Immigrants?

In the debate over immigration, it not uncommon for some to refer to the Pilgrims and those who followed them as immigrants. They were not immigrants. An immigrant is one who moves to a foreign nation to take up residence. A colonist is someone who moves to a foreign land to take up residence. The difference is colonists seek to retain their identity and allegiance to their mother country. The original Europeans who landed here in North America were not immigrants, despite the popular slogans to the contrary. They were colonists. They had no interest in assimilating with those who inhabited this land or learning their language and customs. While on occasion it proved useful to know the customs and beliefs of those who originally lived here, there was little effort to adapt to them. The settlers and colonists lived apart from the natives and had no desire to live amongst them. In time, they supplanted the natives through numbers and force and eventually took the land for themselves. It is unlikely the Iroquis and Choctaw viewed Europeans as immigrants any more than the Romans viewed the Gauls as immigrants; though no doubt we would.