Jeff Medcalf of Caerdroia has a solid, intelligent post on immigration. As is usual for Jeff the post is well thought-out, sensible, and humane. I’m afraid I differ from Jeff rather substantially on this issue.
In a perfect world I’d probably agree with Jeff completely. But it’s far from a perfect world. What I see happening in the United States is more and more non-assimilating immigrant communities, some with substantial hostility towards the prevailing culture here. I disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in Grutter v. Bollinger but there’s one part of it I agree with: racial, ethnic, and religious groups do achieve a kind of critical mass. And when that critical mass has been achieved the motivations for assimilation are much reduced.
Would I like to see an immigrant community full of hard-working, energetic newcomers, eager to be a full part of our national life? Sure. Is that what we’re getting? Or are we getting more and more Little Mexicos, Indias, and Egypts where the customs, ideas, and animosities of the old country are preserved across generations and where criminals and terrorists can operate with the tacit support of the local immigrant communities?
Frequently ignored in the discussion of U. S. immigration is the impact on the source country. That impact may be debilitating and de-stabilizing. What happens when the doctors leave a sub-Saharan African country for the greener pastures of the United States? In my view we should be paying these doctors to stay where they are rather than encouraging them to come here if only for the sake of mercy.
And the irony of it all is that every measure we can take to encourage greater assimilation can just as easily encourage greater isolation of immigrant communities. The only alternative I can see is to slow the rate of immigration.
I’d support every one of Jeff’s recommendations for controlling illegal immigration. I doubt that a single one of them will ever happen. Too many oxes gored.
I think that rather than effectively opening our borders by making immigration easier or trying to close our borders we should be working to improve conditions in the source countries to reduce the “push” forces encouraging migration. We should be encouraging Mexico to adopt policies that will encourage growth and make life better there and to keep more of its energetic, hardworking, young people at home. We do have some leverage that the Bush Administration has been mysteriously unwilling to exercise: remittances.
UPDATE: More reflections on illegal immigration from Steve Verdon at Outside the Beltway and Randall Parker at ParaPundit.
The ability of immigrants to avoid assimilation is being enhanced by technological advances. Consider the ATM machines that provide language choices or the cable TV channels in Spanish. Throw in satellite TV with hundreds of channels and the ability to watch entertainment in source country languages goes up. High speed internet connections will push this trend even further.
Cheap international phone calls also make it easier to stay in contact with the home country and talk in the home country’s language.
As for pushing economic development as a substitute for border control: That is not going to work. Economic reform in Mexico is blocked by corruption and widespread tax evasion that makes financing of better public education hard to do. Plus, there is the IQ difference between nations. Most nations with lower per capita GDPs are that way because of lower average IQs.
Border control is possible and quite affordable. We could stop all the influx from Mexico for less than $10 billion dollars by building a barrier on the full length of the border with Mexico.
Failure of core groups of immigrants to assimilate changes the playing field we’ve always assumed. Perhaps we can address this in time, but perhaps we are exaggerating. If an immigrants works hard and contributes to the economy, which is the supposed American way, does it matter what language he speaks?
Maybe my perspective is different because of where I live, in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. I think the metroplex is about 25-30% hispanic, IIRC. It’s certainly the case that there are hispanics everywhere. And so what? Some of them – many of them – certainly don’t speak English, but their kids generally do. It’s always been thus with immigrants to America: parents are monolingual in their native language, and somewhat isolated in “ethnic ghettos”; their children are bilingual and somewhat integrated and somewhat poor; and their children are fully integrated in all ways.
Other than that, I don’t think we disagree at all, really.
OH NO!!! You have got to believe me, this border issue is being blow out of proportions in the wrong ways!! Im mike, I have lived along the border my entire LIFE, I have ridden with the Border Patrol and have personally spoken with illegal immigrants, fresh from the sonoran desert. If anything the long walk tests their hearts to which point they question their motives, A fence? FOR TEN BILLION?! HAHAHAHA You’re living in a dream world pal! The diverse terrain, the constant upkeep, and the observation so they just don’t simply throw ropes over would cost AT LEAST 95 BILLION DOLLARS conservatively. Look, I’m fully legal American born and bred, and I would sign for enlistment if America was ever being invaded, but it’s not. Oh yes and by the way, you need a guide to get across, because you must cross in remote areas, there are one to three people you have to pay to cross successfully, mexican gangs, “ms-13, ect” the openly corrupt mexican border patrol or in most cases, the Federale’s, and in rare circumstances, ranchers and minutemen-like groups. Look men, heres the bottom line, imagine wanting something so badly that you would GIVE YOUR TESTICLES to have, THAT is how f’ing serious these guys are about crossing. Oh yea and couldn’t boats just make a little trip to the edge of America’s oceans and bays from canada, mexico, cuba, or, technically, ANY foreign land? So how much should we spend on a fence that would be SHOULD * SHOULD * SHOULD* be going to teachers, firefighters, police, EMS, Sudan anyone? Shoot it back at me, I wanna know your thoughts on this. Thanks.
They have to build the fence because America has been open for too long. It is time to shut down the borders and enforce the Immigration Act. Illegals who come here have too many incentives. Building the fence will be the first step, we should learn a thing or two from Israel. The people who want to cross love life, if you shoot them when they try to cross or electrocute then they will not try to cross the border. They will stay in Mexico. We should authorize border patrol to kill any illegals trying to cross and bring National Guard to secure the border.
Look we are at war here and that’s where internal war starts after war in Iraq.
Securing our borders should number one priority in our national security. Only then you would channel money for other purposes.