On Faith: Social Darwinism and immigration

John Nassivera On Faith ~ Feb 15, 2025

Full disclosure: I’m writing this column from the city of Merida on the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico, a country where I spend a fair amount of time each year — a country, and a people, close to my heart. I’m also an American whose grandfather was born in Italy, and I’m a Roman Catholic. I admit I have a certain bias. All of the above puts me some distance away from the MAGA model citizen. I myself am certainly not at any disadvantage in this country today due to my heritage, however …

When my grandfather, Carmelo, came here with his family in 1912, Italians were not especially welcome, but the immigration rules were quite wide open until the Immigration Act of 1924. My family came from a small town with very few opportunities. My immigrant ancestors were considered “inferior southern Europeans;” they spoke a southern European language; and they were Roman Catholics. The adherents of social Darwinism and eugenics were teaching, in college and in print, that Italian blood was inferior to Nordic blood.

Where did this idea come from? It came from Charles Darwin, who was a white supremacist (but was antislavery). See his 1871 book, “The Descent of Man,” which makes his supremacist position clear; also see, for example, “Darwin’s Racism, Sexism, and Idolization: Their Tragic Societal and Scientific Repercussions,” by Rui Diogo (Springer Press, 2024). But most especially, this idea came from Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton (1822-1911).

Galton was a brilliant polymath who received many scientific awards in his lifetime. He was also the originator of the ‘sciences’ of social Darwinism and eugenics. These were disciplines that purported to prove — via Darwinian principles — that certain humans (i.e., northern Europeans) had evolved to become inherently superior to all others; and the ‘science’ of eugenics was to weed out the inferior and encourage the superior. It caught on like wildfire in universities and hospitals in the western world. Higher education is no guarantee of higher morality. The Catholic Church was just about the only international organization that refused to step on board.

The foremost eugenics center in the world was established in 1910 on Long Island, New York, at Cold Spring Harbor — with Carnegie Foundation funding. The buildings are still there today. The center’s work led directly to the idea “Aryan races” should rule the world, and this highly influenced Hitler’s eugenics in Germany. This pseudoscience was bad, bad stuff. The eugenics center on Long Island was forced to shut down in 1939 after many scientists, including Franz Boas, of Columbia University, realized that the research conducted there was highly flawed and even fabricated.

The impact of this junk science was totally horrific and very responsible for the Holocaust. Despite this, its impact is still being felt today. It is being felt in the immigration policies of our current administration in the U.S. Instead of southern Europeans, it is now South and Mezo Americans who are in the crosshairs. They are also Catholic and they speak a southern European language. Are you sensing a pattern here?

Yes, when my grandfather came here there were some members of the notorious Italian mafia that managed to arrive as well. They were a minuscule number of the Italians that arrived. And yes, there are a minuscule number of Latino “mafia” members getting in today. But the clear fact is the vast, vast majority of these immigrants turn into law-abiding, hard-working members of society whose labor was and is very much needed.

What does all of this have to do with a column series labeled “On Faith?” A good deal. The Christian faith teaches we are obligated to treat “foreigners living among us” with kindness and respect. For example, Leviticus 19:34: “You must treat the foreigner living among you as a native-born and love him as yourself, for you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt;” and Paul’s Letter to the Romans 12:9-13: “When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.” Many other examples can be found. This is a major tenet of Christianity.

However, Christian nationalists today in the U.S. claim their reading of the Bible supports anti-immigrant policies and programs. This is a position that should be anathema to any well-informed Christian. Unfortunately, many, if not most, Christian nationalists do not even accept Catholics are part of “God’s people.” (See “The Bible in Christian Nationalist Rhetoric,” by Samuel L. Adams, Sage Journals, 14 Oct. 2024, available online.)

Bishop Mariann Budde of the Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, spoke truth to power when she said at the Inauguration Prayer Service last month, where Trump was present: “The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. … Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger for we were all once strangers in this land.”

The Catholic Church is also clear about immigration. The U.S. Conference of Bishops has recently produced a document titled “Catholic Social Teaching on Immigration and the Movement of Peoples” (available online) in which one will find: “A nation may not simply decide that it wants to provide for its own people and no others. A sincere commitment to the needs of all must prevail.” And “Undocumented people may be regarded as undeserving of rights and services. This is not the view of Catholic social teaching.” The Catholic Church is very far from perfect, but its teaching about immigration is timely, helpful and humane.

So not only is the current White House immigration policy going against almost 2,000 years of Christian teaching, it is also reverting to a social Darwinist way of thinking rejected by science almost 100 years ago. What an unholy mess.

To those who insist we don’t need God in our thinking to maintain humane and ethical government and international relations, I have to ask: How do you think we got to this place where our government is planning mass deportations of millions of Spanish-speaking people? We are here mostly because, from a purely secular, nationalist and selfish position, this is held to be the “best and most efficacious” way to “make America great again.” We got here also because we now have a president, and a righthand man, who seem to have not a shred of Christian faith or charity in their make up.

The world is becoming smaller and smaller. Economies and cultures are becoming more and more intertwined. To quite a considerable degree, in the West, this has taken place on account of our common Christian heritage — a heritage built upon the idea we are all equal, we are all brothers and sisters. As Paul said in his Letter to the Galatians 3:28, “You are all one in Christ Jesus.” Paul’s point is that, for all those who have chosen to believe in the teachings of Jesus, the only proper way to think is “we are all one” … “neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female.” It’s a tall order, but it’s an order that is the true way to make America great again.

The current administration’s strongly inimical attitude toward Christian Latin American immigrants is over 100 years behind the times. As a nation, we have been here before — only it used to be Italians. Our economy needed the additional labor force 100 years ago and our economy needs the additional labor force today.

But apart from the economics of this immigration, it’s just the right thing to do. Latin Americans are a caring, kind, polite, family-centered and hard-working people. The social Darwinist idea that southern European Catholics (and Latin Americans) don’t belong here was a garbage idea a century ago and it is a garbage idea today. They are our brothers and sisters. They should be welcomed, not expelled. They make American great.

John Nassivera is a former professor who retains affiliation with Columbia University’s Society of Fellows in the Humanities. He lives in Vermont and part time in Mexico.