A Note on Immigration - Illegal or Otherwise.

[donco6]

I'm in Boston for a conference, and walked part of the Freedom Trail today. Across from the Old South Meeting House is a memorial to the Potato Famine Irish, who came to Boston to escape starvation. Here's the text on one of the monuments:

Arriving in Boston

In 1847 alone, 37,000 Irish refugees landed in Boston on the edge of death and despair, impoverished and sick. "Native Bostonians might have been willing to send money and food to aid the starving Irish as long as they remained in Ireland," wrote historian Thomas H. O'Connor, "but they certainly didn't want them coming to America." The newcomers moved in along Boston's waterfront, packed together in damp cellars and overcrowded hovels. "Children in the Irish district," wrote Bostonian Lemual Shattuck, "seemed literally born to die."

The American Dream

Despite hostility from some Bostonians and signs of NO IRISH NEED APPLY, the Famine Irish eventually transformed themselves from impoverished refugees to hard-working successful Americans. The leadership of Boston Irish like John Boyle O'Reilly, Patrick Collins and Richard Cardinal Cushing culminated in a descendant of the famine generation, John F. Kennedy, becoming the nation's first Irish Catholic President in 1960. Today, 44 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, leading the nation in Medal of Honor winners, and excelling in literature, sports, business, medicine and entertainment.

As I read the monuments, I was struck by the parallels with our current situation regarding immigration. Or are they parallels? Am I succumbing to an emotional appeal in the face of a completely different situation, or am I truly recognizing similarities with the Irish immigration and the influx of Mexicans today?