Traditional vs. National Migration

            When studying the narratives of the ancient-Jews in the Exodus story, the Jewish immigrants in Bread Givers, and the Pilgrims in Of Plymouth Plantation, we can see that there are many similarities and many differences when we compare them to the traditional Immigrant stories.

 In the Exodus story, the Jews were living in Egypt and were subject to slavery by the Egyptians. The Lord told Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and He would take them to the “promised land.” So the Israelites left Egypt and traveled as one group towards Canaan. Of course, the Israelites did not get to go straight to Canaan, they had to cross the Red Sea and wonder in the desert for forty years. When they got to Canaan, they were not supposed to assimilate with the Canaanites at all. They were supposed to live by the Lord’s laws that He had given them. They were not to intermarry or share any of the same religious beliefs with the Canaanites.

Although the Exodus story is very different from the traditional immigrant story, it also has some similarities. The Jews did go through some of the basic stages of the immigrant narrative. For instance, they left the Old World because of oppression and journeyed to the New World. When they got to the New World, they did experience shock at how differently the Canaanites lived. Eventually, some of the Israelites did experience stage 4 which is assimilation to the culture. They were punished by God for not following His commands.

The Pilgrims had much the same experience as the ancient Jews did. The Pilgrims left Europe and came to America (with a few stops in between). The Pilgrims also felt called by God to leave their land and travel to a new land, so they all packed up and traveled as a group. They had a very rigorous trip with many hardships and delays. When they finally got to America, they became the dominant culture because they saw the Indians as savages who had no culture. They build their own communities and eventually some of the Indians assimilated into their culture as well as other people who migrated to America later.

As the Jews had some similarities with the traditional immigrant narrative, so did the Pilgrims. They too left the old world because they did not feel they were being treated fairly by the king, and they felt called by God to start their own community. Upon arriving in America they were in shock at how the natives were such savages and the land was so barren.

The ancient Jews and the Pilgrims were very much alike. They both decided to leave the Old World because of oppression, they both traveled in a large group instead of individually as families, both groups were very dependent on God and saw themselves as God’s chosen people. Neither group wanted to assimilate with the culture they were going into, but instead, they became the dominant culture.

Another group that does not quite fit into the traditional immigrant story, but is a little different from the mass migration groups are the Jews in Bread Givers. These Jews came to America in smaller groups. They left the Old World to escape oppression and gain freedom in America, but they still did not really assimilate with the dominant culture. Most of the Jews lived in New York and all lived in a community together with no outsiders. The only way they assimilated is if they left the group and moved away, which is exactly what the character, Sara, did. She did not agree with some of the Jewish customs that her father forced upon her and her family and she wanted to be able to choose for herself. After watching her sisters grow up in misery being ruled by their father, she finally decided to leave and get a life of her own.

This set of immigrants is sort of the middle group. They did not travel as a large group and they did not really become the dominant culture in the country they moved to, but they did keep their own community together and did not really assimilate with the dominant culture.

As you can see, all of these groups are unique. Each group has some qualities that set it apart from the others, but they all have some things in common with the traditional immigrant narrative as well.  [SM]