Immigrants Quotes

• Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.

  Oscar Handlin

  Writing, Discovery, Usa

  Oscar Handlin (2002). “The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made the American People”, p.3, University of Pennsylvania Press

  48 Copy quote

  Show source

• Considering our history, I can think of nothing more American than an immigrant.

  Conor Oberst

  Thinking, Considering, I Can

  "‘MariKKKopa’: Conor Oberst Explains New Desaparecidos Track, Which Takes Aim At Sheriff Joe Arpaio". Interview with Kia Makarechi, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 1, 2012.

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Each wave of immigrants that have come in have been able to assimilate, integrate and then rise up and become part of this great American Dream.

  Barack Obama

  Dream, Able, Wave

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Xenophobia, Patriotic, Usa

  Remarks before Daughters of the American Revolution Convention, Washington, D.C., 21 Apr. 1938. Often paraphrased as Roosevelt's addressing the DAR as "my fellow immigrants."

  379 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life.

  John F. Kennedy

  Fabric, Migration, Migrants

  President John F. Kennedy (2016). “A Nation Of Immigrants”, p.11, Pickle Partners Publishing

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• The immigrant's heart marches to the beat of two quite different drums, one from the old homeland and the other from the new. The immigrant has to bridge these two worlds, living comfortably in the new and bringing the best of his or her ancient identity and heritage to bear on life in an adopted homeland.

  Mary McAleese

  Heart, Bridges, Two

  10 Copy quote

• We [Americans] are a nation of immigrants. We all understand what this country has become because talent from all around the world wants to come here, people who are willing to take risks, people who want to build on their dreams and make sure their kids have an - even bigger dreams than they have.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Dream, Kids

  3 Copy quote

• In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, Firsts, Facts

  Theodore Roosevelt (1954). “Letters of Theodore Roosevelt: The days of Armageddon, 1900-1914”

  58 Copy quote

  Show source

• There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Loyalty, Men, People

  "Teddy Roosevelt's Immigration Speech Holds True Today" by Barbara Wamboldt, www.thewhig.com. July 07, 2010.

  225 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Patriotic, Years

  Theodore Roosevelt (1921). “Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star: War-time Editorials”

  127 Copy quote

  Show source

• A characteristic thing about the aspiring immigrant is the fact that he is not content to progress alone. Solitary success is imperfect success in his eyes. He must take his family with him as he rises.

  Mary Antin

  Eye, Progress, Facts

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.245, Courier Corporation

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• My mother and my father were illiterate immigrants from Russia. When I was a child they were constantly amazed that I could go to a building and take a book on any subject. They couldn't believe this access to knowledge we have here in America. They couldn't believe that it was free.

  Kirk Douglas

  Mother, Children, Father

  82 Copy quote

• When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best.

  Donald Trump

  Illegal Things, People, Mexican

  "Divided Mexico unites against Trump: 'He has no respect for human beings'" by Jo Tuckman, www.theguardian.com. July 6, 2015.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• We focus so much on how immigrants can change America that we forget that America has always changed immigrants even more.

  Marco Rubio

  America, Focus, Forget

  5 Copy quote

• America is White and Black and Latino and Asian. America is mixed. America is immigrants.

  Jose Antonio Vargas

  White, America, Black

  71 Copy quote

• It is good to live in a country where all are immigrants ... the newcomer is simply the latest arrival.

  Rudolf Arnheim

  Country, Newcomers, Arrivals

  Rudolf Arnheim (1990). “Parables of Sun Light: Observations on Psychology, the Arts, and the Rest”, p.165, Univ of California Press

  3 Copy quote

  Show source

• Conservatives aren't anti-immigrant - conservatives are pro-legal immigration.

  Marco Rubio

  Immigration, Legal Immigration

  33 Copy quote

• Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity, until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Opportunity, Journey

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Immigrants, as troubling as they are to some people, are an integral part of what the American Dream is supposed to be. They're understandable to a considerable number of Americans.

  Nguyen Viet Thang

  Dream, Numbers, People

  "Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Viet Thanh Nguyen 'Never Stopped Being a Refugee'". Interview with Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn, www.motherjones.com. January/February 2017.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think that America is an ideal place for the privileged homeless, who are used to different cultures. It's easiest and most accommodating because it is a country of exiles and immigrants and newcomers. There are no walls, in that sense. There is always the sense that traditions are being made as we speak. So you can slot yourself in. If you are living at a distance in society, this is one of the most congenial societies to live in.

  Pico Iyer

  Country, Wall, Distance

  Source: scottlondon.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• You had a flood of immigrants, millions of them, coming to this country. What brought them here? It was the hope for a better life for them and their children. And, in the main, they succeeded. It is hard to find any century in history, in which so large a number of people experience so great an improvement in the conditions of their life, in the opportunities open to them, as in the period of the 19th and early 20th century.

  Milton Friedman

  Country, Children, Opportunity

  3 Copy quote

• There was also a national policy, which as a child I didn't know anything about. In 1924 the first major immigration law was passed. Before that, there was an Oriental Exclusion Act, but other than that, European immigrants like my parents were generally admitted in the early years of the twentieth century. But that ended in 1924 with an immigration law that was largely directed against Jews and Italians.

  Noam Chomsky

  Children, Years, Law

  Source: thehumanist.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I grew up in Venezuela, and when I was 14-years-old, my parents decided to sell everything and come to America. Five of us lived in a two bedroom house. It wasn't a sad truth, it was just the way it was [at the time]. That feeling is so universal for every immigrant.

  Wilmer Valderrama

  Years, Bedroom House, Two

  Source: www.thehollywoodgossip.com

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• You have almost zero chance of being killed by a refugee in America. You have almost no chance of being killed in a terrorist attack by an immigrant - by any kind of immigrant, let alone an Islamic immigrant.

  Reza Aslan

  Zero, Islamic, America

  Source: www.npr.org

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• [We need to ] select immigrants based on their likelihood of success in U.S. society and their ability to be financially self- sufficient.

  Donald Trump

  Self, Needs, Select

  Source: time.com

  3 Copy quote

  Show source