"how national migration differs from the traditional immigrant story"

The Exodus story, Of Plymouth Plantation, and Bread Givers all tell the story of a national migration.  Although each story is about a different culture, each is an example of how national migration differs from the traditional immigrant story.

The dominant culture immigration story differs from that of other immigrants.  As pointed out in Objective 4, when there is a national migration, there is no intention of that group to assimilate to the culture they arrive in.  Because it is the dominant culture moving in, they have the freedom to do that.  The culture that is moved in on by the dominant culture has to decide to either assimilate or be outsiders.  Three examples of national migration are the ancient Jews, Pilgrims, and more recently, the Mormons.

            The Exodus story tells of how the ancient Jews leave Egypt to Canaan.  They were being mistreated by the Pharaoh, so as a group they left for the “promised land.”  On their journey God spoke to them through Moses.  By doing this the disbelievers were either killed or left behind, thus keeping the culture together.  The Pilgrims also fled because they were being mistreated.  When they arrived in Holland they realized they were not staying together as a dominant culture.  This prompted them to move on to what we now know as early North America.  In Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford tells the story of the national migration and how the Pilgrims became the dominant culture when they arrived.  The American Indians were already in North America, but the Pilgrims outnumbered them and refused to assimilate, therefore becoming the dominant culture.  The Mormons had this same mindset when they relocated from the Midwest to Utah in the 1800s.

            Although the dominant culture migration and the traditional migration stories differ, there are also similarities.  At some point in either story, both may experience any of the five stages of the immigrant narrative listed in Objective 2.  With the Pilgrims and ancient Jews, they both left the Old World (stage 1) because of oppression or mistreatment by their ruler.  The journey to the New World (stage 2) was also experience by the Pilgrims and ancient Jews.  There was shock when arriving in the New World (stage 3), but because they came in as the dominant culture, there was not discrimination.

            The similarities in the national migration story and the traditional immigrant stories show that no matter how someone gets to the New World, they are considered immigrants.  It’s the differences in how they arrive in the New World, how they are treated upon arrival into the New World, how they react once they are in their new surroundings that makes the story either a dominant culture migration or a traditional migration. [CA]