“For a Haitian family in Springfield, Ohio, the house on Chestnut Avenue represented their future in this country. They’re now wondering what can be salvaged,” a recent feature in the Washington Post described. The article — one of several of its kind — attempts to elicit empathy for hard-working, religious Haitian immigrants, trying to grasp their slice of the American dream. In that respect, the WaPo largely achieves its goal. The pro-immigration rhetoric, however, is not only about celebrating diligent émigrés — it’s about maligning the blue-collar Americans they’ve come to replace.
