LETTER: It’s our turn to welcome immigrants

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, November 14, 2017

I have been volunteering as an English as a Second Language teacher at St. John Vianney Catholic Church for five years. For the past three years, I have recruited high school students and adult volunteers to provide homework help and babysitting to the children of the participants during our class. Students in the class are usually Spanish speakers, although occasionally speakers of other languages have attended. I enjoy getting to know these people who work very hard at learning English.

Students sometimes ask me why I teach this class. I tell them the story of my family. On my father’s side, three of my four great-grandparents came from Ireland to escape the potato famine. One of these was a young girl who came from an Irish orphanage to America and was carrying a letter from an Irish bishop. The bishop described my great-grandmother as “a godfearing girl who has been in the care of the sisters at the orphanage for 10 years.” He recommended that someone in America hire her as a maid. The fourth great-grandparent on my father’s side of the family was the child of Irish immigrants who came to the U.S. before the famine. Most of my ancestors on my mother’s side of the family immigrated from England before the American Revolution. One of my great-great-grandmothers on that side of the family was Cherokee.

I explain to students that my family story is typical of the story of most U.S. citizens. My husband’s ancestors all immigrated from Germany and Ireland, seeking a better life. Most U.S. citizens only need to go back a few generations to find their immigrant ancestors. Americans are immigrants. Someone welcomed my ancestors. Now it is my turn.

— Lynne Ameling