Speech #860244654

I would advise you to do so. He found out that in Tunisia itself there are still 51.702 Italian nationals who are livIng in complete destitution. There are already In Italy 35.196 refugees. more than half of whom are living in the refugee camps whose precarious conditions I have already d scribed. Not all of them came of course from Tunisia. Many are from Venezia Giulia or from the Communist zone of Trieste. How anyone can expect to absorb the 50.000 or more who axe still in Tunisia. I for one. cannot possibly understand. Have you ever had the good fortune or it might be better to say the unhappiness to see one of these refugees arrive in a camp? He comes with little more than the clothes on his back. perhaps a few precious possessions in a small bag. a handful of consular papers and what little of human selfrespect he has managed to preserve through all his recent years of suffering. This being World Refugee Year some of us were urging Congress to enact another emergency immigration bill to permit a few more refugees to come to the United States as part of our recognition of that year. Together. the judge and I. armed with his very graphic report. appeared before a committee of Congrbss with a plea to have some of these ItalIans from Tunisia included in such a refugee bill. Did we succeed? To put it very bluntly. this particular committee. which happened to be a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee on Immigration. paid no attention to us. As a matter of fact this subcommittee. which is under the chairmanship of Congressman WALTER. wasnt any more receptive to the plea of ourselves and representatives of a number of other large agenciesProtestant. Jewish and nonsectarian as well as Catholic that little groups of refugees from other parts of the world be allowed to come here also. The committee finally passed a resolution. drawn up by Mr. WALTER himself. that will give entry to a limited number of refugees who happen to be fortunate enough to be under the mandate of the High Commission for Refugees. That resolution is under consideration in the Senate right now. but none of us are sanguine enough to even hope that the bill which will probably finally pass both Houses will include any permission for Itallans from Tunisia or anywhere else. It Is rather a sad situation. But It will always be so until enough voices have been raised around the United States demanding a change in our basic immigration policy. As you well know under our sacrosanct national origins quota system only a limited number of persons from certain countries can come over each year. It is true that in the years since the war America has been providing a home and a sanctuary for thousands of people who were displaced by the war but always under emergency legislation and in the beginning they were only permitted to enter through a mortgage placed on the regular quotas of their country of origin. Thanks to your tremendous interest and helpand that of people like yourselves all over the United States. we were able to convince Congress that a fairly substantial number of Italians should also be permitted to enter on this emergency basis over and above th. regular quota. It should amount to about 120.000 in allnot a bad recordbut never lose sight of the fact that it was all done on an emergency basis. But it will take many years of hard work on the part of yourselves and all of us if we are ever to achieve the hopes and dreams of all enlisted under the banner of the American Committee on Italian Migration of a fair and just immigration policy In the United States. You have to always bear In mind the fact that the pages of our American immigration history do not always make the most pleasant reading. They are sometimes filled with accounts of prejudice and discrimination. mistreatment and exploitation. restriction and isolation. of racism and nativisn Fear and distrust of the stranger has not been the least of our sins. The American of today. no less than the descendant of the early colonists. seldom takes an idealistic view of immigration. Over the past 175 years. all of us have been too prone to forget that the only native American was the American Indian. Although our land was peopled by the oppressed. we need to be urged that it is a duty and a privilege to offer a home to others vho are oppressed. Even during those days when immigration was at its height here in the United States. the Italian. the Pole. the German. the Irishman. and other nationalities who came to this country in such great numbers received at best a grudging welcome. And all during those years there were forces at work that would destroy entirely. if they could. the melting pot that in Gods providence had been forged on these shores. It did not matter that the Immigrant came with his tradition. his culturehis faithall of which he desired not to be melted away. but to be woven into a mosaic. rich and colorful. of Old World custom adapted to the New World. An American immigration policy that would permit the entry of. say. 250.000 people a year. would be reasonable. The admission of the immigrants could be based upon our needs. their need for asylum. their relationship to others already in the country and finally their economic needs. It seems that such a system of selection could be established that would be a realistio substitute for the national origins quota system. which is so heavily weighted in favor of those who have no need or desire to come to the United States. We are all aware that our beloved America. with its expanding industry. its farm problem where so many young people are deserting the farms for the cities. still can use and is in need of additional manpower. We know that countries like Italy have more people than their economies possibly can maintain.