Our New Ungracious Immigrants

The contrast between the grateful immigrants who once embraced America and the resentful newcomers who scorn it reveals how radically — and dangerously — the nation’s immigration ethos has changed.

This analysis is free, but with Premium Membership you get MORE. Join today.

by Victor Davis Hanson
March 24, 2026

The Traditional Immigrant

I grew up in rural California surrounded by hard-working immigrant farm families from Armenia, India, Japan, and Mexico. Their work ethic, love of America, and productive farms were models for U.S. non-immigrants. Such immigrants explained why the San Joaquin Valley was the most productive and richest agricultural region in the nation.

The Greek American Elia Kazan’s 1963 film America, America is a fictional account based on the Herculean struggle of the director’s uncle to immigrate to the United States from an impoverished and hostile Turkish Anatolia.

The film summed up Americans’ traditional view of immigrants: They had risked everything for the chance to reach America, and once there, became hyperpatriotic in their gratitude for the magnanimity of their new hosts.