Immigration and the Desire for Rootedness

National conservatives need to help create an America that knows who she is, one that can give immigrants more than just a place to get a job—an America that can draw them in, giving them a sense of belonging. This essay is based on remarks delivered at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, DC, on July 15, 2019.

Excerpt: Simone Weil said in The Need for Roots, “to be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul . . . Every human being needs to have multiple roots. It is necessary for him to draw well nigh the whole of his moral, intellectual, and spiritual life by way of the environment of which he forms a natural part.” I see rootedness as something due to every human being, as part of their human dignity. Without it, man is cut off from the very elements that make him who he is.

Public Discourse, July 22, 2019.

See also Luma Simms, “Rootedness and National Identity in the Twenty-First Century,” in Ann Ward, ed., Polis, Nation, Global Community The Philosophic Foundations of Citizenship, New York: Routledge (2022), chapter 9.

Luma Simms, a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies the life and thought of immigrants.

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