By simply reflecting upon this country’s history, it is clear that it is one of immigrants — and it always has been.

In the mid-19th century, the Irish came to America to flee a potato famine, while Germans sought to escape the failed revolution of 1848. Later, during the American industrial period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when smoke filled the sky and hope filled the air, Southern and Eastern Europeans arrived on America’s shore looking up to a new colossus, a statue of liberty welcoming them,   “[the] tired, [the] poor, [the] huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” to a promised land of opportunity. In modern times, waves of immigration from Latin America, Asia and Africa have dawned a new age of what it means to be an American during a time of unprecedented globalization.

In order to discuss the depth of American identity, we must look back not only on our triumphs but also on our downfalls.

The American experience has not always been easy. Hostility toward newly arrived people has been present throughout most of American history. Many of the earliest people brought to this country were done so against their wills, under the atrocious conditions of slave importation. Whether during slavery or segregation, the history of the African-American experience has been filled with extreme adversity.

Prejudice has affected many groups from various regions of the world. Chinese labor immigration was prohibited in the now-infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It is often forgotten that at one time, many considered Irish-Americans to be subhuman. The tired and poor Southern and Eastern European immigrants wishing for opportunity were often met with hatred and opposition from strong nativists.

The earliest residents of our continent, appropriately referred to as Native Americans, were not even granted citizenship until the 1924 Indian Citizen Act.

Discrimination against foreigners has also extended to religious affiliation. The Ku Klux Klan, which is most known for its persecution of African-Americans, also considered Jews and Catholics as enemies and targets. In fact, by the mid-1920s, the KKK claimed to have 4 million members, more than the entire American Jewish population.

There are too many prejudices that have plagued society to possibly touch upon them all.

Returning to the present, it should be clear that historical trends of opposition to those newly arrived is nothing new.

Aside from pure historical trends, present economic benefits must be factored into modern dialogue. The argument that immigrants and those born elsewhere hurt the economy does not hold up against true economic scrutiny. In reality, immigrants contribute more to the national economy than they benefit from it. It is estimated that immigration reform would create 121,000 new jobs over the next decade. Immigrants contribute $10 billion annually to the nation’s economic growth.

If reform were to pass, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that real GDP will increase by 3.3 percent in 2023 and 5.4 percent in 2033. Additionally, the CBO has concluded that passing immigration reform will reduce the federal budget deficit by nearly $850 billion over the next 20 years. In Pennsylvania alone, reform could increase Gross State Product by more than $14.8 billion over the next 10 years. State residents would also see a cumulative increase of $9.3 billion in earnings. Immigrants, who contribute a net positive to the economy, have also contributed to the solvency of the nation’s social security trust fund.

These statistics only come about by the tangible efforts of legal immigrants. Immigrants are 30 percent more likely to start their own businesses than non-immigrants and make up 18 percent of small business owners nationally. These businesses in turn create jobs, employing an estimated 4.7 million individuals in 2007 alone. According to the most recent calculations, small businesses owned by immigrants generate more than $776 billion annually.

Immigrants are not the only group of people benefiting from their efforts. According to a study by the University of California-Davis, between 1990 and 2004, increased immigration was correlated with increased earnings of Americans by 0.7 percent and is expected to contribute to an increase of 1.8 percent in the long term.

Immigration is also essential to the success of local businesses. In an age dominated by large corporations, small enterprise is deserving of help and assistance; immigrants provide exactly that. The Immigration Policy Center estimates that the purchasing power of Latinos and Asians, many of whom are immigrants, will reach $1.5 trillion and $775 billion, respectively, by 2015. Many of these immigrants use their increased buying power to purchase local goods, therefore increasing demand for their respective local economies.

Finally, because of increased tax revenue brought in by newly naturalized immigrants, reform would cut the federal deficit by $2.2 billion over the next 10 years. With this, national GDP is expected to rise from 0.8 percent to 1.8 percent by 2016. To a nation more than $17 trillion in debt (with consistent federal deficits adding onto this number each year), every effective measure taken to increase national fiscal and financial solvency merits serious consideration.

The decisions made today will seem natural in the future. But in reality, progress and a bright future only come about when action — often unpopular action — is taken today. As historian David McCullough stated in his 2003 lecture “The Course of Human Events”: “Washington, Jefferson, John Adams and their contemporaries didn’t walk about saying, ‘Isn’t this fascinating living in the past! Aren’t we picturesque in our funny clothes!’ They lived in the present. The difference is it was their present, not ours. They were caught up in the living moment exactly as we are, and with no more certainty of how things would turn out than we have.”

As a nation, we cannot become so comfortable with past achievements that current and future progress is stalled. It is thus our responsibility to study the past not so that we may live in it, but rather that we may improve upon it.

Ultimately, what it means to be an American is not merely where one or one’s parents were born, not merely which language one originally spoke, not merely which religion one practices. Rather, true national identity lies in one’s commitment to protect freedom for all — not only for one, not only for some. This nation does not belong to one particular race, religion or ethnicity. Rather, this nation is one that has progressed over generations to form a more perfect union through tolerance and acceptance, through progress and protection for those seeking to realize a peaceful, free and worthwhile existence.

This mindset has forced us all to expand our horizons and to overcome the prejudices of our ancestors. It has expanded this nation from a mere experiment of democracy to a thriving society built upon the foundations of freedom and opportunity. It has truly made this country exceptional, and it is our responsibility, as advocates of freedom and descendants of immigrants, to never forget that America is a land of opportunity not for some, but for all.

Write to Matt at [email protected].