Nicholas Gallagher on Jewish History and America’s Immigration Crisis

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2019

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In February 2019, after a protracted legislative battle over funding his long-promised wall, President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border of the United States. The legality of this proclamation will be hashed out in the courts, but even the Trump Administration’s opponents agree that the immigration system is in sore need of reform.

At the heart of our immigration debate is a distinction between “refugees” fleeing persecution, and “migrants” seeking new opportunities in the United States. Nicholas Gallagher proposes in Mosaic’s March 2019 essay that Jewish history can help explain why these categories no longer serve our policy debate. Viewing America’s current predicament through the lens of the Jewish immigrant experience, Gallagher’s essay illuminates the messy realities of human migration and helps clarify the difficult questions before America’s leaders.

In this podcast, Gallagher sits down with Tikvah’s Jonathan Silver for a conversation about his piece. They explore the varied causes of historical Jewish migration, the difficulty inherent in applying legal categories to complex human realities, and how a fuller understanding of the Jewish immigrant experience can point the way toward clarity in confronting America’s immigration mess.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble as well as “Great Feeling” by Alex Kizenkov.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In February 2019, after a protracted legislative battle over funding his long-promised wall,
0:14.1	President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border of the United States.
0:19.3	The legality of the president's declaration is going to be hashed out in the courts.
0:23.3	But whether the proclamation stands or not, even the administration's opponents agree
0:27.9	that our immigration policy is in sore need of repair.
0:31.8	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver.
0:35.7	At the heart of the policy questions surrounding immigration
0:38.5	is the distinction between a refugee who is fleeing persecution and a migrant who arrives at the
0:44.8	border of the United States in search of opportunities for a better life. In the March 2019
0:49.9	essay in Mosaic, Nicholas Gallagher proposes that Jewish history offers a different way of thinking
0:55.7	about America's immigration crisis. His mosaic essay is our focus in today's conversation.
1:02.2	If you enjoy this week's show, you can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify,
1:07.3	and I hope you leave us a five-star review. Those reviews really help us grow this community of ideas.
1:12.4	We'd love to hear your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes, and we welcome
1:16.9	your email at podcast at ticfa fund.org.
1:20.7	If you'd like to learn more about our work at Tikva, you can visit our website, tikfafund.org,
1:25.7	and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Here now is my conversation
1:29.0	with Nicholas Gallagher. Nicholas Gallagher, welcome to the Tikva podcast. Thanks for having me
1:34.4	with you. How do people think about immigration right now? Well, obviously, it's a huge subject,
1:38.7	and people think about it a lot of different ways, but one that is particularly politically salient
1:43.1	is what's going on at
1:44.1	the southern border, where you suddenly have tens of thousands approaching hundreds of thousands
	...

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