During the early years of the Nazi era in Germany, it was decided to “purify” German universities which taken as a whole at the time were probably the world’s best, particularly in science. The ethnic and political purge of German Universities that followed brought an end to Germany’s rein as the global capitol of the sciences and led to a corresponding rise of America’s scientific reputation. Germany’s share of Nobel Prize winners plummeted and contemporaneously the proportion of American Nobel Prize winners rose rapidly, with immigrants comprising a growing portion of its Laureate. In 2016, all 6 Nobel Prize winners from the United States were born in other countries.
However, the attitude of the current American administration toward diversity has moved the center of gravity of the entire Republican Party – the governing party at present-toward immigration restrictionism. As Michael Gerson pointed out on May 18, 2018 in the Washington Post, “Mainstream attitudes toward refugees and legal immigration have become more xenophobic. Trump has not only given permission to those on the fringes; he has also changed the Republican mean to be more mean.”
General George Washington, in leading America to a successful outcome in the Revolutionary War, was always short of troops. He had to rely on recruits from many ethnic groups and several religions. At one point 25% of his Army was composed of African Americans that had been freed from slavery. They were among his best fighters. This experience, among others, would cause him to say in 1783 “…America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions….” He was the father of our Country and this principle that he enunciated, among others, must still guide our Country.
-John Jay