C. Daniel Boling

Lyrics

ALL OF US ARE IMMIGRANTS
©2023 C. Daniel Boling - Perfectly Stable Music / ASCAP

Juan arrived from Cuba just a couple weeks ago
Ernesto came a few years back from deep in Mexico
Fernanda made it yesterday from six months on the run
She fled her home in Chile when the cartel killed her son

Tony’s parents came from China eight decades ago
He served the U.S. Government for 30 years or so
1889 without a penny in his hand
My great grandfather worked his passage here from Ireland

No one knows for sure when that first wand’ring, hunting band
Walked across the Bering Sea when part of it was land
They might have been excited and they may have been afraid
Like millions who came later on they put down roots and stayed

Fleeing persecution with a future far from certain
Or shackled in a slaving ship, kidnapped, sick and hurting
Or seeking out the great unknown, a youth of barely twenty
Leaving famine-stricken shores to find the land of plenty

All of us are immigrants no matter when we got here
Some of us came willingly and some of us were brought here
We may believe we should get more because we got here first
I have Native friends who say that’s not the way it works

No one knows for sure when that first wand’ring, hunting band
Walked across the Bering Sea when part of it was land
They might have been excited and they may have been afraid
Like millions who came later on they put down roots and stayed