I've been spending a lot of time around immigrant students, lately, teenagers from all over the world. Some have been exposed to extreme trauma, fled violence, lived in refugee camps. Some have had much more ordinary lives. All find themselves in the U.S. trying to sort out how to reconcile or blend their traditions, the lives of their parents, with the American youth culture they encounter at middle and high school.
The children are diverse in ways that extend beyond their point of origin or their varied cultures. Some are shy. Others are anything but. Some love school, others, well, not so much.
I've long studied immigration, but much in the same way that I studied West Africa. It wasn't until I went there and experienced for myself that I was deeply affected by it.
And so I find myself deeply affected by these young people, by their ready gifts of friendship, their openness, their determination and optimism.
In today's polarized and often poisoned political culture, liberals and conservatives often divide over immigration, with conservatives fearing that such people might dilute American culture. Yet immigrants are often deeply conservative. Most have strong religious beliefs, a ferocious work ethic, and a deep commitment to their families. The other day in one class we discussed the tension between commitment to family and pursuing one's dreams. Students strongly asserted that they would not live apart from their parents to pursue any dream, not after the sacrifices their parents had made for them. Some had tears in their eyes as they spoke about how much their families meant to them.
It makes a person think about what life is for, in the end, which I think is a great benefit of cosmopolitanism, of seeking contact with a variety of cultures. Cosmopolitanism may seem like a liberal idea, but it often leads to more conservative (if "conservative" is defined in a traditional sort of way rather than as whatever the Republican Party currently favors) points of view.
