The thinking in the USA seems to be that either you're an immigrant or you're not, with no distinction between the variation of cultures. That's the ideal in s

The thinking in the USA seems to be that either you're an immigrant or you're not, with no distinction between the variation of cultures. That's the ideal in some of the USA, but it's by no means the historical norm. The traditional thinking in the USA has always been that either you're an immigrant from Awesome Culture X or Y, and therefore the salt of the earth, or you're from Despised Culture Z or Q, and therefore a dangerous foreign influence that needs to be controlled. The darkly amusing feature of our culture is the routine reshuffling of the categories.