ESPACES ET ECHANGES : IMMIGRATION ET AMERICAN DREAM

Anglais : Spaces and Exchanges

• Introduction :

An exchange is the act of giving or receiving something in substitution for something else. In today’s modern-day world these exchanges can take several forms:  economic – work exchanges, exchange of goods, trading across borders,  cultural – exchange of ideas, information, education,  movement of people – immigration, student exchanges, gap years…  Our modern-day world is changing quickly and seems to be a smaller place due to improvements in technology and communication. Information exchange has become easier thanks to the internet and international trade has enabled us to expand our markets for goods and services that might not have been available to us.  These different cultural, economic, sociological and language interactions have transformed and characterised our modern-day world – sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.  

I would like to focus my presentation of the notion of spaces and exchanges on the movement of people that means on immigration, student exchanges.

Nowadays and since more than two centuries the question of immigration has been one of the most important political question in the world and especially in USA, because of the particular position of this country since it birth in 1776. Long before the independence, it was already a land of immigration for people who were threatened in Europe. The English and French colonies were seen as a place where people can be free from fear and hunger. This idea of land of freedom remained all along the 19th and 20th centuries, and it’s why more and more immigrants from the entire world wanted and still want to reach the USA. This phenomenon is what we call today the “American Dream”: people want to go in America to live a better life.

In 2016, Donald Trump was elected on a fiercely anti-immigration program. He has already tried to exclude people from the USA with an executive order. The Americans no longer see immigration as a step towards more social and economic progress but as a disease responsible of all their problems. Trump wants to show to immigrants that they are not welcome in the USA.

So my question is: is this century the end of the American Dream and of the USA as a land of Immigration ?

• YES :

First of all, I’m tempted to answer yes to this thorny question.

• The 21st century began with 9/11. This unbelievable and terrible attack on the Homeland, the worst attack since Pearl Harbor on the US territory caused a lot of dead. This event has marked forever the Americans. We can see the differences in all the US culture: there is a before and an after 9/11 in the movie industry, in architecture, in music, and in the US home and foreign politics.  I believe that this attack engaged the Americans to the election of Donald Trump. The terrorist were Muslim and they attacked the USA to destroy the American way of life. They declared war to Americans because they were American. They planned to destroy their hope and optimism and to create fear of the foreigner in their mind. And they succeeded. The war that followed the attack was a victory for them. After this war, the world was torn apart because of the US actions. The world started to lose confidence in the USA to rule the world and started to blame them for the damages they caused.
• Then, the Americans fell in a vicious circle: they increased the number of unilateral action to resolve the problem they created and to prove to the world they were still powerful. But they never really succeeded. And they were more and more blamed and they tried to solve again the problem. But they failed again and again. That leads us to today: the Americans are exhausted. They don’t want any more to be involved in any things outside their border. They want to be alone and to solve their own problem. They no longer consider the world as their problem. They think that more involvement in the World means more trouble for them. So, they consider that immigrants and refugees should stay outside of the USA. I believe that’s one the reason of the election of D.Trump. He planned to build a wall to stop illegal immigration and started his presidency buy trying to exclude migrants from USA, with a Muslim ban.
• All this vicious circle of fear and exclusion changed the country and the signification of the American Dream. In the 20th century, the American Dream was a dream of hope. Hope for a better life, hope for the end of fear and persecution: a hope for freedom and happiness. Fareed Zakaria in Time Magazine remember himself what was the USA for him when he was young in India: “a country of optimist”, with “the can do spirit”.

They are no longer optimist, and that’s why I believe the American Dream is in danger.

• But, as Fareed Zakaria noticed it, the American Dream was strongly linked with economics prosperity and, I quote, “a middle-class contentment”. Despite Vietnam, Watergate and stagflation, America was still, in the 70’s, better than the rest of the world. But today, because of the globalisation and multiple economics crisis, America don’t look so shiny anymore. The middle class disappeared, so did “this general prosperity and well-being for the average person” which defined the American Dream for F. Zakaria. This optimism and prosperity is now not only in the USA, but exist also in ancient poor country, like India. The USA are no longer the only representative of the American Dream.
• So for all this reason, I truly believe the A. D. is in danger. But there is still hope.

• NON :

• When we look at the US history: a lot of Act/laws which intended to stop or limit immigration in USA. It started with the Johnson Reed Act, in 1924. Those acts and laws were voted during time where USA faced huge challenged, like today. Like today it was a fear of the foreigner. American wanted to be outside the world, because they thought world was the things which caused their problem. But, these Act and Laws never stopped the will of the migrants to reach USA.  Like Eaven Boland write it in his +
• The fact that immigrants, and especially Mexicans are still trying to live the A.D. shows us that this dream is not dead (it may be unreal but it is still alive). F. Zakaria noticed it: the “us faces huge challenges, but it also has enormous advantages”.
• The USA are still the most powerful country in the world. They are still the center of the economics world. It’s still the center of technological innovation. It’s still a country of openness, diversity and dynamism. It’s still an attractive country and place.

So yes, the A. D. is not at its best nowadays. But I believe that we don’t have to be afraid. This is hard time for the USA and for the world but, like it always does, it will be better in a few years. F. Zakaria wrote it: “each generation has been an expressing of ordinary Americans to save the A.D. from the forces which appears to be overwhelming it”

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