Abstract

Buoyed by the broken-record Dobbs screed, the issue of immigration has once again risen to the apogee of our political discourse. Linda Chavez has noted that talk about immigration and immigration reform has rarely been this ubiquitous - or this "misinformed, misleading, and ahistorical." With a changing dynamic of who comes here and why, and where they settle, many Americans must deal with immigrants in a way they have never had to before. This Note proceeds to explore various images of immigrants and immigration from our Western mythology - both the myths of the "ancestors" (ancient Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians) and the "inheritors" (Americans). The Note's ultimate conclusion is that we can distill from the classical Greek code of hospitality ("guest-friendship") certain lessons that are valuable precisely because they are rooted in a practical and practicable ethic.