The SWAAY Story: “I Am An Immigrant”

I am an Irish immigrant. SWAAY’s Founder is a Muslim who emigrated here from Morocco, and our Managing Editor is a first generation Cuban whose grandparents arrived on JFK’s Freedom flights. Our stories are as diverse as they come, our backgrounds worlds apart and yet we have all ended up here in New York at the same time. There is no cosmic cause that explains why we have all met each other – there is simply the fact that this country has welcomed immigrants since its birth, and here we are, three immigrants of some variation, legally living in this country. And yet for the past week we have been questioning our very status because of a ban that persecutes those executing their right to travel here under years of agreements and contractual legislation between their countries and this one. Yes, it’s been temporarily stopped by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but with our new President responding with a law suit threat, it seems the ban is far from disappearing.

WE ARE BEMUSED.

I am from Dublin – I am Irish, and by extension, I’m European. But first and foremost, I am a person. I do not quantify or qualify myself in terms of my nationality – in fact, it is only one of many parts that make up the whole. And it is not nearly the most important.

In the 1800’s however, this was a different story. Irish people were breaching the American border on ships plagued with disease, death and then, of course, disembarking from these ships in the state they were in, the Irish were quantified and qualified because of their nationality. They were dirty, desperate and fleeing a country that was very literally rotting from the ground up.

Sound familiar?

It’s because this story is one that has regurgitated itself time and again over the centuries – one that is retold when there is a large migration from anywhere to a land that promises more opportunity, wealth and growth. It’s a story that has lead to the conception of visas and homeland security, and the coining of the term refugee status.

It is a story that (many choose to forget) led to the building of Manhattan – the cross country rail road and countless states, cities and towns across this nation.

The immigrants of America have very literally made the country what it is today, and this has been repeatedly proved over the last few weeks with stories from every corner of the country explicating how integral the presence of foreign nationals in this country is.

Originally published on Swaay by Amy Corcoran on February 12, 2017