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Too Much of a
Good Thing
By Kate Burch
The astounding level of support for Donald Trump in this political
season seems to be attributable, in large part, to his stated positions
about dealing with immigration. His promises to take measures to
stop the influx of illegal aliens, enforce our immigration laws, and
provide no path to citizenship for illegals resonate with many
Americans who are rightly concerned. These Americans see the
rapid and accelerating change in our demographic picture, and they fear
losing the common customs, mores, values, and even language that have
constituted our national character. They see young people earning
expensive degrees and then being unable to find work in their field of
study or even to find work at all, and living in their parents’
basement. They are outraged to then read that companies want to
bring in more foreign graduates to fill a dearth of qualified
people. They correctly perceive that it is more difficult,
especially, for those without higher education to get jobs. They
feel threatened, vulnerable, and angry when they see the evidence of
incompetent scrutiny and inappropriate admission of prospective
immigrants, such as Tashfeen Malik, one of the pair of San Bernardino
shooters and when they read of “sanctuary cities” and a clamor to
welcome “refugees” who they believe may often actually be dangerous
radicals who wish us harm and are just looking for a way to get into
the country.
The administration and most elected Democrats accuse Trump, and others
who are concerned about these matters, of bigotry and racism. The
President mouths platitudes about an attitude of acceptance toward all
comers as being part of “who we are.” People on the Left
extol multiculturalism and insist on bilingual education, rather than
expecting that immigrants become assimilated into American
culture. They seem quite willing to accommodate
cultural-religious preferences for the immigrant, such as foot baths
and prayer rooms for Muslims in universities and excusing Muslim
employees from performing tasks such as handling pork products, when
Christian students might be forbidden to have a chapel and all other
employees must be available to perform any jobs to which they are
assigned. The President wants in the worst way to shield illegals
from deportation; luckily he is being impeded somewhat by the federal
courts. Supporters of free-and-easy immigration deny that
immigrants take Americans’ jobs, insisting that immigrants perform jobs
that Americans are unwilling to take on. They pooh-pooh concerns
about abuse of our social welfare programs by illegal aliens, while
people see around them the evidence that the system is being stressed
to the breaking point.
Is it any wonder that many are suspicious that this overly welcoming
attitude and excessive accommodation of immigrants are part of a
program to grow the base of Democrat voters by giving out lots of free
stuff or, more ominously, reflect an active animus toward America as
she stands and a compulsion to “fundamentally transform” our
country?
A few facts may prove enlightening.
During our history, there have been successive waves of immigration,
with quiescent times in between, which allowed for assimilation and
intermarriage, adding to the richness of American “melting pot”
culture. Since 1965, when the passage of the Hart-Cellar Act
established chain immigration, there has been an unremitting deluge of
immigration to the point that immigrants and their children now
constitute one-quarter of the U.S. population. The mandate to
focus on family reunification rather than bringing in people with
needed skills has created an immigrant population that is poorer, less
educated, and less skilled than before. The presence of a
generous safety net often is a disincentive to immigrants’ acquiring
more education or skills.
At present, a number of occupations generally believed to employ the
immigrants who “will do jobs that Americans won’t do” are actually
filled by a majority of native-born Americans. These include the
jobs of maid/housekeeper; taxi driver; landscape worker; construction
worker; porter, bellhop and concierge; and janitor. As immigrants
fill growing percentages of these jobs, fewer of them are obtained by
Americans seeking them.
Between 1970 and 2013, the immigrant population has more than
tripled. Concurrently, income for the bottom 90% of tax filers
has decreased by almost 8%. One could reasonably conclude that
current immigration policy has brought about loss of income for the
bottoms 90% of earners and has actually increased the gap between
higher-and-lower earners that the Left likes to blame on
“greed.”
The Heritage Foundation tells us that in 2010 the average illegal
immigrant family received $24,700 in Federal benefits, while
contributing only $10,300 in taxes. Hardly sustainable.
Some recommend strictly limiting immigrants with low education and
skills as a way of increasing job security for those in low-end
jobs. This does not address the problem of all of those American
college graduates, many in those vaunted STEM disciplines, who are
unable to find suitable employment because jobs are taken by educated
immigrants whom employers can hire at lower pay.
Maybe we should just pause. And take a breath.
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