Q&A: Does immigration destabilize?
Saturday, August 29, 2009 at 1:23AM Got this message from Don Williams:
Allowing elements of the population boom Gap to emigrate into the declining graying Core invites instability. Already the U.S. is having difficulty assimilating our own marginalized citizens, let alone the flood of immigrants. Doesn't this invite our own sort of Balkanization and "Reconquista" of the American Southwest amongst others. How do we as a country integrate cultural, language, and religious zeal of newcomers without the destabilizing effects that are already being felt elsewhere in the world?
Tom's reply:
America, according to "natives" throughout its history, has ALWAYS been failing to integrate its latest version of newcomers, and yet somehow we always do. There is nothing new about the current package. Reminds me a lot of the vast Irish influx of early 19th century. They were considered non-white, filthy, spoke another language (as far as could be told), and were nutty Papists with madrassas called parochial schools.
And yet my Irish are as American as apple pie today.
Reader Comments (6)
As an American Citizen, my Government can find me just about any time within 20 minutes . . Our visitors should fall under the same rule . .
Secondly, as I type, 7 young men from Mexico are putting a new roof on my house under sub-contract from a local roofer. Recently we had a hailstorm and probably 80% of the roofs in our city were damaged. Roofing contractors from all over the USA quickly migrated here and began contracting insurance paid re-roofs . . 98% of the labor installing these roofs are from Mexico, simply because 99.8% of Americans will not do this kind of labor . . I have no objections at all . . The lead man is from a village outside Guadalajara, speaks pretty passable English and has a work visa. Four of the other six also speak considerable English. Whether they have "Green Cards" or not is a moot point, especially to me.
The problems with "Immigration, Legal and otherwise" is a Political problem, brought to us by both Parties. It's also part of a "Politically Correct" problem given us by the liberal left. While they preach "Diversity' and prefer hyphenated ancestral names (such as Mexican-American, Afro-American or even Irish-American) they counsel "Diversity" and not "Assimulation" . . it's almost tribalization by default . .
To paraphrase Dick Lamm, We must all aspire to be Americans, or we'll eventually be "No Ones" . .
I would add that we Irish-Mexicans are as American as the taco.
I liken current immigration woes to fixing a leaking pipe in your flooded basement.First...if the leak is in contact with things electrical, turn off the power.Next turn off the water.Access fix leak vs clean up mess. Which is more important right now. You can probably do both or clean while waiting for the plumber to show up.
With the leak fixed turn the water back on. Resume life as normal.
To Don (with Tom's OK)...the immigrants many times are not the problem. The businesses that hire them, industries that employ them and banks that lend to them are not helping either. It's US. You like cheap labor and cheap goods. You get both by paying less to the workers (hence jobs going elsewhere) and taking advantage of the willingness of illegals to stay that way.
It is not a problem to "solve". It is a management of the flow that is crucial. We need the bodies for our economy because there are not enough "native" children being born to fill the need.
Unchecked immigration is bad. To much stress, on to may things, to fast.
Enforce the existing laws and streamline the process to get naturalized. I'll stop or I could ramble a bit.
It's far easier for me to believe of a "mas conquista" (more conquest) by us annexing the other Californias (Baja and Baja Sur), Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, or perhaps the entire Mexico in its entirety.
As the latino population in America grows and comes into its own, its not farfetched for me to believe that rather than immigrant people from those lands come to America, we may have immigrant countries opting to become part of our union and be stars on our flag.
Oh, how I wish that were the case with my beloved Philippines. She only got as far as being an American commonwealth. Still, if a former republic like Texas can join America, I see no reason why present republics in our neighborhood can't likewise do the same.