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ICE has conducted its largest ever raid targeting... Korean automotive workers at a Georgia Hyundai factory?
We don't have all the details, but from what I can glean most of the Koreans were in the country on B1 buisiness visas, which allows the visa holder to attend business meetings and conduct training, but does not allow for "labor". The factory involved is brand new, having opened less than a year ago, which would explain why they needed so many Koreans (Hyundai is a Korean company) to get operations off the ground.
One defense of these kind of raids is that it doesn't do America any good to have foreign companies build factories in the US if they are going to staff those factories with an imported workforce instead of Americans, but it is far from clear that was happening here. I don't doubt that many of these B1 visaholders were "working the line" and as such technically violating the terms of their visas, but that's how foreign investment works. If you build a brand new specialized factory in an area that doesn't have factories of that kind, the local workforce will inherently be inexperienced and unsuitable for the facility. You can't teach people how to run the factory without, well, running the factory.
The big question is what this means for foreign investment in the United States. If you were in charge of a foreign manufacturing corporarion, would you want to build a facility in the United States if there is a good chance your own employees would be arrested for running the company's facilities?
Hyundai Raid Rattles a Hot Spot of Growth in Georgia
The result was demographic replacement.
You're going to have to spell that out for me.
Koreans, really? It's demographic replacement by the least fertile demographic in the world?
At any rate, it's not clear to me that addition constitutes replacement.
Weeds in my lawn replace the grass. Weeds in my garden beds replace the flowers and herbs I want to grow.
Wherever there is competition for scarce resources, like living space or sunlight, addition is replacement. You're just playing word games to deny your opponents their highly effective rhetoric (replacement).
I'd argue that you're indulging in word games more than I am - in this case, comparing Koreans to weeds while implying that resources in Georgia are scarce, or that the presence of Koreans reduces prosperity for others. I think this is a misrepresentation of the scenario. Is the state of Georgia like your garden bed? Are the Koreans choking out native Georgians? That's not clear at all.
It's not even clear how race or ethnicity is relevant - if the issue is that Koreans consume more resources, wouldn't it also be a problem if native white or black populations increase? All people consume resources. We just generally don't view this as prohibitive because Georgia possesses ample natural resources (nobody is starving!) and because people produce resources as well.
The metaphor you're making just doesn't make any sense.
I'm comparing people to plants and just like a plant where it's not wanted is a weed, a person where they're not wanted is a foreigner.
They can go back to their garden, where my kind of plant isn't allowed to grow.
The garden is the country or state. Citizens are both the plants and the gardener, just as man is both sculptor and marble.
Foreigners do suppress native birth rates, even more so when they are of another race. They compete for housing and employment, driving the cost of the former up and the wages of the latter down.
I can't force you to see something you're choosing to ignore. It's clear as day to me, as obvious as the nose on your face.
People like their own kind (kind as in kin).
If you want to grow a dandelion bed, then grass is a weed. If you want a lawn, dandelions are weeds. If you want a rose garden, both grass and dandelions are weeds. The problem isn't Koreans, it's grass in my rose garden, or dandelions in my lawn.
Are you a Georgian? I still haven't seen any evidence that Georgians hate Koreans or are opposed to their presence in the state. Why should it be the null hypothesis that Georgians want these people out? Nothing in the top level post quoting the WSJ indicated that natives have any problems with the Koreans, and the Koreans seem to contributing well to the local economy and cultural acclimatising to American ways, including by taking English names. I can find the full article by archiving it and there seems to be positivity there, including by Georgian government officials. Some local union workers have complained, but it also seems like most of these Koreans have come legally, consistent with Georgia's laws.
I mean, this mostly seems like a model minority situation to me. Koreans have mostly come to Georgia via the legal process, which Georgians themselves established via their state government, and those that have come have respected the local culture, worked hard, and tried to fit in.
Now, sure, maybe native Georgians hate them for some reason and want them to go, but you can't just assume that as your starting point. Be careful not to typical-mind here - maybe you don't think Koreans should live alongside Americans, but it is hardly clear that that is a majority opinion in Georgia.
At any rate, some Koreans coming to Georgia to live and work there, if consistent with Georgia's existing laws, cannot be said to constitute 'replacement' in any reasonable sense of the word.
You can't help but put words in my mouth.
The null hypothesis is the preamble of the constitution: we do this for ourselves and our children. Not for Koreans. No hate required.
And the Georgians agreed to these terms, at least until their partners failed to honor the agreement and then conquered Georgia. I don't think what they wanted for themselves has mattered since 1865, and certainly not since 1964.
Regardless, since 1789 states have not been allowed to set their own immigration policies, and so I need not be a Georgian, merely an American.
I can see nothing in the constitution that says that states or communities are not allowed to welcome migrants. I think you're reading a kind of racial bias into it? I know you didn't mention specifically, but I think it is significant that this conversation is about Korean migrants, and not white or black migrants from elsewhere in the US.
It seems to me that you are assuming, on a highly speculative basis, that Georgians are strongly opposed to living alongside Koreans. I see no evidence of that, nor that the democratic will of Georgians is to get rid of this Korean community, Koreans in general, or Asians in even more general.
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The least fertile demographic in the world is parsis, I believe. Koreans are like, fourth or fifth- behind some not-technically-a-country groups like manchurians.
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It's spelled out in the article. Foreign food, foreign languages, and foreign customs are becoming dominant in place of the native white population.
Are they really?
In the 2020 census data, Pooler had a population of 25,711, of which Asians made up 6%. Going off the numbers in your excerpt, the Asian population is now up to about 14%; a large increase for sure, but still a minority. Assuming none of the recent arrivals are white, the white population has declined from 54% in 2020 to 45% in 2025, hardly what I'd consider replacement-level demographic change even in the worst-case scenario. This isn't to say that the locals aren't entitled to have their own opinions on their community demographics, or that it could become true demographic replacement in the future, but your assertion here seems mostly baseless.
Also come on, changing one's name is absolutely evidence of assimilation, not perfect evidence nor sufficient evidence, but evidence nonetheless. It sounds like you've taken the Arctotherium-pill writ Asian migration, and while I can't contest the raw stats he highlights I'm still skeptical of the strength of his claims. (Honestly, I don't trust him in general, he comes off as much more cunning and calculated in his rhetoric than other HBDers, who mostly seem quite genuine.)
Yes, they are really.
More than doubling of a population share in five years is absolutely ground-shaking.
In 2000 the area was 87% white. If going from 85% to 45% in twenty five years isn't replacement to you, then you're being dishonest. The demograpgic replacement isn't in the future, it's in the past, and you're pretending it never happened.
I trust Arcto more than you, as I don't think you're being genuine, either. Admit what's obvious, first, and maybe we can go from there.
I didn't bother to check the numbers before 2020, mea culpa. I'll grant you the broader narrative of massive demographic change, though I'll note that until recently the increase in the non-white population seems to have come mostly from homegrown minorities and not imported migrants (so not "foreigners" per se); I suppose that to you the difference is moot. I still don't think that the recent Korean influx specifically was that big a deal, since there's a proximal reason for them to be here and East Asians aren't particularly known for chain-migration.
No excuses or exemptions from me, not anymore. All foreigners, every single one, the women and children and paper citizens included, are unwelcome. No leniency or accommodation for at least twenty years, if not 60 to match the duration of replacement.
There is only two homegrown minorities: africans and indians. If you're talking about Hispanics then they're just as foreign as the Asians.
You and I seem to know different things.
At least you half admitted that the Americans have already been replaced, but it didnt make one whit of difference to you.
Yes, I was talking about blacks re. "homegrown minorities", but some fraction of mestizos are definitely "homegrown" in the same way, at least in Texas and California.
Why not forever? What will have changed by then to merit any tolerance of foreigners, if their presence is so noxious now?
You clearly care about this matter on a visceral level. I don't. So it is.
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The quoted article points out that many of them are adopting American names "to fit in better", like the pastor. Doesn't sound like people who don't want to assimilate.
That's typical of Koreans who aren't intending to assimilate (or stay), so it doesn't really mean anything.
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Assimilation is largely a myth but even if it weren't, changing a name is hardly evidence of it. Do they speak foreign languages, eat foreign food, practice foreign customs?
Most importantly, do they politically agitate in favor of their racial group and dilute the political power of the native white population? Even if there economic benefits to the native population, and that's hardly a given, that doesn't excuse transforming the local community into a non-white area in a generation. The white Americans in this community did not ask to be abused and erased.
Realistically, if you’re hiring for factory hands among the population of south GA, they’re going to be black.
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Doesn't match my experience. I've seen a ton of assimilated second-generation Asians, for example - most of them don't even speak the language of their parents (somewhat inconvenient when you need to translate something in Chinese and you know this guy whose parents are definitely from China but turns out he at best knows Chinese at kindergarten level, or less), don't associate exclusively with their ethnic community, don't keep any old customs (maybe except occasional family holidays or such). And of course I know many, many assimilated Jews. And, Trump himself is an assimilated second-generation German - we don't see him speaking German or donning lederhosen on Oktoberfest, do we? (I'm not sure that's what real un-assimilated Germans actually do, but whatever they do, Trump doesn't do that).
It does match my experience. Even when mostly assimilated, foreigners remain very, very foreign in ways you can't always see.
They think and vote and act on juries as if they're foreigners, and once you notice that, a name change becomes meaningless.
Yes, I must admit, I never understood Trump's love for greasy fast food. Those Germans and their Teutonic ways...
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Asians form their own ethnic interests groups and overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. These ethnic interest groups agitate to the disadvantage of the native population. When the native population protests they are called racist.
This is how assimilation into Blue America looks like. No such thing as current Democratic party platform is conceivable in Asian countries, it is purely American creation.
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Some do, sure. But there's no such thing as "Asian ethnic interests" - why Vietnamese, Indians, Koreans, Chinese, Sikh and Indonesians would have the same interests? I've met many people of different Asian descent, and they had very varied interests - I can't imagine how a single group would be able to represent them.
Do they? Any substantiation of that? I am sure some particular group of, say, Indians may agitate to the disadvantage some particular group of, say, Norwegians (of course, when I say Indian, I mean American person of Indian descent, and so on). But (leaving aside the definition of "native population", which I am sure you will provide me with in the other branch) claiming every Asian group always would advocate a policy that is contrary to the interest of every single "native" group seems to need a very extraordinary proof. At least it is not at all obvious why it would happen, so if you want somebody to believe it it makes sense to try and prove it.
I am pretty sure if you think that every Asian by their mere genetic buildup has interests that are all the same and are always opposed to the interests of all people who are not Asian, that is the textbook definition of racism. In fact, if I needed to define the set of ideas that are based on this assumption, I would think "racism" is the best term that would describe it. I mean, if the race is the sole criteria you are looking at, how else would one call it?
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You said in place of. What's your evidence for that? I just distinguished between addition and replacement.
I don't have a Wall Street Journal subscription, so I can't read the article itself, but I would be very shocked if the WSJ was pushing a line about demographic replacement - especially since the portions you've quoted sound sympathetic to the Koreans.
Of course the WSJ is sympathetic to the Koreans; it's a liberal and immigration friendly paper. What does that matter? The article states that foreigners are moving in and the population of the natives is going down. I would characterize this as demographic replacement through immigration.
Is the native population declining? Your quotes didn't say that, and as noted I can't read the article.
I think degree matters as well. If a native population goes down by 1% while at the same time some migrants move in, I wouldn't consider that replacement. I think the word 'replacement' suggests a wholesale removal. Is anything like that going on?
If a majority of the population growth is non-native then the native population is proportionally declining. That's what the quote I provided says. It's not 1%, it's much higher.
The naive white population of Georgia didn't ask to be replaced by foreigners. I have found @Dean is quite articulate in explaining the insidiousness of demographic replacement. Maybe he can answer your questions better than I can.
The did ask to replace the native red population of Georgia, though.
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Sure, that's why I was probing you a bit about what the lines are, in order to precisify what your concerns actually are. I didn't want to leap to conclusions and assume the worst.
That said, I'm not particularly keen on you outsourcing your opinions to someone else. Dean is a very articulate poster here, but one thing Dean cannot do is tell me what NYTReader thinks.
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Many people care about their local community and don't want it to change. Whatever the details are regarding the fertility rate of the established white population in the area versus the fertility of the new group is really secondary. The large infusion of new people from a different culture will change things. That is something that many people don't want, and understandably so. They are invested in the way things are, maybe for many generations.
even if they aren't things will change. But white americans don't have very high fertility rates so we can assume that the established white community probably doesn't have such overwhelming fertility rates such that they make the influx of new people irrelevant.
Fine. How about dilution? The existing population, and their community, and their culture will be diluted, which is bad enough. Concentration is just as important a variable in community strength as raw numbers are. At the very least, as the original local population is diluted their collective political power is equivalently diluted. So there is an objective reduction in the power they have over their home.
And dilution becomes more threatening due to the fact that white communities in America are generally pretty weak in terms of cultural vitality. Having a large influx of foreigners who might have more vitality and a stronger sense of community means that the new comers can punch above their weight comparatively. As dilution occurs the threat of actual replacement becomes greater, and the ability to resist it is diminished.
You can prefer dilution and cultural change in exchange for increased economic investment, but many don't. It seems like you're being intentionally avoidant about the concern.
If the concern is cultural change, I think that's valid, and I'm open to a discussion about that.
That is, though, I think a different concern to 'demographic replacement'? I take demographic replacement to suggest an agenda of, well, replacement - that is, not just a community changing through migration and integration of people of new cultural backgrounds, but rather the elimination of the existing population, and new people taking its place.
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Seems to be going on in London, and many small towns in the US with which I am personally familiar.
No idea if it's going on in this specific case, but NYTReader is pointing to the problem in a broader context and suggesting that 'bringing back' business to America is actually a bad thing if it means staffing that business with foreign labor.
Given this, your insistence on picking at micro-scale technicalities occurs to me as pedantic and obnoxious.
OliveTapenade is correct to question the validity of "demographic replacement" of white Americans by Koreans. I mean: trying to catastrophize Costco selling kimchi or a few Korean restraunts opening.
I'm sure the Hyundai plant has Koreans in it. Those (hundreds?) of immigrants aren't "replacing" us.
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