Wednesday, April 27, 2011

So is America a "nation of immigrants" or not?

Here's a succinct argument for us being a nation of immigrants, posted by Steve in response to an earlier piece of my mind:

>>America is a nation of immigrants. In many more ways than one. It is such a nation in the sense that immigration is an important factor of its history. America was built to its current glory by the back-breaking hard work of immigrants seeking to make a new, better life for themselves. Immigration ties in with American values - the basis of the American dream, the promise of the possibility of success and prosperity stems from the efforts of America's immigrants.

>>Even now, 10% of America's population are immigrants - that's an astounding amount. Around another 10% have been raised by immigrants and as such are influenced by the phenomenon of immigration. That's 1/5 Americans that are drastically affected by immigration.

>>Whether you like it or not, America is a nation of immigrants.

>>The Mental Tome <<

Let's look at each argument here, because this does pretty well sum up the liberal argument, I think.

1. "immigration is an important factor of its history."

Well, more than Iceland, to be sure. But really, since the human race originated somewhere in SubSaharan Africa, most nations are "nations of immigrants." The only difference is how far back you have to go.
But today, with native-born population growth declining rapidly in the rich nations, the level of immigration in many other nations is catching up with us.

That's true even if you just look at multicultural/multracial immigration. Australia used to have an English speaking Whites-only policy, but that's long gone. Now Sydney and other cities there are getting to look like American cities.

Right now European nations are in a tizzy about immigration, because they've belatedly realized that there's no such thing as guest workers. Mainly they stay, and if they're left unassimilated, trouble follows soon after.

Even Japan is having trouble with 100% Japanese-blooded immigrants from Brazil--because culturally they're loud, rowdy, funloving, somewhat felonious Brazilians.

Libya's in an even tougher spot because Qaddafi encouraged immigration of black Africans to Libya from surrounding countries so he could form a mercenary army loyal only to him. You should see what actual Libyans think of this.

Very few nations in 2011 can state that they aren't a "nation of immigrants."

Success and prosperity for whom? Even liberal economist Paul Krugman admits that massive immigration of uneducated people drives down wages for our blue-collar workforce--and has brought it down from "barely getting by" to "starvation wages."

So as we middle class Americans enjoy the American dream, and middle class immigrants do too where they're needed, the vast mass of unskilled immigrants are achieving their dream at the cost of killing the dreams of America's own unskilled workforce. I find it monumentally patronizing of educated American leftists to blithely overlook this fact, which they can only afford to do because they aren't unskilled laborers.

3. "Even now, 10% of America's population are immigrants"
This means the 90% of America's population isn't. Even if you add in second-generation immigrants--which I'll revisit in a sec--that still makes this 80% a nation of natives--not immigrants.

So using this stat, even if true, as the basis for saying "this is a nation of immigrants" makes as much sense as saying "this is a nation of atheists" because 10% of the population lacks a firm belief in God. And as one of that 10% I can assure you from a lifetime of experience that this is no such nation. Instead we're the most overtly religious rich country on Earth.

4. "Whether you like it or not, America is a nation of immigrants."
I don't know when America's liberal movement morphed into the Borg, but this trope sounds an awful lot like "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated."

In 1940 America was .5% Hispanic--one half of one percent. Today it's 14%. This didn't just happen. It came about as the result of policies adopted by the American government and the Mexican government--neither with any public referendum, even a nonbinding one.

If not for American government policies encouraging this vast change, America would today still be .5% Hispanic. We aren't talking about laws of nature here. We have a border. We have immigration laws. It's just that, over the last several decades, we haven't chosen to guard the former or enforce the latter effectively.

Today it's within our technical capability to make it impossible for an illegal immigrant to collect a paycheck or use any social services. We don't because of an unholy alliance of Right and Left wing politicians and partisans.

The Left wants unchecked immigration because it believes that anything else would be racism, and they'd rather see this nation destroyed or morphed into something unrecognizable by our grandparents than be accused of that.

The Right doesn't want unchecked immigration but it keeps voting for pols who do, regardless of the speeches they make, because corporate America loves illegals--they keep profits high by keeping wages down and destroying unions.

Look what the Right did about illegal immigration during its economically disastrous eight years in power: pretty much nothing, except for an abortive amnesty bill that the Republican Party's paymasters wanted but which so many Republican voters hated that they stopped it. Apart from that, mostly they've diverted funds away from border enforcement, universalizing e-Verify, and doing nothing whatsoever about a nationwide biometric ID database.

Meanwhile the Left has been captured by Mexicanist demagogues like "The Race" and similar organizations, while Republicans are terrified of Mexicans voting against them as well.

Yet every poll says what I'm saying here--by a whopping majority of most Republicans and over a third of Democrats. Even a quarter of Americans of Hispanic heritage oppose illegal immigration but they don't dare say anything except at the ballot box.

Meanwhile Republicans refuse to discuss the fact that they want America to stay as Anglo as it was in 1940, and Democrats refuse to discuss why they believe we should have to aborb Mexico's excess population--a population that boomed from 20 million in 1940 to over 100 million today. Somehow liberals believe that, I guess, American agents burglarized every Mexican home's bedroom and stole their condom and forced them to have unprotected sex at gunpoint, then bombed all their abortion clinics.

But no, the plain fact is that Mexico has five times as many people as its economy can employ and feed due to Mexican policies conceived and executed by Mexicans. This happened long before NAFTA. American policies and laws and statecraft had zero impact on the fact of Mexico's overpopulation. Yet liberals continue to believe that this overpopulation is somehow our fault.

We. Didn't. Do. It.

There is no rational reason for us import unskilled labor--not with Amercian citizen unskilled labor unemployment above 20%.

If 20% of Americans being immigrants/kids of immigrants makes us a "nation of immigrants" then why not say that 10-20% unemployment (depending on job skills and age) makes us a "nation of out of work folks?"

The ONLY reason illegal immigration--especially of unskilled laborers and their families--especially from Mexico and parts south--is not stopped, and those here forced out by denying them illegal work--is that our government refuses to respect the will of the people, plainly expressed in poll after poll.

California will be majority Mexican by 2040. The school already are. This isn't some people from various cultures coming here. The is the large-scale replacement of multicultural American society with Mexican society across large swaths of the Southwest. I speak Spanish and understand Mexican culture, so this is no skin off my nose. But I find it outrageous that both parties believe they can get away with ignoring the lawful, Constitutional wishes of most Americans, year after year after year, until people who see themselves as Mexicans comprise a voting majority and Americans become a minority in their own country.

And it's not even the sophisticated Mexican doctors, lawyers, businessmen and artists I knew in Mexico city. We just get Mexico's peasants, and the Mexican culture that's replacing American culture is Mexican peasant culture.



Anonymous said...

I consider myself a liberal, and in general do not agree with much that the Republican party stands for. However, I am against all immigration, legal and illegal. My objection is based on environmental concerns. Our environment can't support unthrottled growth. We also can't create a system where a country can avoid dealing with its own population and environmental problems by exporting its citizens to a less 'trashed' country. This sounds harsh, but things are going to get much worse soon and we better begin dealing with the situation now.

John D

dwm said...

I continue to find it mind boggling to think that after all we went through in the last say 250 years or so, it was all for what? ...just so the overflow of uneducated mexicans peasants could have a place to pour into after their own nest became uninhabitable?