Rebecca Kreiser
Reflection 2 of 5
Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community by: Jenna Weissman Joselit
Ramiro Martinez, Aabel Valenzuela, Jr ed., Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity, and Violence
After reading the beginning of Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community and the first chapter of Immigration and Crime: Race, Ethnicity, and Violence, I realized that the anti-immigration rhetoric that we hear today is essentially recycled material. Additionally, I realized that throughout history, anti-immigrant sentiments have almost always been irrational. With this understanding, I posit that many of NYC’s ethnic enclaves strengthened, instead of shrinking, as a natural response to illogical nativist attitudes and treatment.
Many immigrant communities in NYC have faced racism from nativists. For instance, since “the police tended to be overzealous at times in arresting the foreign-born citizenry (Joselit 30),” nativists made their own beliefs come true. Essentially, nativists pushed immigrants living in poor and crowded conditions down, and then asked, “why can’t these people make it in America?” In response to their own question, nativists made claims that immigrant populations did not know how to lead productive lifestyles and were happy to remain leeches on society.
Although unfair, many immigrants were used to such treatment, so instead of questioning it they most likely looked for practical ways to deal with their situation. One obvious way would be by sticking together. When everybody in the neighborhood belongs to the same minority, residents will feel racism to a lesser degree.
Currently, we constantly hear about the connection between immigrants and crime. Why this rhetoric still appeals to people may be due to a lack of historical and statistical knowledge. How many Americans know that studies show that there is no clear evidence that increasing violence is due to an increase in immigrants? Moreover, how many Americans know that some figures suggest “that more immigrants [actually] means less violence (Martinez 12)?”
This week’s readings are significant simply because they use hard evidence to disprove anti-immigration rhetoric. Maybe after reading up on immigrant criminal history and researching current statistics on immigrant crime, more people will be convinced that immigrants are not a threat to the US.
- Do you think most Americans actually know the statistics regarding immigrant criminality?
- If yes, why do you think many still remain anti-immigrant? If no, how can we spread this information more effectively?
