Replies

O.K. You’re taxing my interest in this, though I would like to understand.

Too much information for you or is the information running counter to your knowledge of the subject? I have been working full time on this issue for over 6 years as part of a grassroots organization that lobbies on the Hill and in Richmond. I have had one on one meetings with some prominent Reps in Congress on this issue. Personally, I believe immigration is the defining issue of our time and it affects every major existential challenge facing this nation. I also believe that an amnesty will destroy this country with the stroke of a pen.

What do YOU think the near-universal drive to bring in immigrants both here in the US and in Europe is a result of?

It is really comparing apples to oranges in terms of immigration in the US and Europe. In Europe, there are two kinds of immigration: one internally within the EU as part of the Maastricht Treaty and subsequent agreements that allow the free flow of labor within the EU. The other has to do with immigration from other non-EU countries--mostly from the Third World. This immigration is influenced by former colonial status and refugees. It is the latter form that is causing the most problems in Europe and these numbers are being reduced significantly by Europe. These Third World immigrants are not assimilating and they are disproportionately on welfare. They also commit more crimes.

Europe has demographic problems with almost all of the countries having birthrates below replacement level. They need workers to fill jobs, but they also want to keep their culture and language. It is why Cameron, Merkel, and Sarkozy have said that multiculturalism is dead. It is also why political parties, primarily on the right are attracting more political support due to their demands that immigration be reduced significantly. Their influence is growing.

In the US, motivated by parochial self-interest, the pro-mass immigration, open borders, amnesty advocates have formed a powerful coalition including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, labor union leaders, the Catholic Church, ethnic and racial groups, “moderate” Republicans, and the Democrat Party. The common thread that unites these groups is power, money, and the prospect of increased constituencies, even at the expense of our long-term national interests and survival.

Business wants an unending supply of cheap, exploitable labor that increases profits and depresses wages. In many cases, the illegal workers are more attractive since they can be paid off the books and not incur federal taxes or regulations. They can't complain given their status. These are mostly unskilled labor. Business privatizes the profits and socializes the costs with communities picking up educational, health care, and penal costs.

The labor unions want more members, the Catholic church more parishioners, ethnic and racial groups more political power, and the Dems more voters. And they have been successful in achieving their objectives.

I don’t think the elderly are immigrating. I think it’s the young, so the median age data doesn’t make your case, it makes mine. Even more have to come in to make up for the elderly.

LOL. Why don't you think that the elderly are not immigrating? Do you understand that under our immigration policies, immigrants thru chain migration, i.e., family reunification, immigrants can bring in their aged parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, etc.? Most of the 1.2 million legal immigrants who come here annually do so via kinship, not merit. About 10% come here due to merit. One Nigerian immigrant brought in 83 of his relatives.

The median age of immigrants in 2010 was 41.4 compared to 35.9 for natives. We have 40 million foreign born in this country. They also get old. But many are old when they come here.

It doesn’t matter what work is done as long as there is work done. More productive (higher paying) work would be better, but a population consisting of nothing but elderly “takers” is a total bust, so anything else has to be an improvement, right?

I don't want to tax your ability to comprehend charts and graphs, but the purpose of the one graph was to demonstrate that there is no correlation between the number of legal immigrants admitted to the US and our job needs. And we could double our current intake of immigrants and it would have almost no effect on our aging society. That said, the fertility rate in the US is almost at replacement level, 2.06 (2013) The US will add about 130 million people over the next 40 years or equivalent to the current populations of Canada and Mexico combined with 75% due to immigration. We have added about 35 million people since 2000. The median age is 37.1 (2012). In Germany it is 45.3; in the UK it is 40.2; and in Italy it is 43.8.

Globally, governments are doing this. It’s not just the US. I think what these countries have, with closed boarders would be where Greece is already or beyond. The people running things know this, and I think massive imigration is their “answer”. You have lots of data to the contrary, at least long term, but I don’t think that they’re too bright, or thinking too much about the future.

The US takes in more immigrants than the rest of the world combined. In the developed world, the trend is less immigrants, not more. We are importing poverty. Again, I don't want to tax you too much, but Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation has done a tremendous job documenting all of this. And Professor George Borjas of Harvard has done lots of work showing how immigration has depressed US wages. Why do you think our labor participation rates are at 40 year lows? If there is a shortage of labor, why are wages going down?

What are your thoughts? Please, no more graphs:-) Why the push for immigration, if not to prop-up a broken system, as I speculate?

I provided the reasons why the push and where it is coming from. Our immigration system needs to be changed to a merit based one and we should reduce legal immigration to 300,000 or less depending on our needs for skilled labor to be competitive in the global economy. Immigrants are not units of labor. They bring in their own culture and world view. There has been less assimilation and many of the new immigrants don't embrace the vision of our Founders. As we make this transition from a predominantly white European culture to a non-white majority with third world roots, will our country remain wedded to the Constitution and our history and culture? No country I have ever known has ever made a demographic transition in such a relative short period of time and remained the same.