June is Immigrant Heritage Month! As a second-generation immigrant and adult convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have to say the Mormon relationship with immigrant identity is quite complicated. I was shocked when I joined the Church to meet so many members who proudly lauded their European immigrant pioneer ancestors and then minutes later bemoaned how modern-day immigrants were somehow ruining their country.
Immigration was crucial to the survival of the early restored Church, and the Church even paid passage for many European immigrants to come to America. According to the official Church History entry on “The Convert Immigrants”: “As the Church spread through Europe, tens of thousands of new converts emigrated to America, leaving everything behind them for their faith and desire to be with fellow members. Of the 60,000 to 70,000 Saints who emigrated to the Salt Lake Valley in the late 1800s, more than 98 percent of the survivors were from Europe, and 75 percent were from Britain. The British converts began to emigrate with the arrival of Brigham Young to Britain in 1840. As American members faced persecution, new European members brought strength and refreshment. ‘They have so much of the spirit of gathering,’ Brigham said, ‘that they would go if they knew they would die as soon as they got there or if they knew that the mob would be upon them and drive them as soon as they got there.’”
These immigrant pioneers – some of my own ancestors among them – were not uncomplicated heroes. When they settled in America, they did not simply take up unoccupied land but rather destroyed ways of life and territory and nature that were crucial for Native Americans’ survival. The Black Hawk War is a perfect example of the consequences: “The Black Hawk Indian War was the longest and most destructive conflict between pioneer immigrants and Native Americans in Utah History…The Black Hawk War erupted as a result of the pressures white expansion brought to Native American populations. White settlement of Utah altered crucial ecosystems and helped destroy Indian subsistence patterns which caused starvation. Those who did not starve often succumbed to European diseases. Contemporary sources indicate that Indian populations in Utah in the 1860s were plummeting at frightening rates. White efforts to establish reservations contributed additional pressures” (posted on the official website of the State of Utah).
All of us have immigrant heritage connected to our past in some way, whether by bloodline or lived experience or encounters with immigrants. Unfortunately, many people try to oversimplify the immigrant experience and treat immigrants like they’re not unique people with diverse backgrounds. Just like non-immigrants, immigrants have hopes and dreams and flaws and people they care about and things they regret and reasons for the choices they make and prejudices.
That being said, there are some horrible pervasive modern myths about immigrants that need to be dispelled. Let’s all take the occasion of Immigrant Heritage Month to help correct the record. For example, immigrants are less likely than non-immigrants in the United States to commit crimes, and immigrant men are more likely than their U.S.-born counterparts of a similar education level to be employed, married with children, and in good health (source: Stanford University Institute for Economic Policy Research). Immigrants also strengthen the economy and are more likely than U.S.-born workers to create jobs, creating more new jobs than they fill (source: George W. Bush Institute). Of course, immigrants shouldn’t have to employ people or be married or healthy to be deserving of respect and welcome, especially from people who claim to try to follow the example of Christ. But the contradictory reality shows these frenzied, panicked arguments about immigrants were never about facts but rather about fear of the other.
In our family, we have immigrants who moved for many reasons: for work, for love, for refuge, and for faith. I honor their choice and their sacrifice, which made my life and the lives of so many people I love possible. I am saddened that so many immigrants today still have to deal with those nasty, untrue narratives about what they do to a society, when generation after generation shows that any community would be lucky to have immigrants contributing to the economy, raising families, devoting themselves to public service, and helping build up the kingdom of God. As 2 Nephi 26:33 says, the Lord “inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him.” Who are we to turn away those whom the Lord does not deny? It takes arrogance, pride, and a lack of faith to be a xenophobic nativist.
We members of the Church emphasize our family history, and I believe it’s healthy to reflect on one’s ancestors and descendants (whether literal or metaphorical). We are all part of something larger that came before and hopefully will contribute to what comes after us. We inherit and will pass on both good and bad things, advantages and disadvantages. But hopefully by applying some thoughtful attention and intention to our own perspectives and lives, we can understand all parts of ourselves – including our immigrant heritage – with a little more nuance.
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