” I disagree. This country and it’s success was made possible by the genius of the founding fathers, but it owes much of it’s success to immigrants. Where would America be without the likes of:
Alexander Graham Bell - born in Edinburgh, Scotland
Andrew Carnegie - born in Dunfermline, Scotland
Jacob W. Davis - born in Riga Latvia
and Jacob’s more famous partner...Levi Strauss born in Buttenheim, Germany
Albert Einstein - born in Ulm, Germany”
Swell....we aren’t currently getting any of those kinds of immigrants, are we??? We’re getting all 3rd world poverty, uneducated socialist leaning migrants. Tell me what any of them have ‘contributed’.
“But back to your question, I’d say under 1% of the total US population of citizen”
Okay...1% of 300,000,000 (current population)is 3 million...which is about what we’re letting in now EVERY YEAR. They are too numerous to assimilate, instead just forming nations within a nation.
Right now the percentage of foreign born in this country is
11.8 percent. Most of them are in California (wonder why we’re broke!) By your 1% figure, we need to get rid of millions.
U.S. Foreign-Born Population Hits 33 Million
Now fastest growing segment of population
[snip]The foreign-born population of the United States exceeded 33 million in 2002, slightly more than the entire population of Canada, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey (ACS).
Of the total U.S. population, 11.8 percent were foreign-born and accounted for 44 percent of the nation’s population growth in 2002. A majority of the foreign-born residents live in four states: California (28 percent), New York (11.8 percent), Texas (9.8 percent) and Florida (8.9 percent).
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/foreignborn.htm
In a previous job I helped one person immigrate to the US. She was a Romanian computer programmer. Certainly this is anecdotal, but it proves your "all we get" claim is false. I will point out that it seems like the progressives are in charge of immigration, hence the problems we have with lack of diversity...and if anyone would be looking to import socialists that'd be the democrats. Clearly the immigration policies need a serious overhaul, and need to be put in the hands of people who actually care for this nation. Part of the application process should include an interview and efforts to make sure the interests and goals of the immigrants are to join the US and not just use it as a place of work. It is progressives who view immigrants (legal and illegal) as guest workers. We need to aspire for more...we should look for immigrants who aspire to higher.
Okay...1% of 300,000,000 (current population)is 3 million...which is about what we’re letting in now EVERY YEAR. They are too numerous to assimilate, instead just forming nations within a nation.
The reason I stated under 1% is because of assimilation, so I'm aware that's a problem, but you didn't address the core cause of that I'd pointed out. The reason there is a an assimilation problem right now is because the vast majority of people coming into the country are from Mexico and other central American countries. I'd pointed out that we need a more diverse base of immigrants which would address this issue. I agree that if we have all the immigrants come from a single source then it's much harder to assimilate them. And then you have democrats undermining their ability and desire to assimilate into America at every turn. Get democrats out of control of the process and you fix much of the problem right there.
Right now the percentage of foreign born in this country is 11.8 percent. Most of them are in California (wonder why we’re broke!) By your 1% figure, we need to get rid of millions.
CA is screwed up because the progressives in charge have taken concerted steps to screw it up. And CA's problem is illegal immigration more than legal immigration.
U.S. Foreign-Born Population Hits 33 Million Now fastest growing segment of population [snip]The foreign-born population of the United States exceeded 33 million in 2002, slightly more than the entire population of Canada, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey (ACS). Of the total U.S. population, 11.8 percent were foreign-born and accounted for 44 percent of the nation’s population growth in 2002. A majority of the foreign-born residents live in four states: California (28 percent), New York (11.8 percent), Texas (9.8 percent) and Florida (8.9 percent).
Does this 33 million figure include the apx 20 million illegal imgrants in the country? I suspect it might. As I've said, I'm in favor of deporting all illegal immigrants and allowing only ones who have followed the laws in. There is actually a very strong case of how immoral the progressive argument is for allowing all the illegal immigrants to stay in the country...although, of course, progressives aren't really concerned about morality, just power.
I'd thrown out a ballpark influx indexed to US citizen population of under 1%. Maybe it'd be a good idea to cross index that to unemployment rates as well. So in years where there is very low unemployment more would be allowed and the number decreases in years of high unemployment. But that's just fine tuning the ball park percentage I've thrown out.
You do point out one issue that I am not certain of the best way to address, which is distribution. You indicate that the majority of immigrants end up in just a few states. Part of this is probably that the diversity of immigrants is sorely lacking so they gravitate to areas that already have sizable communities of people from their own national backgrounds. And since progressives are against diversity and mostly bring in people from central America they continue to gravitate to the same areas. I can think of a number of ways to address this but with the progressives running the show it isn't likely to occur. Democrats see illegal immigrants as a source of continued power and will stop at nothing to make them voters asap. So while we have our politicians working against the best interests of the nation it's no wonder we're going to have continued problems.