylum seekers: “Reality Check: Is Malmo the ‘Rape Capital’ of Europe?” BBC News (February 24, 2017). https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39056786.

  “If a rape must be used as the metaphor of the Indo-British connection”: Salman Rushdie, “Outside the Whale.” Granta (March 1, 1984). https://granta.com/outside-the-whale/.

  Nobody asked the Aboriginals if Britain could dump its wretched refuse: Figures in this paragraph drawn from a variety of sources, including Tom Lawson, The Last Man: A British Genocide in Tasmania (London: I.B. and Tauris, 2014), p. 22; and Lulu Morris, “The Last Indigenous Tasmanian.” National Geographic (May 8, 2017). https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/australia/the-last-indigenous-tasmanian.aspx.

  half of Australians are immigrants or their children: Elle Hunt, “Barely Half of Population Born in Australia to Australian-Born Parents.” Guardian (June 27, 2017). https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jun/27/australia-reaches-tipping-point-with-quarter-of-population-born-overseas.

  In March 2017, he offered emergency visas to white South African farmers: Russell Goldman, “Australian Official Calls for Emergency Visas for White South African Farmers.” New York Times (March 15, 2018). https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/world/australia/south-africa-white-farmers-peter-dutton.html.

  a human version of the famous New York garbage scow: Alex Pasternack, “The Most Watched Load of Garbage in the Memory of Man.” Vice (May 13, 2013). https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nzzppg/the-mobro-4000.

  15. JAIKISAN HEIGHTS

  “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americans”: “Roosevelt Bars the Hyphenated,” New York Times (October 13, 1915). https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/10/13/105042745.pdf.

  Thirty-eight percent of New York’s population is foreign-born: Department of City Planning, “NYC’s Foreign Born, 2000–2015” (March 2017). https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/about/dcp-priorities/data-expertise/nyc-foreign-born-info-brief.pdf?r=1.

  crime rates have fallen to what they were in the 1950s: Ray Suarez, “How Crime Rates in New York City Reached Record Lows.” NPR (December 30, 2017). https://www.npr.org/2017/12/30/574800001/how-crime-rates-in-new-york-city-reached-record-lows.

  The immigration divide is also an urban-rural divide: Maria Sachetti and Emily Guskin, “In Rural America, Fewer Immigrants and Less Tolerance.” Washington Post (June 17, 2017). https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-rural-america-fewer-immigrants-and-less-tolerance/2017/06/16/7b448454-4d1d-11e7-bc1b-fddbd8359dee_story.html.

  “It’s insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community”: Peter Finn, “Peter King, IRA Supporter and Enthusiastic Counter-Terrorism Advocate.” Washington Post (March 5, 2011). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/04/AR2011030406635.html.

  “We’ve come here to Governors Island”: Michael Bloomberg, “Defending Religious Tolerance: Remarks on the Mosque Near Ground Zero.” Huffington Post (August 3, 2010). https://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-bloomberg/mayor-bloomberg-on-the-ne_b_669338.html.

  A few years ago, representatives of the giant warehouse shopping club Costco: Suketu Mehta, “The Great Awakening,” New York Times (June 19, 2005). https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/nyregion/thecity/the-great-awakening.html.

  16. JOBS, CRIME, AND CULTURE: THE THREATS THAT AREN’T

  In 2006, Mayor Bloomberg, then a Republican, testified in the Senate: Michael Bloomberg, “Mayor Bloomberg Testifies Before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Field Hearing on Federal Immigration Legislation.” New York City, Office of the Mayor (July 5, 2006). https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/230-06/mayor-bloomberg-testifies-before-u-s-senate-judiciary-committee-field-hearing-federal.

  Then there’s George Borjas: Jennifer Rubin, “What the Anti-Immigrant Movement Really Believes.” Washington Post (May 9, 2013). https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/05/09/what-the-anti-immigrant-movement-really-believes/.

  In 2015, Borjas published a study claiming that the arrival of the “Marielitos”: George J. Borjas, “The Wage Impact of the Marielitos: A Reappraisal.” ILR Review 7, no. 5 (September 2015). https://www.nber.org/papers/w21588.

  But later analysis showed that Borjas’s study was, at the very least, deeply flawed: Giovanni Peri and Vasil Yasenov, “The Labor Market Effects of a Refugee Wave: Applying the Synthetic Control Method to the Mariel Boatlift.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper no. 21801 (December 2015, revised June 2017). https://www.nber.org/papers/w21801.

  “In general Özden found that migrants”: Ruchir Sharma, The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of Change in the Post-Crisis World (New York: W. W. Norton, 2016), p. 51.

  “he [Clemens] and his co-authors, through study of all the available economic literature”: Shaun Raviv, “If People Could Immigrate Anywhere, Would Poverty Be Eliminated?” Atlantic (April 26, 2013). https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/if-people-could-immigrate-anywhere-would-poverty-be-eliminated/275332/.

  Close to half of American farmworkers are here illegally: Tamar Haspel, “Illegal Immigrants Help Fuel U.S. Farms. Does Affordable Produce Depend on Them?” Washington Post (March 17, 2017). https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/in-an-immigration-crackdown-who-will-pick-our-produce/2017/03/17/cc1c6df4-0a5d-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html.

  In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act: Rachel Kleinfeld, “Wanna Cut Crime? Let in More Immigrants, Legal and Illegal.” Newsweek (September 7, 2017). https://www.newsweek.com/wanna-cut-crime-let-more-immigrants-legal-and-illegal-661183.

  four out of eight of Maryland’s crab-picking businesses closed in 2018: Ryan Marshall, “Shortage of Blue Crab Pickers Forces Maryland Seafood Shops to Shut Down.” Delmarva Now (May 4, 2018). https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/money/2018/05/04/shortage-maryland-blue-crab-pickers-causes-seafood-shops-shutdown-h-2-b-visa-lottery/577930002/.

  “The native-born criminal conviction rate was thus 2.4 times as high”: Alex Nowrasteh, “Criminal Conviction Rates in Texas in 2016.” Cato Institute (April 23, 2018). https://www.cato.org/blog/criminal-conviction-rates-texas-2016.

  A 2018 study in the journal Criminology: Christopher Ingraham, “Two Charts Demolish the Notion That Immigrants Here Illegally Commit More Crime.” Washington Post (June 19, 2018). https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/19/two-charts-demolish-the-notion-that-immigrants-here-illegally-commit-more-crime/.

  According to a 2018 Yale survey: Mohammad M. Fazel-Zarandi, Jonathan S. Feinstein, and Edward H. Kaplan, “The Number of Undocumented Immigrants in the United States: Estimates Based on Demographic Modeling with Data from 1990 to 2016.” PLOS ONE (September 21, 2018). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0201193.

  “The vast majority of past immigrants changed their values”: Dennis Prager, “Immigrants Change Cultures—Whether New Yorkers in Florida or Latinos in America.” Townhall (July 17, 2018). https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2018/07/17/immigrants-change-cultures—whether-new-yorkers-in-florida-or-latinos-in-america-n2500981.

  In 2015, the federal government … asked: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The Integration o
f Immigrants into American Society (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2015), p. 6. https://doi.org/10.17226/21746.

  According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 95 percent of immigrants: Jeffrey M. Jones, “Most in U.S. Say It’s Essential That Immigrants Learn English.” Gallup (August 9, 2013). https://news.gallup.com/poll/163895/say-essential-immigrants-learn-english.aspx.

  Only 41 percent of third-generation Mexican American children: Jens Manuel Krogstad and Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, “A Majority of English-Speaking Hispanics in the U.S. Are Bilingual.” Pew Research Center (March 24, 2015). http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/03/24/a-majority-of-english-speaking-hispanics-in-the-u-s-are-bilingual/.

  “Cities and neighborhoods with greater concentrations of immigrants”: Julia Preston, “Newest Immigrants Assimilating as Fast as Previous Ones, Report Says.” New York Times (September 21, 2015). https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/us/newest-immigrants-assimilating-as-well-as-past-ones-report-says.html.

  86 percent of first-generation immigrant males participate in the labor force: “Report Finds Immigrants Come to Resemble Native-Born Americans over Time, But Integration Not Always Linked to Greater Well-Being for Immigrants.” National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (September 21, 2015). http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=21746.

  The total annual cost to all levels of government is $57 billion: Julia Preston, “Immigrants Aren’t Taking Americans’ Jobs, New Study Finds.” New York Times (September 21, 2016). https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/us/immigrants-arent-taking-americans-jobs-new-study-finds.html.

  “Second generation children of immigrants from Mexico and Central America”: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The Integration of Immigrants into American Society (Washington, DC: National Academies Press. 2015), p. 6. https://doi.org/10.17226/21746.