When Barack Obama welcomed new immigrants to the U.S., he continued a tradition as old as the nation itself. Even before he became the nation’s first president, George Washington helped establish that tradition:
“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges,” said Washington in 1783.
The U.S. is a nation of immigrants. At times anti-immigrant sentiment has risen, but in each case the nation came to repudiate those views and to welcome its newest citizens as part of the national fabric.
Alexander Hamilton was derided for being an immigrant. (Public domain)
Alexander Hamilton: Hamilton came to the then-British colonies as a penniless, orphaned teenager from the West Indies. As he rose to prominence in the new United States, opponents derided him for his foreign birth. It didn’t work. Today, people know Hamilton as a Founding Father, architect of the U.S. financial system and the man on the $10 bill.
Lawmakers apologize: Chinese laborers flocked to America in the 1850s and 1860s to work in mines and in railroad construction. In 1882, Congress banned further Chinese immigration. Congress would repeal this law and apologize for it. In 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives passed this resolution, introduced by Congresswoman Judy Chu: “Whereas Chinese-Americans continue to play a significant role in the success of the United States; and Whereas the United States was founded on the principle that all persons are created equal: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives regrets the passage of legislation that adversely affected people of Chinese origin in the United States because of their ethnicity.”
The Know Nothings: Active in the 1850s, the American Party, also called the Know Nothings, pledged to limit the influence of Irish Catholics and other immigrants to the United States. Among their opponents: Abraham Lincoln. “I think little better of them than I do of those of the slavery extensionists,” he said in 1855. The future president looked forward to the day that the Know Nothings would be “entirely tumbled to pieces.” They soon were. Later, Americans elected John F. Kennedy, a Catholic of Irish heritage, to the presidency.
“Throughout our history, immigrants have embraced the spirit of liberty, equality, and justice for all — the same ideals that stirred the patriots of 1776 to rise against an empire, guided the Framers as they built a stronger republic, and moved generations to bridge our founding promise with the realities of our time.”
Restaurants are one path to success for Ethiopian Americans. (State Dept./D.A. Peterson)
When Johannes Argay decided to open a small market selling food and spices from his native Ethiopia, he wasn’t intimidated by all the competition at Build America Plaza in Falls Church, Virginia, where dozens of shops bear orange-and-brown signs in English and Amharic.
“It depends on the quality,” says Argay, who formerly owned a restaurant in New York City. Opening a cooler case, he adds, “This fresh injera especially, we get every morning from Dulles Airport, direct from home. This is the best injera in the city.”
Business owner Johannes Argay at his Showa Baltena Market, in Falls Church, Virginia. Argay’s store sells Ethiopian food and spices — and organic food grown on all-American Amish farms. (State Dept./D.A. Peterson)
Injera is the crepe-like bread made from the grain teff on which spicy Ethiopian food is served and eaten communally by hand. It’s a dining experience that many Americans savor.
“Americans love Ethiopian food,” says Ethiopian émigré Yeshimebeth “Tutu” Belay. “We use our hands to eat and we share — that’s the biggest thing. The outfits, the songs, the language and alphabet, all these things are attractions.”
Belay was determined to open her own business after moving to Washington in the late 1980s. “I knew if I did 8-to-5, I’d never accomplish my dream,” she explains.
She and husband Yehunie Belay, a well-known Ethiopian singer, first ran a restaurant in Washington’s historically African-American Shaw neighborhood. Eventually, she carved out her own business niche, compiling information on Ethiopian businesses, doctors, lawyers and others and soliciting advertisers for her Ethiopian Yellow Pages.
Yeshimebeth “Tutu” Belay, publisher of the Ethiopian Yellow Pages, displays her latest telephone directory. (State Dept./D.A. Peterson)
Her business directory, now a 600-page tome published annually, has expanded along with the area’s Ethiopian population.
Little Ethiopia
Many Ethiopians fled their homeland in the 1980s because of political turmoil and a famine that lasted from 1983 to 1985. In 1980, the U.S. Census Bureau counted just 10,000 Ethiopian immigrants. Three decades later, the census counted 251,000 Ethiopian immigrants and children. And while thousands have settled in Minneapolis, Seattle, Atlanta and other cities, the greater Washington area has the country’s largest concentration, with 35,000 residents of Ethiopian descent, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Some community leaders believe the number actually exceeds 200,000.
What draws so many Ethiopians to Washington?
“They know it’s the capital,” explains Tsehaye Teferra, president of the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), who earned a doctorate in sociolinguistics at Washington’s Georgetown University. “It has some resemblance to how migration happens in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa is the city of government, commerce and education. In the provinces, after high school, where do you go for employment or further training? The logical place is the capital.”
In Washington, many recent Ethiopian immigrants drive taxicabs and park cars. Bereket Woldu began working part time for Colonial Parking in college and rose to become senior vice president. Now an executive with Forge, Colonial’s parent company, Woldu estimates 10,000 Ethiopians have worked in Colonial’s ubiquitous parking lots and garages over the years, making it “one of the highest if not the highest employer of Ethiopians outside the homeland.”
Bereket Woldu, an executive at Colonial Parking’s parent company, poses outside the entrance to one of the firm’s many garages. (State Dept./D.A. Peterson)
“Birds of a feather flock together,” says Woldu, who notes it is a job that even those with limited English can perform. “You didn’t have to say much. If you smiled and said hello, your customer service ability overcame deficiencies in language.”
Heran Sereke-Brhan, deputy director of the Washington mayor’s Office on African Affairs, says Ethiopian Airlines’ direct flight to Washington from Addis Ababa also helps boost the region’s Ethiopian population. The airline began twice-a-week flights in 1998 and switched to daily service in 2010.
“Generations followed each other here,” Sereke-Brhan notes. For Ethiopians who encountered difficulties getting educational or professional credentials recognized, driving a taxi or taking other service jobs “is the default pattern if you have to make a living to support your family. People make ends meet, and it’s an honest day’s work.”
In the 1990s, Ethiopian restaurants helped revitalize Washington’s now-trendy Adams Morgan neighborhood. When rents became too pricey, many moved to the U Street area and contributed to the rejuvenation of that neighborhood.
The Vegetarian Combination Platter, offering different Ethiopian dishes, is a customer favorite at the Bati Restaurant and Lounge in Falls Church, Virginia. (State Dept./D.A. Peterson)
Dereje Desta publishes Zethiopia, a monthly newspaper for the region’s Ethiopian community. He says that while taxi drivers and parking-lot attendants “are more visible, a lot of Ethiopians are professionals. Go into the Patent Office and hospitals and you’ll hear Amharic spoken. Ethiopians are everywhere.”
Mike Endale, a vice president of BLEN Corp., a software development company founded by Ethiopians, thinks Ethiopian immigrants “have made the D.C. area much more vibrant.” Newer immigrants are “much more in tune with the American system by the time they land. They understand the value of credit lines and how to take out a loan. We’re entering the upper middle classes very easily now.”
Six diners — including waitress Lula, at right — enjoy a friendly meal together at the Bati Restaurant and Lounge in Falls Church, Virginia. (State Dept./D.A. Peterson)
Mehari Goytom just opened a restaurant and pastry shop in Build America Plaza called Viva Africa. It is open 16 hours a day. “This is the beginning. We must work hard,” says Goytom. “It’s good to live here. Here it’s freedom.”
A few storefronts away, that’s how Argay sees the future, too. “I have [the] American dream like everybody. I know one day I’ll be a success. God will help me. God bless America.”
In the United States, Spanish is the most commonly spoken language other than English, a sign of the impact of immigration and the proximity of Latin America to the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey delves further into other languages spoken at home in the United States, and it shows how the patterns of immigration have shaped the country.
The maps below show America’s diversity as seen through languages spoken at home.
U.S. President Donald Trump today announced that he is starting the process of terminating the Diversity Visa Lottery Program.This announcement comes after the NYC terror attack where he alleged terrorists enter the U.S. through the program. It also comes after his backed proposals for changes to the country's immigration system,the so called ''merit based'' system.
The changes in the RAISE Act (the initials stand for Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment) would attempt to reduce the number of legal immigrants by 50% over the next 10 years.
Bad thing is: Under these proposals, the Diversity Visa(DV) Lottery program will be cancelled.
Millions of people a year apply to this DV Lottery, and 50,000 are successful. The diversity immigrant visa program was started more than two decades ago by order of Congress. It is a way to get in to the US without having the family links or employment prospects required for the other methods.
Good thing is: The proposals are a long way off being made law. They are likely to face resistance in Congress.
The system would prioritise English speakers, and those who can support themselves and their families financially and demonstrate skills that contribute to the US economy.
Applicants would have to get at least 30 points, as judged by their:
Highest educational qualification: 13 points for a US doctorate; one point for a US or foreign high school diploma
Age: people over 50 would get no points, with younger people being judged on a sliding scale from two to 10 points
Ability at English, as judged by a test
Future salary: 13 points for a job offer that paid 300% of the median for their destination state
Investments: 12 points for a $1.8 million investment in a US business
Achievements: 15 points for an Olympic medal, 25 points for a Nobel prize
