Nation’s immigrant history could be saving grace for Russian’s doomsday predictions for U.S.

LatinaLista — A Russian diplomat is making some bold predictions for the United States. Not for 2009 but for 2010. That’s when Igor Panarin says the US will be plagued by such a moral and economic collapse that the country will be split into six sections.

Igor Panarin
According to the former KGB analyst who currently is dean of the Russian foreign ministry’s academy for future diplomats:

The six parts he sees the US in include the Pacific coast, which has a growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, “where independence movements are on the rise”; the Atlantic coast that already has a distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states being “under the influence” of Canada.

At this point, nobody is taking Panarin’s predictions seriously. Especially, since he sees such a disintegration of the country happening within two years and various countries like Canada, Mexico, and of course, Russia, divving up the country for their own profits.
Given his background and expertise though, Panarin should have realized that there is one thing that throws a wrench into all of his careful analysis — our immigrant past, present and future.

Popular assumption is that mass immigration is a destabilizing force, if not to a country’s economy, to its national identity.
We certainly see that happening in Europe with immigrant communities going on rampages throughout countries from Greece to Spain. As one British columnist noted:

My old job as Europe correspondent based in Brussels led me to spend a lot of time in cities that struck me as powder kegs – and indeed became powder kegs in the case of Rotterdam following the murder of Pim Fortyn, and Antwerp following the Muslim street riots (both of which I covered as a journalist). Lille, Strasbourg, Marseilles, Amsterdam, Brussels, all seemed inherently unstable, and I do not get the impression that the big cities of Spain and Italy are taking kindly to new immigrants.

Since these countries and their volatile relationships with new immigrants sit on the doorstep of Russia, it’s not surprising that Panarin would assume that the same will happen in the United States.
Yet, speaking from my Latina perspective, the one difference between an immigrant coming to the United States versus another country, is that most of these people already feel they are American. Given the popularity of American pop culture, there is an instant link to this country – most times before the immigrants even arrive.
And while it’s been said so often that it’s considered a nauseating cliche, it is true that we are a “Nation of Immigrants” — we now have a President that exemplifies it — and as such, we have a unique history with immigration that most countries can’t share nor fathom how to replicate.
It’s taken years but immigrant labor wasn’t just used to build this country’s infrastructure, it was used to build our society. While each of our ethnic groups are proud to speak of “the family roots” and may still speak the “mother tongue,” it doesn’t diminish the feeling of being “American and knowing that we are American.
It is laughable to think that the U.S. would allow itself to be divided, especially faulting Hispanics or Chinese, because the reasons why our parents or forefathers came to this country are as much a part of the family stories as what they accomplished once they got here.
The United States is strong enough to resist Panarin’s predictions because we do have such a strong immigrant history that has educated generations to the fact that the United States is a country worth sticking together for — while the government figures out how to handle the economy.