National unity requires common values, beliefs

By Dan Stein
It is almost impossible to have a discussion about immigration policy without someone uttering
the clichd statement, "America is a nation of immigrants."
Generally, the emphasis is on the word "immigrants," while the word "nation" is included as little
more than a grammatical necessity for structuring a sentence.
Yes, America is a nation of immigrants. But a nation is more than just a collection of random
people who happen to share a defined geographical territory. A nation is defined by a common
culture: A core set of beliefs, principles and language.
Throughout most of our history, the United States has been the model of success at forging a
nation out of a racially, ethnically, religiously and linguistically diverse body of immigrants. The
unwritten social contract required that those who chose to settle here adapt themselves to social
and linguistic norms of the country, not the other way around.
America has never demanded homogeneity. At the same time that our society was transforming
the immigrants, immigrants were influencing, changing and enriching the common culture of the
country. It has never been an easy or painless process, for either the immigrants or the
established population, but the end result was a diverse and unified nation.
In other words, we became a melting pot made up of ingredients that complemented one another,
not merely existed side by side. That successful model is now being challenged by one that
insists that the cultural, linguistic and other characteristics of immigrants should be protected and
given equal status and recognition with those of the established American population.
This utopian model envisions many different peoples living in close proximity, doing their own
things, speaking their own languages, and bound by the common interests of having the potholes
filled and the garbage collected. The problem with the nation-as-a-mosaic concept is that there is
no successful model of disparate peoples, who share little aside from geography, living
harmoniously.
In fact, there is overwhelming evidence that nations composed of people who do not share
common core cultural values come apart often violently. All anyone need do is to look at the
news to see tragic examples of countless nations being torn apart by irreconcilable differences of
ethnic, sectarian, religious and linguistic groups that have failed to find a way to turn a mosaic
into a melting pot.

The United States now has some 40 million foreign-born residents, of every conceivable national
and ethnic heritage. Our challenge is to create a common national culture out of all these
disparate elements one that is dynamic, but remains true to the core values that made this
country attractive to the millions who voluntarily came here.
To succeed, we must dramatically slow the influx of new immigrants and focus on bringing the
millions of immigrants who exist at the margins of American society into the social, cultural,
economic and linguistic mainstream. As in the past, it will not happen overnight, or without
difficulty. But our future as a strong and unified nation depends on ensuring that we remain a
melting pot.
Dan Stein is president of FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform).