VIEWSnThe Pros and Cons of ImmigrationnJACOB NEUSNERnGraduate Research Professor of Humanitiesnand Religious Studies,nUniversity of South FloridanMartin Buber Professor of Judaic Studies,nUniversity of FrankfurtnImmigration nourishes America, affirming the power of itsnnational ideal: a society capable of remaking the entirenworld in the image of humanity in democracy. No countrynin the world other than this distant magnet of ours exercisesnso compelling a power to win for itself the commitment ofnstrangers: we want to be with you and like you, share what isnyours and give what is ours to share. When we lose faith innthe power of this country and its unique social system to takenthe foreigner and make the stranger one of us — in ournimage, after our likeness—and make ourselves over too, wenshall deny the power that has made us unique among othernnations.nThe perpetual encounter with the other, the faith in ournway of life that gives us confidence in our power to changenand to be changed by the stranger—these on-going experiences,nand the attitudes that make them possible, explainnwho we are as a nation. So far as ours is a story bearingndirection and meaning, it is the tale of newcomers coming tonbe changed by, and to change, the country and its land.nOurs has been a history of immigration from the start tontoday: first came the West Europeans and Africans, then thenEast Europeans and Asians, and now South Asians andnLatin Americans, all colors, shapes, sizes, languages. Non14/CHRONICLESnA DEBATEnnnother nation in history and none today exercises such powernover the mind and imagination of outsiders.nThose of us who regard the social order as critical, whonsee the laws and institutions and traditions of this country asnthe best humanity has ever had, must find the immigrants’ncommitment a rich resource for conserving all that wenaffirm. For the immigrant, whether my mother’s grandmother,nleaving as a young woman from Odessa, or thisnmorning’s young Irish woman from Dublin, or young blacknman from Jamaica, or Mexican crossing a border that, anhundred and fifty years ago, did not separate him from hisndestination in the north, looks for a better life, takesninitiative, shows the enterprise that sustains the free economy.nImmigration brings to this country the already grownupnand ready to work, the already educated: a rich investmentnin nurture and education by foreign economies hasnreadied the immigrant for productive work with us, in thisncountry.nThough with Thomas Fleming I find myself in agreementnon most issues, on the real American dilemma, as hencharacterizes immigration, I cannot concur. His seems tonme to be not a conservative position at all, since conservativenopinion has always affirmed the power of received traditionsnand institutions to govern the social order. And our systemnhas not only accommodated difference but has always beennnurtured and perpetually been nourished by it. America hasnstood from the beginning for the capacity to make of anyonena real American. Conservative opinion, favoring as it doesnthe rights and immunities of Americans, cannot now despairnof the tradition that, from the first, has defined this society.nMigration from what he calls the Third World as much asn