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In a concise and compelling new study, Mark Krikorian, who heads the Immigration Institute and is the nation's most frequently quoted immigration expert, calmly explains why our current immigration policies must be changed. He addresses both legal and illegal immigration. Didn't all those immigrants in the 1800s and the first half of the 1900s learn English and assimilate? So what's the problem with the immigrants we're getting now? Krikorian has the answers. To a large extent, new immigrants are similar to immigrants of old. The wider world has changed as well. Modern communications enable newcomers to stay in touch with the old country. Improved forms of travel mean that immigrants can more easily return to their native lands, which means they have less at stake in their new country. Highly skilled immigrants tend to come to America with their national identity intact. All this encourages a more "trans-national" view of the world. Changes to immigration laws in 1965 led to a tremendous change in the composition of the immigrant pool. Senator Edward Kennedy specifically stated that he wanted to end the favoring of Europeans over people from the Third World, and his project has succeeded. Mexicans have poured across the border in record numbers in recent years, and all of the aforementioned reasons for "staying in touch" with the homeland are exacerbated by the fact that Mexico shares a huge border with the U.S. Politicians in California and other border states talk openly of strengthening ties with Mexico and making it easier for Mexicans to live here without really becoming Americanized. While illegal immigration gets the headlines, legal immigration is a problem, too. The raw number of newcomers, mostly low-skilled and poorly educated, are putting downward pressure on lower and middle class wages of natives. Poll after poll shows that Americans want less immigration (and less pollution, less ethnic rivalry, and more affordable land for housing) but the political elites haven't been listening. Another problem is the negative effect cheap available labor has on the technological innovation and capital investment of business. Why invest in expensive machinery if you have a huge pool of low-paid workers? It isn't 1900 anymore. Americans should demand a stable population with the demographic profile they want - not what suits liberal politicians. Krikorian shows us the way. (Sentinel Books, 2008, 238 pp, $25.95) |
It's not so much that they have changed, it's that we have changed. We no longer demand that newcomers assimilate. In fact, our taxpayer-funded public school system encourages foreigners to keep their old national identities. We offer generous welfare benefits that make fitting in and earning a living less of a priority. Civil rights attorneys have created an industry that welcomes and protects illegal immigrants.
