Ronald Reagan Quotes

Traditionally, the ideology of the United States nationhood perpetuated the myth that immigrants would shed their particularistic ethnic identities and loyalties. Eventually these “strangers” would be assimilated into a homogeneous body politic that was based on the equality of individual rights.

It is often not even wise to try to make an American of the best of aliens.

The unifying characteristics that make us Americans are becoming more and more diluted now because new immigrants want to set up ethnic enclaves to retain their culture and language.

America is transplanted Europe, but a Europe that has not been disintegrated and scattered in the transplanting as in some Dispersion. Its colonies live here inextricably mingled, yet not homogeneous. They merge but they do not fuse.

A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American. And the man who goes among you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and Stripes.

Just because you came here in 1880, 1950, whenever, you became an American. You get to celebrate July 4th like every other American. You don't just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.

People from all over the world came to America and assimilated into a single culture rooted in the founding, which is rooted in individual liberty and primacy of citizen over government. Everybody who came here, that's what drew them.

The making of an American begins at that point where he himself rejects all other ties, any other history, and adopts the vesture of his adopted land.

What goes into the Melting Pot determines what shall come out of it.

I was born in Australia and am proud of my Australian provenance, but I am now an American. Like so many naturalized citizens, I felt that I was an American before I formally became one.

Before the United States, there wasn't really anyplace anybody could go. They had to seek refuge in other ways. After the United States was founded, it became the place you go, and the people who came assimilated into a single culture that was shared in a way. Everything the left claims to want is exactly what this country started out doing. It was multicultural, we had the Italians, we had the Irish, we had everybody.

America gave the world the notion of the melting pot - an alchemical cooking device wherein diverse ethnic and religious groups voluntarily mix together, producing a new, American identity. And while critics may argue that the melting pot is a national myth, it has tenaciously informed the America's collective imagination.

You know that American dream and American spirit of innovation we always talk about? Turns out, the bulk of it was built by people who came to America from somewhere else, not people born American. We have no birthright or natural lock on these things.

America is the sum of all our journeys as we search for our national community and our national culture.

Jews are the intensive form of any nationality whose language and customs they adopt.

The Africans know I'm not an African. I'm an American.

It takes more than just walking across the border to become an American citizen. It's what's in our souls.

In grade school I was taught that the United States is a melting pot. People from all over the world come here for freedom and to pursue a better life. They arrive with next to nothing, work incredibly hard, learn a new language and new customs, and in a generation they become an integral part of our amazing nation.

I became an American in 2006. It got me thinking about what is my America and what's my perception of America.

Assimilation is what has made America great.

We [native-born] could not choose, but they [immigrants] could and did choose to be Americans.

… mongrel nation

Immigrants to the United States usually arrive with a willingness to fit into their new country and reshape their identities accordingly.

Part of America's genius has always been its ability to absorb newcomers, to forge a national identity out of the disparate lot that arrived on our shore.

We used to have a view that to really be a good Australian, to love Australia, you almost had to cut your links with the country of origin. But I don’t think that was right and it never was right.