In his latest Washington Post column Fareed Zakaria has problems both with his diagnosis of the problem and in his prescription. To his credit he discerns the problem impelling right-wing parties into power in Europe correctly:
The appeal of the far-right Sweden Democrats also centers on immigration. The party talks a great deal about the rise of crime, gang violence and abuse of the country’s generous welfare state.
but his concerns are misplaced:
But its main campaign proposal was a 30-point plan designed to turn Sweden, which has arguably one of the most generous immigration systems in Europe, into the most restrictive. It is “time to put Sweden first,†says Jimmie Akesson, the dynamic 43-year-old leader of Sweden Democrats.
Immigration is also the issue that has propelled Giorgia Meloni into power in Italy.
He does begin to hedge:
Sweden’s population is now about 20 percent foreign-born, which is much higher than in the United States, where that number is about 14 percent.
It’s at least 15% in the U. S. at this point and that’s only counting the above-ground economy in the U. S. How many people are in the shadows? We don’t really know. I have struggled to find sources measuring the U. S. population using indirect measures, e.g. sewage, water, highway use, etc. The subject is rather clearly taboo.
While I agree with him that the U. S. has a greater tolerance for immigrants than the ethnic states of Europe, Gallup’s polling results on American attitudes towards immigration tell a clear story. Only about 27% of Americans think the number of immigrants should be increased. That has plummeted since, surprise, 2019.
Pay close attention to this paragraph in which he’s right on the mark:
About 5 percent of the U.S. population was foreign-born in the 1970s. Since then, that percentage has almost tripled. Even so, people can be convinced that large numbers of outsiders can be assimilated and absorbed. What enrages them is the sense that people no longer become immigrants through a process that the host country controls but rather by crossing the border illegally, claiming asylum status, gaining entry and then simply sticking around. And that fear is justified.
Then he veers into a lengthy discussion of the U. S. asylum system. The United States does not have a problem with asylum-seekers. It has a problem with job-seekers petitioning for legal entry as asylum-seekers. How do we know they’re job-seekers? Just ask them. Practically every interview with the “asylum-seekers” has them explaining that they’re looking for jobs. As I have been saying for decades, we need a guest worker program.
BTW, that’s dramatically different from the mass immigration in Europe. The immigrants there are venue shopping for generous welfare packages. That’s what’s got the Swedes (and Germans) frustrated. Immigrants didn’t go there to work; they went there to go on the dole. Italy is just a target of opportunity, a way station on their way to Sweden or Germany. Brussels is what’s preventing the Italians from expediting their passage.
I won’t venture a guess at what might solve Europe’s immigration problems. Let’s focus on ours. We only have two choices. We can decide that we want to be a stratified society with a large underclass, a struggling middle class, and a prosperous overclass primarily of European descent like, again surprise, Mexico. In that case we should cut the various forms of welfare presently extended including educating the children of immigrants. What good is an education to people who will spend their lives picking strawberries, washing dishes, or changing beds?
Alternatively, we can, like Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, restrict employment-related immigration to individuals with the skills needed to find good jobs in the 21st century. Those include the ability to read and write English and a high school equivalent education or better.
I actually think we should be accepting more genuine asylum-seekers. The problem with our asylum process isn’t the flood of people who qualify. It’s the enormous number of people who apply but aren’t actually seeking asylum from anything except poverty.
