Attracting immigrants is not what sets America apart; it’s the ability to make them Americans.
As America nears its 250th anniversary, it is worthwhile to reflect on who the American people are—those who have upheld the nation for two and a half centuries and those who will continue this legacy. A widely repeated but often misunderstood belief in modern American politics is that the United States is a “nation of immigrants.” This phrase, uttered so frequently, obscures the true foundation of American success. The distinguishing feature was never the country’s capacity to attract immigrants but rather its success in turning them into Americans.
The United States is not simply a nation of immigrants; it is a nation of assimilants. While immigration marks arrival, assimilation signifies becoming part of the whole. The most flourishing immigrants do not stay the people they were before entering the country. Instead, they adopt American culture, institutions, and values. Throughout history, people have moved across borders, and various empires and frontier societies have welcomed newcomers, but immigration itself is not an inherently American phenomenon.
What distinguishes the American experience is its ability to convert foreigners into compatriots. Immigrants arrived as Italians, Germans, Irish, Poles, Greeks, Jews, Swedes, Cubans, or Vietnamese, but their offspring became Americans. This transformation is what made the experiment unique. Today, a key question on the political right is whether America is fundamentally a creed or a nation—is it just a collection of ideas accessible to anyone who embraces them, or is it a distinct people tied to a specific land and heritage?
The creed needs the people, and the people need the creed. Without the creed, America risks becoming an ordinary nation-state. Without the people, America remains a mere abstraction. The nation is the product of a blend of ideas and real historical experience. John Jay recognized this when he called Americans in Federalist 2 “one united people” living in “one connected country.” The Constitution was designed not for an abstract humanity but for a population already tied together by common customs, memories, and sentiments.
The Founders did not invent Americans; Americans created the Founding. Later, at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln described America not only as a proposition but also as a nation born in liberty and dedicated to the principle that all men are created equal. The nation gave this principle life and purpose. The creed and the country are inseparable.
A nation goes beyond documents, geography, or even shared political philosophy. It is a community united by common loyalties, memories, institutions, and affections. Malcolm X understood something that many advocates of a purely ideological America miss: true membership demands more than presence or declaration. It calls for joining the people in their shared life.
Theodore Roosevelt similarly emphasized this with unmistakable clarity. In 1919 he wrote:
If the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all.
In essence, assimilation is not about exclusion; it is the route to full membership and equal standing among the American people. Immigrants who embrace assimilation do not forfeit their heritage; instead, they gain a home, a community, and a future to offer their children. George Washington recognized this when he noted that a shared country “has a right to concentrate your affections.” Affection here is not a legal term but an expression of loyalty and belonging—a conviction that this land is yours and that you hold responsibility for its future.
The decline of these “concentrated affections” marks how contemporary America has drifted off course. For decades, we have been told that “diversity is our strength,” referring to the variety of racial and cultural backgrounds immigration brings. Yet diversity, by itself, is not strength. Diversity simply exists as a fact. A nation can be diverse and resilient or diverse and fractured. Diversity alone reveals little; what truly matters is whether a country possesses the cultural confidence to convert diversity into unity.
The Irish, Italians, and Poles did not remain distinct forever. They and their descendants became Americans. They mastered English, adopted American traditions, served in the armed forces, developed American businesses, and married within the society. They traveled across the continent and made America’s history their own. The outcome was not multiculturalism but nationhood.
This explains why the phrase “nation of immigrants” misses the mark. The heart of America has never been immigration itself but assimilation into the American nation. Anyone can become American—that is a great strength—yet not everyone chooses or is willing to.
Anyone may join us, but joining means becoming part of us. This is not exclusion; it is the essence of what creates a nation. Throughout history, every successful nation has required newcomers to adopt the loyalties, responsibilities, and identity of the nation they join. America is no exception. Immigrants who assimilate strengthen the American people not by adding to demographic statistics but by becoming integral to the nation’s fabric.
The assimilant enters the American narrative, inherits its creed, and pledges allegiance to its people, thereby helping to drive the nation’s future. Elon Musk exemplifies this truth. Born in South Africa, he immigrated to the United States, became an American citizen, and established companies that made him the world’s richest person. Through SpaceX, he reinstated American dominance in space exploration and restored national pride after years of dependence on Russian access to space. None of this could have occurred elsewhere. Only America permitted an ambitious immigrant to fully join the nation and create enterprises that profoundly strengthen the country’s technological leadership, industrial power, and strategic standing for generations.
America is neither an abstract idea nor an ethnicity. It is not just an economic zone or a defined territory. America is a community living on land while upholding an idea. This is the legacy forged by past generations and sustained by assimilation.
As we approach our 250th anniversary as a nation, reclaiming the commitment to immigrant assimilation is essential if we wish to remain united under God, indivisible, now and in the future. America is not simply a nation of immigrants but a nation of assimilants, and it must continue as such to thrive for another 250 years.
Original article: www.theamericanconservative.com
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