America became the greatest country in history even as it welcomed immigrants from all over the world, so it's very safe to say that America will continue to grow great by continuing to accept immigrants from all over the world.
Here are some reasons why:
Only 2% of people in the U.S. are Native Americans, which means that 98% of people in this country are either descendants of immigrants or immigrants themselves. Our Constitution was written by immigrants and their descendants. The vast majority of people who serve in our armed forces, the vast majority of our business leaders, the vast majority of scholars and politicians and writers and poets and thinkers, are all either immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. In other words, the greatness of this country cannot be separated from the tradition of immigration.
But even though virtually everyone who lives in this country came from somewhere else, there's also a very long, dark history of people discriminating against newer immigrants. In the 1800s the Irish were severely discriminated against. People who already lived in America (who were mostly Protestant Christians) said the Irish religion (Catholicism) was evil. They said the Irish would steal jobs from current Americans. They said the Irish would refuse to assimilate to American culture. They said the Irish (many of whom still spoke Irish Gaelic) would not learn English. But by the 1960s the Irish had fully assimilated into American culture and even had one of their own (John F. Kennedy) in the White House. Today, anti-Irish is almost unheard of, and today we don't even really think of the Irish as an immigrant group at all.
Later, people then said the same things about Italian immigrants. Then they said the same thing about Greek immigrants. Then they said the same thing about Chinese immigrants. Each and every time, those arguments were proved to be wrong, as all of these groups ended up contributing huge amounts of value and wealth to our culture and our economy.
But now the exact same arguments that were once used against all of these earlier groups are now being used against immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. People say their religions (Islam, Buddhism) are not compatible with American values. People say they'll steal our jobs. People say they won't assimilate. People say they're "not like us."
But just as none of those arguments were true of the Irish or the Italians or the Greeks or the Chinese, they're also untrue in the context of these newer groups. In time, everyone will become just as comfortable living alongside these populations as they currently are living alongside the descendants of Irish and Greek and Italian and Chinese immigrants.
Another problem is that roughly 10% of our population descends from slaves—people who "immigrated" to this country against their will. This fact places an extra burden on all Americans to do our best to respect one another's cultures and traditions, since it's completely unfair and unethical to suggest that descendants of slaves don't "belong" in our culture when they never asked to come here in the first place. The history of slavery reminds us that if you're not a Native American there's no such thing as "belonging" in America at all. People have come here from all over—some voluntarily, some not—and what makes this country great is that we use each other's energy and ingenuity to grow stronger and wealthier and safer together.
