America's Promise to Immigrants: New Culture or Old Roots?

Introduction: America as a Meeting Place of Cultures

The history of America has been the history of the mixing of peoples from different parts of the world. Despite the fact that America promises these immigrants a brand-new culture, ethnic and racial diversity remains — more than ever — a salient feature of contemporary life. Yet the old and the new work together, sustaining an ever-changing culture rather than replacing one with the other.

America is composed of people of different origins who speak different languages and carry different background cultures, all living together under a unified political sovereignty. Compared to other nations that are witnessing heightened ethnic, racial, ideological, and religious conflict — among the most explosive problems of modern times — America has been notably successful in integrating various groups of people. This achievement has made America an immigration center of the world, a place that unites different peoples, races, and nations within a single, evolving culture.

Language and the American Dream as Unifying Forces

There must be elements of an original culture that cement, or upon which, this new culture is built. The first of these elements is language. English has been a unifying factor in America: it is not easy to distinguish spoken English between second- or third-generation American families unless they come from different regions of the country. Language is thus both a unifying factor and the conduit through which American culture develops.

In addition, the people of America share a common dream — the American Dream — which is the central promise of American culture. This common goal has been shared not only by immigrants but also by those born on American soil. The idea is woven into the United States Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." America has, for many, been successful in delivering on this promise.

E.V. Smalley and the Prairie Frontier

A close examination of two authors — Frederick Turner's essay on the Frontier and E.V. Smalley's "Life on the Prairie Farms" — helps put into perspective Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s question: whether America's promise to immigrants is a brand-new culture, or the preservation of the old, and whether it can deliver on that promise.

According to Smalley, the farmers of the prairies lacked a common culture. This absence, combined with the geographic isolation of their settlements, made life there a solitary existence. Smalley points to the lack of a shared culture as the starting point for the creation of something new. Settlers had few social events; the long winter evenings were monotonous, with no singing-schools, spelling-schools, debating clubs, or church gatherings. There were few neighborly calls, owing to the great distances between farmhouses and to the lack of homogeneity among the people. In short, they had no common past to talk about. They were Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, French Canadians, Finns, Icelanders, and settlers from other American states — strangers to one another. What they did share was a common goal: the livelihood drawn from the prairies, the work of farming, and the new opportunity that represented the American Dream.