Where Are the Nations of Immigrants?

Even while the United States, along with many European states, remains embroiled in negative debates about the importance and role of immigration for their societies and economies, many Americans continue to celebrate the USA as a model “nation of immigrants.” The national mythology of the American “nation of immigrants” is no simple product of demography. Few in the United States or elsewhere realize that the demographic and cultural impact of international migration—past and present—has been much greater on other countries, including Canada, Australia, France, and Argentina. Why did historically significant migrations, affecting many nations, produce so few self-conscious “nations of immigrants”? This lecture examines a diverse group of countries with high rates of mobility of foreigners to try to answer that question. It also asks whether, in our own changing times, Canada might attempt to replace the United State as the twenty-first century's paradigmatic “nation of immigrants.”