Quotes about immigration (544 quotes, page 6)

“There is a sense of hopelessness and helplessness which comes over persons who are trapped or imprisoned, when all their efforts to attract attention and assistance bring no response. This is the kind of feeling which you in Walsall and we in Wolverhampton are experiencing in the face of the continued flow of immigration into our towns. We are of course in a minority – make no mistake about that. Out of over 600 parliamentary constituencies perhaps less than 60 are affected in any way like ourselves. The rest know little or nothing and, we might sometimes be tempted to feel, care little or nothing. Only this week a colleague of mine in the House of Commons was dumbfounded when I told him of a constituent whose little daughter was now the only white child in her class at school. He looked at me as if I were a Member of Parliament for central Africa, who had suddenly dropped from the sky into Westminster. So far as most people in the British Isles are concerned, you and I might as well be living in central Africa for all they know about our circumstances.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Speech in Walsall (9 February 1968), quoted in Still to Decide (Elliot Right Way Books, 1972), p. 290
1960s

School , Housing , Personality , Daughters

“In my own constituency (where I estimate that about 10 per cent of the population are immigrants from Asia or the Caribbean) I have the impression that, as no doubt elsewhere, the first phase, the sudden impact of Commonwealth immigration, is over. I am going to prophesy, however, that there will be subsequent phases, when the problem will resume its place in public concern and in a more intractable form, when it can no longer be dealt with simply by turning the inlet tap down or off. Long before the coloured population reaches 5 per cent of the total, a proportion will have filtered into the general population, mingled with it in occupation, residence, habits and intermarriage. On the other hand, the rest, numerically perhaps much the greater part, will be in larger or smaller colonies, in certain areas and cities, more separated than now in habits, occupation and way of life. The irregular pattern of population and living which grew up higgledy-piggledy in the early years of immigration will have been tidied up. It is for these colonies, and the problems thereby entailed on our descendants, that they will curse the improvident years, now gone, when we could have avoided it all.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

'Facing Up to Britain's Race Problem', The Daily Telegraph (16 February 1967), quoted in Still to Decide (Elliot Right Way Books, 1972), p. 295
1960s

Way , Problem , Life , Parting

“I actually think I have a lot of common ground with many libertarian viewpoints… True libertarians, which many happen to be in the Republican Party, true libertarian viewpoints are pro-immigration.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

Billy Binion, “ “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: 'I Have a Lot of Common Ground With Many Libertarian Viewpoints'” https://reason.com/2019/08/08/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-i-have-a-lot-of-common-ground-with-many-libertarian-viewpoints/, Reason magazine, (Aug. 8, 2019) from Instagram live stream (Aug. 2, 2019)
Twitter Quotes (2019), August 2019

Thinking

“MomsDemand & #MarchForOurLives activists, who flew in from across the country, were watching from the gallery, crying + confused. I ran up to them *during the vote* and explained that the gotcha amendment pinned gun safety against immigration advocacy. Its intent was to divide.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

Twitter post, https://twitter.com/AOC (2 March 2019)
Twitter Quotes (2019), March 2019

Cry , Country

“When you look at how he reacted to the Charlottesville incident, where neo-Nazis murdered a woman, versus how he manufactures crises like immigrants seeking legal refuge on our borders, it’s—it’s night and day.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

7 January 2019 interview https://twitter.com/MotherJones/status/1082425925470470146 commenting on Donald Trump to Anderson Cooper in 60 Minutes, rebroadcast 23 June 2019
Twitter Quotes (2019), January 2019

Night

“The thing that people don’t understand about restaurants is that they’re one of the most political environments. You’re shoulder-to-shoulder with immigrants. You’re at one of the nexuses of income inequality. Your hourly wage is even less than the minimum wage. You’re working for tips. You’re getting sexually harassed.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-congress-interview-797214/ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wants the Country to Think Big, Rolling Stone

People , Understanding

“Fox News host Tucker Carlson can congratulate himself for the sentiment coming from the White House. Last week, Carlson apparently decided that the discussion on immigration featured an insufficient amount of racism and hate.”

Tucker Carlson (1969) American political commentator

So he attacked Omar, who arrived in the United States at the age of 12, for having the temerity to point out that this country doesn’t always live up to its own lofty ideals.<p>Folks who go into the news business dream of leaving a mark....As for Carlson, he’s making his mark by inspiring racist tweets.
Erik Wemple, media critic, The Washington Post, July 15, 2019 ([You happy now, Tucker Carlson?, Erik Wemple, w:Erik Wemple, July 15, 2019, The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/15/you-happy-now-tucker-carlson/])

Hate , Housing

“Once we have left and we have control, there is a political argument about what levels of immigration we should have… that is really going to be a challenge and an issue for the competence of the Home Office. It is not so much a question of Brexit. It is Brexit which makes it possible, it is then administrative efficiency that will make it happen.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg (1969) British politician

No role for EU court after Brexit says Rees-Mogg https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40788668 BBC News (1 August 2017)
2017

Home , Making love , Question

“Across our immigration system, no-one should face a demand to supply DNA evidence and no-one should have been penalised for not providing it.”

Sajid Javid (1969) British politician

Home secretary apologises for immigrant DNA tests https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45979359, BBC News, 25 October 2018
2018

“Conservatives used to believe in the overwhelming benefits of immigration. Most nationalists want to restrict even legal immigration. Conservatives used to believe that America should always speak and sometimes act in defense of freedom-seekers everywhere. Nationalists strike the bargain that America will mind its own business if others mind theirs. Conservatives used to oppose identity politics for being hostile to individual freedom. Nationalism is the superimposition of one form of identity politics over various others.”

Bret Stephens (1973) far-right American

The New Conservative Pyrite (2019)

Business , Hostility , Freedom

“Menuhin felt a close kinship with Stern, who also was born of Russian immigrants.”

Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999) American violinist and conductor

Violinist and Visionary Yehudi Menuhin Dies at 82

“As an immigrant, I am constantly surprised by how much I hear racism talked about and how little I actually see it.”

Dinesh D'Souza (1961) Indian-American political commentator, filmmaker, author

Even fewer are the incidents in which I have experienced it directly.
Source: Books, What's So Great About America (2003), Ch. 4: The Reparations Fallacy

“For this reason neighborhoods should be American and a combination of the best of all the races that live in them. It is here that the school can become the conference center and the council chamber. It is the one American institution to be found in every town free, neutral, and powerful. During the daytime it has the children who can interpret it; during the evening it may have the parents who need it for their community expression. From the schoolhouse come the beliefs that living conditions should be decent, that laws should be enforced for all alike, that there should be no racial discriminations. From participation in neighborhood activities and in governing their own communities, the immigrant will grow into the larger responsibilities of State and nation. In order that American political ideals should be understood by him, they must be lived within his consciousness, in the small radius of his neighborhood, and in that way he must see exemplified whatever American literature, art, music, and science have to give.”

Frances Kellor (1873–1952) American sociologist

What is Americanization? (1919)

School , Law , Children , Art

“Norwegians come from North Norway, Central Norway, Southern Norway – and all of the other regions. Norwegians have immigrated from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Poland, from Sweden, Somalia and Syria. My grandparents came here from Denmark and England 110 years ago.”

Harald V of Norway (1937) King of Norway

Garden party in the Palace Park: welcoming speech (September 1, 2016)

“Well, you know these immigrants, they come to our country, they burden our tax system. What they do is they come here and get into our education system and our health care and I gotta pay the taxes. My taxes have to pay that. Well what the fuck are you doing to me every time you have a kid? Every time you have a kid because its American I should pull up a chaise lounge and wave a flag while 15 of those things come out of you? Oh, I can’t wait to pay for these! They’re American! I have a vasectomy and an abortion on my record, but I can’t wait to pay for your fucking fat-headed mid-western kids. Love it! I’ll take a second job.”

Doug Stanhope (1967) American stand-up comedian, actor, and author

No Refunds (2007)

Time , Waiting , Country , Health

“I felt everything crashing down and I didn't know what to do. It was such a harrowing experience being with his body. I sat in a room with him all night, his body, dealing with the police. And then I had to go to the border and deal with immigration and have all of his papers…By the time I got back to San Diego, I had forgotten English. It took me a minute to get back into being an American. I had only one way to deal with it, which was writing. I had been writing since high school, and so I wrote about it…”

Luis Alberto Urrea (1955) Mexican-American poet

On how his father’s death propelled him towards writing in “Mexican-American Author Finds Inspiration In Family, Tragedy And Trump” https://www.npr.org/2018/03/05/590839936/mexican-american-author-finds-inspiration-in-family-tragedy-and-trump in NPR (2018 Mar 5)

School , Way , Night , Time

“Relatives, colleagues, friends, and marriage partners, understandably threatened by these changes, often exert pressure on the individual...These pressures only widen the gap. You don't stop an immigrant by trying to revive his hopes for the Old World.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Twelve, Human Connections: Relationships Changing

Understanding , Marriage , Hope , World

“Whose American dream? The dream is a chameleon; it has changed again and again. For the first immigrants, America was a continent to explore and exploit, a haven for the unwanted and the dissenters—a new beginning. Gradually the dream became an ascetic and idealized image of democracy, bespeaking the age-old hope for justice and selfgovernance. All too quickly, that dream metamorphosed into an expansionist, materialist, nationalist, and even imperialist vision of wealth and domination—paternalism, Manifest Destiny. Yet even then, there was a competing Transcendentalist vision: excellence, spiritual riches, the unfolding of the latent gifts of the individual.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Democracy , Justice , Wealth , Dreams

“The president of the United States just threatened the safety and security of immigrants the world over.”

Richard Wolffe (1968) American journalist

Let's drop the euphemisms: Donald Trump is a racist president (2018)

World

“Immigration is where Trump’s journey begins and ends: the message running all the way through this stick of rock.”

Richard Wolffe (1968) American journalist

Let's drop the euphemisms: Donald Trump is a racist president (2018)

Way

“If one abandons the idea that Western Europeans are rapacious and exploitative by nature, and that Africans, Asians, and other would-be immigrants are inevitably their victims, then the fundamental difference between colonization and labor migration ceases to be obvious.”

Christopher Caldwell (1962) American political writer

Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (2009)

Idea , Nature

“if a Swedish news editor was ever gang raped by Muslim immigrants it would be hard not to laugh.”

Pat Condell (1949) Stand-up comedian, writer, and Internet personality

twitter.com (15 March 2015) https://twitter.com/patcondell/status/577049819363061760
2015

“… I tried not to dwell on it: sensationalising something like that is simply unacceptable. But it happens in so many families, and it must be faced head on. I was saying, Look: even in these immigrant, hard working, well-respected communities, this happens.”

Roshi Fernando Sri Lankan writer

On writing about sexual abuse in "INTERVIEW by Gwen Davies" https://www.newwelshreview.com/article.php?id=246 in New Welsh Reader (Issue 92)

Family , Communication

“It's upsetting to any culture when that is the only projection you have of that culture…You're pigeon-holed, stereotyped. That means we don't like you. We forget that this country was founded by immigrants.”

Lupe Ontiveros (1942–2012) Mexican-American actress

On being repeatedly cast as a housekeeper (as quoted in “'Selena' co-star Lupe Ontiveros dies at 69” http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/27/selena-co-star-lupe-ontiveros-dies-at-69/ in CNN; 2012 Jul 27)

Forgetting , Country

“As both sides debate the path forward on reforming our immigration system, the BE SAFE Act provides a constitutional answer that guarantees funding for our needs on the border without taking away from other priorities or increasing the burden on American taxpayers.”

Rand Paul (1963) American politician, ophthalmologist, and United States Senator from Kentucky

4 March 2019 https://votesmart.org/public-statement/1331191/dr-rand-paul-introduces-be-safe-act-to-fund-border-security
2019

“It is a justifiable proposition that every wave of immigration we have had into this country has benefited this country.”

Michael Foot (1913–2010) British politician

Source: Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1965/nov/23/schedule-acts-continued-till-end-of#column_365 in the House of Commons (23 November 1965)

Country

“Settlers are not immigrants. Immigrants are beholden to the Indigenous laws and epistemologies of the lands they migrate to. Settlers become the law, supplanting Indigenous laws and epistemologies. Therefore, settler nations are not immigrant nations.”

Eve Tuck Indigenous studies scholar

Source: "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor", p. 6

Law

“I always wanted to be an author. I thought it was the coolest job. As a child of immigrant parents, it wasn't ever something that they promoted. They always wanted me to do something practical.”

Jason Tanamor (1975) Filipino-American Author and Writer

United States Army Interview (2016)

Parent

“Immigrant parents don’t want their children to suffer or have to live harder than they did.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

As quoted in "Jenny Han Has Been Here All Along" in Elle (24 February 2020) https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a30913764/jenny-han-interview-to-all-the-boys-sequel/

Children , Suffering , Parent

“I have consistently said that immigration has been good for this country,”

Theresa May (1956) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Brexit: MPs to have vote by 12 March, says May https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47348610 BBC News (24 February 2019)
2010s, 2019

Country

“Bizarrely, as immigration began to change Europe at its economic and cultural core, the political vocabulary remained the same as when immigration had been a fringe phenomenon. People kept talking about restaurants.”

Christopher Caldwell (1962) American political writer

Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (2009)

People , Change

“The theme of displacement is very natural for me. It always comes up in my books because I have been a foreigner all my life and I don’t feel I belong anywhere. I’m an immigrant.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

On how her sense of self remains tied to her native country in “Isabel Allende: 'Few couples survive the death of one child, let alone three'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/02/isabel-allende-interview-marriage-breakup-the-japanese-lover in The Guardian (2015 Dec 2)

Nature , Books , Life , Feeling

“I can't speak for everybody, and I don't want to say it for an entire culture, but for me, coming from an immigrant family, it's very difficult to go find your voice, which requires a lot of failure.”

Lulu Wang (1983) Asian-American filmmaker

As quoted in "Lulu Wang’s The Farewell lays bare the textured lives of immigrant families" in Dazed (31 May 2019) https://www.dazeddigital.com/film-tv/article/44666/1/lulu-wang-the-farewell-interview-awkwafina

Family , Failure

“As a first-generation immigrant, I want to make the soil richer. My kid will grow up in a free world without fear and will be thinking like an ordinary American. I envy him very much.”

Rebel Pepper (1973) Chinese political cartoonist

"Chinese political cartoonist Rebel Pepper finds more artistic freedom in the US" in The World https://theworld.org/stories/2018-07-02/chinese-political-cartoonist-rebel-pepper-finds-more-artistic-freedom-us (2 July 2018)

World , Fear , Thinking , Envy

“I think to some degree, all politics is personal. It would be naïve of me to say I wrote a book just about immigrants and there's nothing political about it. As has been pointed out to me in the past, it's political to have the last name that I have. There's nothing that's not political…”

Cristina Henríquez (1977) American writer

Source: On the indirect relationship between literature and politics in “Cristina Henriquez Talks 'The Book of Unknown Americans,' POC vs. MFA, and Compassion” https://www.bustle.com/articles/27838-cristina-henriquez-talks-the-book-of-unknown-americans-poc-vs-mfa-and-compassion in Bustle (2014 Jun 13)

Personality , Books , Past , Thinking

“Much has been lost in U.S. culture because of secularism. The values of the immigrants are very basic, reflecting a profound Catholicism where faith, family, and expressions of piety, etc., are part of our daily life.”

José Horacio Gómez (1951) Roman Catholic archbishop

Source: Latin Influence and the Future of the Church in U.S. https://zenit.org/2005/06/20/latin-influence-and-the-future-of-the-church-in-u-s/ (20 June 2005)

Family , Faith , Life , Parting

“People need to feel they belong to their country. Their need for community is most pronounced in a time of adversity. The people who are hit hardest by a depression, who feel that their children will suffer, look for loyalty from the rest of the community and the government. The present immigration programme, in its indifference to the feelings of the old Australians, erodes those loyalties. The multicultural policy, and its emphasis on what is different and on the rights of the new minority rather than the old majority, gnaws at that sense of solidarity that many people crave for.”

Geoffrey Blainey book All for Australia

All for Australia (1984)

Communication , Loyalty , Country , Indifference

“Stop dey use COVID-19 vaccination as immigration control against Africans.”

Nana Akufo-Addo (1944) President of Ghana

Nana Akufo-Addo (2021) cited in: " Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo to UN - 'Stop dey use Covid-19 vaccination as immigration control against Africans' https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-58661993" in BBC News, 23 September 2021.

“You’ll have to excuse our customs and immigration staff: they preach courtesy and respect while demonstrating exactly the opposite.”

Alastair Reynolds book Blue Remembered Earth

Source: Blue Remembered Earth (2012), Chapter 14 (p. 265)

“Immigration was, and is, an issue. In my constituency it has for years been question number one, into which discussion of every other political topic—housing, health, benefits, employment—promptly turned.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

'Tories in the Wilderness', The Sunday Telegraph (18 October 1964), quoted in Paul Corthorn, Enoch Powell: Politics and Ideas in Modern Britain (2019), p. 79
1960s

Housing , Health , Question

“In the early 1900s, while colonization continued, the original Mexican population of the Southwest was greatly increased by an immigration the continues today. This combination of centuries-old roots and relatively new ones gives the Mexican-American people a rich and varied cultural heritage.”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century (2017)

People

“Immigration worked as a time machine, bringing up little islands of the past into the present.”

Kim Stanley Robinson (1952) American science fiction writer

Source: Blue Mars (1996), Chapter 12, “It Goes So Fast” (p. 598)

Time , Past

“We need to pass an immigration bill, look at Germany, look at the rest of the world, we're the only non-xenophobic nation in the world that's a major economy.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

10 June 2014 from same speech, YouTube audio excerpt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKnCCzAv3s4&t=34 via the DC Examiner
2010s, 2014

World

“We need it badly from a purely – purely economic point of view .. constant, unrelenting stream of immigrants .. not dribbling, significant flows.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

10 June 2014 comments to National Association of Manufacturers, reported later that day https://thehill.com/regulation/business/208857-biden-hails-constant-unrelenting-stream-of-immigrants by Benjamin Goad of The Hill
2010s, 2014

Quotes about immigration page 6

Quotes about immigration
page 6