Ugh, have you met my Mama?

(I’m joking of course, I dislike neither her nor immigrants generally)

It could be a perspective thing. Children of immigrants possibly don’t see themselves as immigrants or even adjacent.

One other thought I had was about trust fund kids thinking they “worked as hard as anyone else” for their riches. For example, I remember when Bezos was building Amazon. He certainly did work hard to build that site, but the benefits of the loan his parents provided cannot be overlooked or forgotten. Same thing with Elon… most rich people, for that matter.

Raised by immigrant grandparents here, parents were born here. They don’t care. My parents have zero concept of what immigrant challenges my grandparents faced.

Dad is immigrant. Boy does he HATE immigrants.

Its the old “pull ladder up” thing I think.

They feel they suffered more than the other ones do.

Because they came in legally and those who didn’t should leave. Never mind that the folks who came legally were privileged, and those who didn’t, didn’t have that same flexibility of time and money to do it legally.

Cuban here, like many others have said “burning the ladder behind you”

but adding to it. In my opinion it has to do with seeing a reflection of your past self and associating the difference with positive progress then being disgusted by your own struggle and putting that emotion on your next of kin.

Yes it’s frustrating to be born in a third world country and have to come legally in a raft and have to work for under minimum wage for multiple years to be able to afford even the most basic necessities … but it’s important to remember where you come from and to use that disgust to make the world a better place so that no one else has to go thru the same.

Pulling the ladder up behind you is a fundamental and ugly part of human nature

they got theirs, fuck everyone who comes after. literally pulling the ladder up behind themselves

I grew up in the Midwest as a child of a Mexican and American. By 16, I was regurgitating Ben Shapiro anti-immigration rhetoric. Why?

The same reason anyone is racist. I grew up around it. The people I knew and loved were white and that was reflected in the media I was exposed to. Subliminal messages and implied suggestions over entire childhood. They might claim they don’t like the illegal, but the truth is that they’ve internalized the hatred of the culture they identify with.

I suspect that it might be some form of hidden feeling of guilt.

people immigrate here, and feel guilty for intruding. then, they take up some form of anti-immigrant sentiment as a form of self-punishment?

Depending on where they’re immigrating from, there can be bigotry internal to the source culture that they bring with them. For example the Indian caste system. From the outside we just see people from India, but there’s a ton we’re missing.

It’s always baffled me. As the grandchild of an immigrant I’ve always felt it was only right to welcome in the folks who want so badly to be one of us.

It’s like people that come from poor backgrounds that vote to make it harder for people to level up…I’m assuming it’s a similar line of thinking.

Do immigrants even like other immigrants? They’re basically competition