These foreigners do not belong here. Whatever their reasons for coming and however valid those reasons may seem, this is not their land. They were not invited. They are not welcome. Truly, it is unfortunate that, in their home countries, they have had to suffer persecution, poverty, squalor, and the like. It is unfortunate that the economic and political opportunities they may find here are largely unavailable to them there. It is unfortunate that such circumstances have necessitated that they travel an arduous distance to seek the better life that is their due and desire as much as anyone’s. But they simply do not belong here.

And yet they come and they come, waves of foreigners with their strange customs and alien language, making themselves at home in a place that is not their home. Even worse, by virtue of their needs and numbers, they import the hardships they seemingly left behind: the crowded conditions, the drain on local resources, and the tension and incivility that arise from such. It is difficult not to feel resentful. Yet, somehow, those who have lived here for many generations are expected to acquiesce and accommodate to these interlopers. Those who may rightly call this land home must watch in growing dismay as all that is familiar and cherished is strangely transformed.

Like it or not, though, the Europeans are here to stay.

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The ironies are abundant. The interlopers of yesteryear are the aggrieved citizens of today, many of whom seem to possess memories as short as their tempers. They would do well to recall that they were neither the first here nor the first to feel put out. Indeed, however they are impacted by immigration, whatever challenges and hardships they may presently face, their collective experience pales in comparison to that of native Americans in centuries past—who were branded as savages, mistreated, forcibly displaced, and massacred. What experience now or in the foreseeable future can compare?

Immigration is admittedly a knotty issue. But please have some perspective.